The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Themes)

Themes

Postcolonialism

Postcolonial literature seeks to describe the interactions between European nations and the peoples they colonized. Alexie's stories focus on this type of interactions, showing, for example, the United States government's attempt to control Native Americans by occupying their land, and then placing them on reservations that are run with the "help" of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Alexie's stories illustrate the emotional complexities of living in a community torn apart by alcoholism, stripped of its larger social purpose, yet unwilling to assimilate the values and purposes of a culture that has oppressed its people for centuries. Characters such as Junior, Victor, and Thomas Buildsthe-Fire are frequently humiliated during their interactions with whites, especially the police, and often respond with anger and black humor. In the allegorical and Kafka esque story "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire," Alexie illustrates the absurdity of his tribe's, and all Native Americans', situation as Thomas is sent to jail for life for a "murder" that occurred more than one hundred and forty years earlier. Alexie underscores the continued victimization of Native Americans in this story by symbolizing the unfairness of the American system of justice.

Language

Alexie uses colloquial dialogue, paradox, and zeugma to effect an ironic, though realistic voice. He studs the speech of his characters with "enit," which means, "ain't it," and "eh," and other colloquialisms to illustrate how Indians speak on the Spokane Reservation. Alexie's use of paradox to show the contradictions of reservation life is evident in statements such as this one about Norma Many Horses: "Norma, she was always afraid; she wasn't afraid." Zeugma, the yoking together of two or more words in a grammatical construction to achieve a surprising effect, appears throughout the stories, and Alexie uses it for dazzling poetic effect. One example occurs when Victor says: "I walked back in the house to feed myself and my illusions." In this instance, he is using "feed" literally to suggest food, and figuratively to mean, "sustain his self-deception."

Psychological Abuse of Native Americans

Alexie details the various kinds of abuse Native Americans have endured living under the United States government. Not only have Native Americans had their lands taken from them, but they have also been forced to live in reservations and to give up their entire way of life. By forcing them to live on government handouts and labor at jobs that have little meaning to them, the federal government, in effect, has ensured that Native Americans will continue to live impoverished lives — emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically. Victor's numerous and ironic references throughout the stories to "five hundred years," alludes to the length of time that Europeans have occupied Native-American lands and reshaped how Native Americans see themselves and their relationship to others. Alexie especially focuses on the damage done to Native-American males who, because of their compromised traditions and the loss of their fathers to alcoholism, have no good role models. Many of the males in Alexie's stories are proud, but desperate. The bitterly ironic story, "Indian Education" illustrates how the educational system on the reservation, run by the BIA and missionaries, tries to strip young Native-American children of their identity by forcing them to cut their braids and punishing them for not knowing their place. Alexie also sprinkles his stories with anecdotes of racial discrimination against Native Americans outside the reservation.

Imagination

In "Imagining the Reservation," Alexie writes, "Survival equals Anger X Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon on the reservation." What he means by that is that Native Americans have to be emotionally and psychologically resourceful to keep their sense of humor and their traditions alive in conditions hostile to their existence. Much of the imagination in his stories comes in the form of dark humor, a response to desperate straits in which many of his characters find themselves. Alexie himself demonstrates imagination and resourcefulness in the very way he has constructed the book as a kind of fictional memoir of his own life on the reservation. In an interview with John and Carl Bellante in Bloomsbury Review, Alexie refers to the characters Victor Joseph, Junior Polatkin, and Thomas Builds-the-Fire as " the holy trinity of me." And indeed, the stories are peppered with details and events from Alexie's life. For example, 1966, the year of Alexie's birth, is also the year of Victor's birth and of another of his narrators.