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Sherman AlexieA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a collection of 24 loosely connected short stories by writer Sherman Alexie; all are set on or near the Spokane Reservation in Washington state. As a Salish descendant (his mother was of Spokane heritage and his father of Coeur dâAlene) and celebrated author, Alexie has become a mouthpiece for Northwestern American Indigenous tribes. Two stories cut from the original 1993 publication have been reinserted in the 20th-anniversary edition: âFlightâ and âJunior Polatkinâs Wild West Show.â One story, âThis Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,â provided the basis for the 1998 Miramax film Smoke Signals.
Though the collection lacks a linear structure, the stories are bound together through three reappearing protagonists: Victor Joseph, Junior Polatkin, and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. The work operates as a bildungsroman in progress, with the characters repeatedly not growing into their identities as Indigenous men. The storylines spotlight both internal and external conflict as viewed through the lens of ethnicity, cultural deprivation, and tribal history. They also challenge stereotypes through their blending of pop culture and politics, self-deprecating humor and tradition, and aspiration and generational trauma. Above all, the stories emphasize the importance of seizing a definable personal and cultural selfhood, whether through traditional tribal methods or not. Though Alexie offers few happy endings to his plots, preferring open ones, he keeps the possibility of triumph viable.
Content Warning: This study guide references racism and racial stereotypes, genocide, alcohol addiction, violence, incarceration, sexual harassment, and terminal illness.
Plot Summary
In the first short story, âEvery Little Hurricane,â a hurricane startles nine-year-old Victor from his sleep on the Spokane Reservation. He wakes to a vicious fight between his uncles at his parentsâ New Yearâs Eve party.
âA Drug Called Traditionâ introduces three close friends on the Spokane Reservation: Victor Joseph, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, and Junior Polatkin. Escaping a well-attended party, the three travel to Benjamin Lake to experiment with psychoactive mushrooms. As a result, all three experience visions of each other in the context of a reimagined tribal identity.
âBecause My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play âThe Star-Spangled Bannerâ at Woodstockâ recounts the major events in Victorâs fatherâs lifeânamely, his incarceration following a Vietnam War protest and his relationship with Victorâs mother. Through this retelling, Victor gains more insight into why his father experiences Jimi Hendrixâs performance at Woodstock as a message of hope.
In âCrazy Horse Dreams,â Victor attends a local powwow where he bets on an acquaintance who he thinks has escaped the pressures of reservation life. Afterward, he hesitatingly accepts the sexual advances of an Indigenous woman but immediately regrets the encounter. He wishes he had the will, pride, and ethnic clarity of Crazy Horse.
Looking back on his own high school basketball career, Victor observes the up-and-coming players on the reservation in âThe Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesnât Flash Red Anymore.â His fear that the reservationâs new star, Julius Windmaker, will turn to delinquency becomes a reality. Nevertheless, both he and the reservation community hold out hope that a young third grader, Lucy, will take Juliusâs place.
âAmusementsâ is a tragicomedy in which Victor and his friend make fun of a man called Dirty Joe, who has passed out drunk at a carnival. They place him on an amusement ride while he is unconscious, and a public spectacle ensues. Security catches everyone involved, leaving Victor regretful over having betrayed Dirty Joe and, through him, his entire tribe.
âThis Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizonaâ covers a road trip that Victor and Thomas take from Spokane to Phoenix in order to claim Victorâs fatherâs ashes. Through storytelling and visions, both friends reckon with their memories of Mr. Joseph and their accompanying pain and grief.
Having had enough mocking from her family regarding a mouse that ran up her pant leg, Victorâs aunt, Nezzy, walks out on her husband and son in âThe Fun House.â Nezzyâs life has been ambivalent; she has found meaning as a dancer and seamstress but endured forced sterilization after the birth of her son. In the end, Nezzy returns home, finding power in traditional customs.
In âAll I Wanted to Do Was Dance,â Victorâs romantic relationship with a white woman dissolves, and he attempts to escape the pain through alcohol consumption and carousingâthis time with Indigenous women. He takes steps toward sobriety and employment, eventually settling on a measured approach. He finds consolation from a stranger over a bottle of wine.
