The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

In the collection’s prologue, the author states, “I was the first Alexie to ever become middle-class and all because I wrote stories and poems about being a poor Indian growing up in an alcoholic family on an alcoholic reservation” (xxiv). Compare Alexie’s writing of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to Thomas’s storytelling. What do writing and storytelling accomplish with respect to personal identity and/or cultural belonging?

The work’s title refers to the white Lone Ranger and the Potawatomi Tonto. However, the first story in the collection focuses on a “fistfight” between two Spokane brothers. What is Alexie suggesting about domestic violence on the reservation or within tribes generally? Do you think Alexie counteracts or reinforces negative stereotypes about Indigenous nations with his attention to reservation violence?

In both “Crazy Horse Dreams” and “Amusements,” Victor rejects the sexual attractiveness of Indigenous women. Has Victor internalized colonialist views of Indigenous people? How does his self-loathing spill over into his relationships with the opposite sex, and why does it seem more pronounced with women than with men?