Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven

Many young Native Americans face a tough time in America, and this short story shows some of the struggles of a young man who has left the reservation. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, is a fictional short story written by, Sherman Alexie in the late 1960’s. This short story uses the man versus society conflict to illustrate that when a young person of a different culture is forced to change their values to be successful, the person’s life becomes meaningless to themselves. The central idea in this story is of a young man slowly losing the meaning of his life as he changes himself to try to make everything in his life fit together. The protagonist is a young Indian man who has moved out of the reservation and into the city (363).
This theme is first used at the very beginning of the story when the protagonist speaks of the many times he had been robbed while being a 7-11 clerk (363). The protagonist speaks of a dream, in this dream he was a minor war chief and had fallen in love with a missionaries wife, at the end of this dream he sees Indians killing whites, and white killing Indians (366). After he awoke from this dream he packed all of his stuff and moved back to the reservation (366). A reader can conclude from this dream that he felt as if he was betraying his own kind, and he was betraying himself. The type of conflict supports the story by showing a man who is against the world and trying to build a life while also trying to not forget his roots. This is shown when the young man is playing basketball as he did as a child (367-368). The books ends with the protagonist living in the city and working in a high school exchange program (368). The last words the protagonist says are “I know how all of my dreams end anyway.” This shows that even though the protagonist now has a better job and he seems to be on the right track, he feels as if he’s not where he’s supposed to