âThe Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fireâ features Thomas resuming his storytelling after 20 years of total silence. His words inspire a woman to leave her husband, who was once the tribal police chief, which leads to Thomasâs arrest. His previously ignored stories gain a captive audience during his trial, and he delineates the details of tribal injustice on a historical scale. Thomas is sentenced to two life terms for having told the truth about the past, but he has finally gained renown for his storytelling.
âDistancesâ acts as the sequel to âThe Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire.â It narrates an apocalyptic story that Thomas tells his fellow incarcerated men. The story imagines a future for the Americas in which the white population is gone and efforts to reclaim Indigenous heritage have begun. Those left behind who are not too sick must rid themselves of all artifacts of white civilization.
âJesus Christâs Half-Brother Is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservationâ recounts an accidental house fire that results in the orphaning of a child named James Many Horses. The unnamed narrator becomes the childâs guardian and worries incessantly about his physical and verbal development. By Jamesâs seventh birthday, the narrator believes James can speak, which is not officially substantiated. By the storyâs end, the narrator attests to the profound insights that James communicates.
In âA Train Is an Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result,â Thomasâs grandfather, Samuel, loses his job in the city through no fault of his own. His lack of family, friends, and purpose leads him to take his first sip of alcohol. The narrative concludes with Samuel intoxicated, lying face down on the railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train.
âA Good Storyâ is a plea by Juniorâs mother for an alternative to the usual sad stories he tells. Junior crafts one about a young boy, Arnold, who visits Uncle Moses instead of spending time with his schoolmates. Juniorâs mother is pleased with his story, and Junior feels comforted by her happiness.
âThe First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecueâ is a dreamlike narrative depicting beauty in ordinary occurrences: Victorâs piano playing, a girlfriendâs whisper, the sunlightâs warmth, and Simonâs multiple competitive wins. It ends in a peaceful state of community.
Victor narrates âImagining the Reservationâ with a series of imperatives to âimagineâ precolonial history in a subversive way. Accounts of victimization through assault, heartbreak, hunger, and war coincide with encouragement to multiply anger by imagination in order to survive.
In âThe Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,â James Many Horses responds to his cancer diagnosis with biting humor. Doing so offends his wife, Norma, who leaves him to undergo his cancer treatments alone. When no hope for a cure remains, Norma returns to help James die the âright wayâ (170).
âIndian Educationâ follows Junior from grades one through twelve, documenting various childhood slights, racial injustices, small failures, and victories. Junior graduates as valedictorian but senses his isolation from his peers, many of whom canât read.
In âThe Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,â Victor grapples with the racial suspicion that arises during his waking life as well as saturates his unconscious. His relationship with his white girlfriend seems to fuel his hauntingly violent nightmares about tribal warfare, causing him insomnia and ending their relationship. Victor returns to his reservation to escape the racial tension and find a sense of belonging.
In âFamily Portrait,â Junior recalls the prominence of TV programming throughout his childhood; it both marked time and healed emotional wounds. Junior contrasts TV shows with his familyâs various traumas. Television offered a more reliable experience and therefore became his familyâs common ground.
âSomebody Kept Saying Powwowâ traces the platonic relationship between Junior and Norma Many Horses. Junior looks to her for guidance as a mentor and tribal caretaker. She helps him form his identity, having earlier written an article praising his athletic skills. Therefore, he feels deep shame when he confesses the worst thing he ever did. In the end, Norma offers forgiveness by way of renaming him Pete Roseâan incredibly gifted man who is only remembered by his faults.
An unnamed father and teenage son draw closer together on their journey to Spokane in âWitnesses, Secret and Not.â Required to give his annual testimony to detectives, the father must recount the details leading up to his friendâs disappearance and presumed death. The curious sonâs questions bring him deeper understanding of his fatherâs grief, as well as his relationship to white justice.
âFlightâ expresses a younger brotherâs longing for his absent older brother, who has been captured as a POW. For years John-John waits by windows and listens for airplanes in the hope his brother has finally come home. He imagines different versions of their happy reunion, desperately hoping one of them will eventually come true.
Junior transits to college in âJunior Polatkinâs Wild West Show.â There, he feels out of place among the predominantly white student body. He falls in love with Lynn Casey, an outspoken white student in his history class; in an unexpected night of passion, she conceives Juniorâs child. The two go their separate ways, unsure of their personal futures but equally committed to raising their son with an understanding of his Spokane heritage.
By Sherman Alexie