Sherman Alexie's Imagery and Storytelling in Lone Ranger

Introduction

This paper examines three stories from Sherman Alexie's collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: "Every Little Hurricane," "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," and "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire." The focus is on the writing style of these stories — specifically on the literal and metaphorical imagery, the interweaving of the human and the natural, and the shifting back and forth from reality to fantasy.

Through his use of these techniques, Alexie creates a hypnotic storytelling mode that draws readers into the world of the Spokane Indian Reservation in which the stories are set. He uses description with meticulous attention to word choice: no word is wasted. The literal is also metaphorical. The world of human interaction is contrasted against the natural world in which it is set. Finally, the borders between reality and fantasy become increasingly blurred — a process that reaches its fullest expression in "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire."

Every Little Hurricane

Sherman Alexie's story "Every Little Hurricane" tells of a hurricane that hits the Spokane Indian Reservation where nine-year-old Victor lives in HUD housing. The year is 1976, it is New Year's Eve, and his mother and father are hosting a party when the hurricane hits. As a storm rages outside, another storm rages within as family members begin to fight. The two Indians fighting are Adolph and Arnold, Victor's uncles. Alexie describes the fight: "The two Indians raged across the room at each other. One was tall and heavy, the other was short, muscular. High-pressure and low-pressure fronts" (2). Here we have the literal and the metaphorical juxtaposed side by side: there is a storm, literally, raging outside. There is also another storm, a physical one, brewing between Victor's two uncles as they struggle against each other. The "high-pressure and low-pressure fronts" exist on a literal plane, but also on a metaphorical level. There is a sense of the constant pressure between two clashing ways of life — the old Indian traditions that exist alongside the more modern intrusion of American culture, which threatens to make them obsolete. This literal and metaphorical theme is introduced in this opening story and will be repeated in subsequent stories throughout the book.

There is also the sense of couples who struggle against each other literally even as they struggle together against the world on a deeper metaphorical level: "He [Victor] could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly" (2). Adolph and Arnold, who are brothers, are part of a family and part of a tribe who will stand up for and support one another, but who will also fight each other with the ferocity that can only come of strong emotion. Another couple in this story is Victor's parents, who share a similar relationship. The constant tension of strong emotional ties is manifested in physical altercations between the characters in reservation life — symbolic of the metaphorical struggle between the old way of life and the new, ways that have historically been at war with one another even as they exist side by side.

There is a sense of unreality in the rituals performed by the characters in this story. The narrator describes how Victor once watched his father checking his wallet for money again and again, as if somehow the act of re-checking would magically make money appear. "Victor watched his father repeat this ceremony again and again, as if the repetition itself could guarantee change. But it was always empty" (5). There is a sense of helplessness and being trapped in these words and actions, because on the level of reality, nothing will change through Victor's father's repeated gestures. Yet the fact that he continues to do so reflects the fantasy world in which these characters also exist. As Tracey Matthews describes it, Alexie "depicts the lives of Native Americans who attempt to escape their situation through alcohol and other forms of self-abuse." However, he also "finds a mental, emotional, and spiritual outlet in his writing, which he refers to as 'fancydancing'" (Matthews 2006).

As the storm subsides, the inner world of Alexie's characters begins to shift as well. There is a sense of unreality juxtaposed against the real world of the physical storm as characters become immersed in memories. Each of these memories is bitter, as if to reflect the bitter aftermath of the hurricane. Victor's father remembers when his own father was spat upon. His mother remembers involuntary sterilization. His uncles have numerous memories of battles and storms. Various other characters carry memories as well, and the pain of these collective recollections is intermixed with what is happening in the real world of the abating storm. As Galens (2003) points out, "In postmodern writing such as Alexie's, the lines between fiction and fantasy, reality and dream are erased, and the storyline — if there is one — is often blurred" (2003).

As the opening story of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, "Every Little Hurricane" sets the tone for the book and introduces the volatile nature of close relationships between members of the tribe — relationships that mirror those found in the natural world, which also appear throughout the collection. As Theresa Anderson comments, "this short story gives us our first vision of the reservation and its inhabitants, and does a fairly accurate foreshadowing of the connectivity of the collection."

Conclusion

This paper has demonstrated the interweaving of literal and metaphorical imagery in Sherman Alexie's prose by focusing on three stories from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: "Every Little Hurricane," "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," and "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire." It has shown how the juxtaposition of the literal and the metaphorical is introduced in the first story, and how the frequency of this juxtaposition increases until the lines are practically dissolved by the time we reach "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire." This argument has been developed through close reading of Alexie's own words and supported by the ideas of literary scholars who have explored these themes in depth.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona." The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 59–75.

Alexie, Sherman. "Every Little Hurricane." The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 1–11.

Alexie, Sherman. "The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire." The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 93–103.

Anderson, Theresa. "Colonial and Postcolonial Literary Dialogues: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Retrieved from

DeNuccio, Jerome. "Slow Dancing with Skeletons: Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Critique, vol. 44, no. 1, Fall 2002, pp. 86–96.

Galens, David A. "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Novels for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 53–71. Print.

Matthews, Tracey. "Alexie, Sherman 1966." Concise Major 21st Century Writers. Vol. 1. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2006. 63–66. Print.