The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie is a collection of short stories that explores the continuing struggles of Native Americans in the modern era. A product of more than 500 years of oppression and persecution, the world of Native American reservations is rife with poverty, dysfunction, and alcoholism. Living on one of these reserves, Victor Joseph is a man torn between the modern world and that of ancient traditions. He grapples with questions of identity and the place of Native American beliefs and history in a hostile environment dominated by white Americans. While driving to the 7-11 at 3 a.m. on a particularly hot night, Victor remembers the time he left the reservation with a white girlfriend to start a new life in Seattle. Describing Victor's tribulations, the short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" explores Native American issues of alienation and assimilation, and how these issues can be resolved by members of the community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay One of Alexie's main themes in her short story is the sense of alienation that Native Americans feel in the modern world. The story begins with Victor walking to a 7-11 to get ice cream at 3am. Once he enters the store, he notices the clerk examining him and comments: "He examined me so he could describe me to the police later." » It is important to note that Victor is located in a 7-11 store on a Native American reservation. Even within the confines of his home territory, Victor feels a strong sense of alienation and “otherness.” This is not just a man buying a simple ice cream, but a suspect who will later be reported to the police. Victor's identity as a Native American is constantly reinforced by this sense of alienation. As Victor runs down a Seattle road to escape a violent and turbulent argument with his girlfriend, he is arrested by a police officer for "making people nervous." You don't fit the profile of this neighborhood. He himself comments that he doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. This feeling of alienation is not just a literary device, but a very real perception on the part of many Native Americans. According to a 1987 study, many Native Americans suffer from “perceptions of feelings of alienation” (Trimble). It is this Native American feeling of “otherness” that Alexie attempts to capture in his work. Alexie also shows in her short story how feelings of alienation can lead to a desire to assimilate to the force of “otherness.” Critic Andrew Dix comments on how such assimilation pressures not only lead to the silencing of Native American voices, but also make it impossible to construct a coherent Native American identity (Dix). Victor is torn between two different ways of being, his traditional Native American heritage and the hostile world of modern urban life. Victor's departure from Seattle was an attempt to rid himself of the cognitive dissonance of living in both worlds at once, a way of assimilating his "otherness" into broader white American culture. Yet Victor's attempted assimilation in Seattle did little to separate him from the alienation he experienced on the reservation. When he was stopped by a policeman in Seattle, Victor said to himself, "I wanted to tell him that I didn't fit the country's profile, but I knew that would get me in trouble." » Even hundreds of kilometers from the reserve, Victor has the impression of still being confined there. Even if the attempt.