Heritage as an Idea of Oneself in Bless Me Ultima and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Most of Alexie’s writing reflects life on the reservations today. The poverty, oppression, commodity food, and alcoholism are the main themes in his stories. The title story of his collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven, however, deals with the life of an Indian man who has left the reservation to live in Seattle and some of the obstacles he faces in the white world. We never know the main character’s name, probably because he feels like a nameless nobody in this strange world. He is alienated and told that he doesn’t belong even

Defining exactly what shapes ethnic identity in the United States is the hardest question I can imagine being asked. As a child born in the United States, I find this question so difficult because I have been exposed to a large variety of cultures within the small boundaries of my own family. This makes it very difficult to determine one, or even a few characteristics that define ethnic identity. In the case of many of these novels, the task of defining ethnic identity is not so complicated. The list of determinants that I believe to define ethnic identity includes language, geographic location, and tradition.

Throughout “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” the theme of resilience is deliberately presented. Native Americans past and present continue to face stifling issues such as racism, alcoholism, isolation and suicide. Sherman Alexie makes it his obligation in his stories and poems to show Native American resiliency through humor. By using his characters to show resiliency through humor Alexie presents humor as an integral part of Native American survival.

In the story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" by Sherman Alexie, points out the hardships of being a Native American back in the 20th century. These hardships were racism, alcoholism, poverty and isolation. The story takes place in the reservation and it is about a young Native American whom struggles in society because of his skin color, family's addictions and fights. The narrator moves to Seattle with his white girlfriend who he seems to have an odd relationship because they are constantly fighting. He becomes an alcoholic and moves back to the reservation after a break up with his girlfriend.

Education —an institution for success, opportunity, and progress — is itself steeped in racism. In Sherman Alexie’s short story “Indian Education” from his book The Longer Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is set in two places, the Spokane Indian Reservation and a farm town nearby the reservation. The story is written in a list of formative events chronologize Victor’s youth by depicting the most potent moment from each year he is in school. Alexie addresses the issue of racism in education by examining examples of injustice and discrimination over twelve years in a boy’s life. Victor faces his initial injustice in first grade when he is bullied by bigger kids, but his understanding of injustice becomes much more complex in grades two through twelve as he experiences discrimination against his American Indian identity. Familial experiences of a Native woman, Alexie’s style and humor, and Victor’s awareness of discrimination from grade one to twelve all reveal the grim reality of growing up and being schooled on an American Indian reservation.

The book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, tells of Native American life on the reservation. In the story “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” symbolism is used to echo how Native Americans were mistreated by the United States government. Still to this day Native Americans are forced to live on reservations which were originally prisoner of war camps. Alexie uses the symbolism of Thomas Builds-the-Fire’s conviction to show how Native Americans pay the price for injustices committed by the United States of America.

In the essay “‘blaxican’ and other reminded Americans” Richard Rodrigues states that “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city”. This evidence reveals that in America there are many kinds of cultures you don't need to be considered either black or white.

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

The classic Disney movies Peter Pan and Pocahontas have been staples in many American children’s lives. These seemingly harmless family-friendly films have taught many important life lessons and morals, however, the movies also tend to create racial stereotypes and insinuate the ideas of white settler innocence. The song “Savages” from Pocahontas and the song “What Makes the Red Man Red” from Peter Pan in particular portray these implications. Sherene Razack’s “When Place Becomes Race” explores the correlation and affect that race and space have on each other with in-depth analysis of what makes up each. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ““The Danger of a Single Story” explains how stereotypes are not only created by a story -which is not necessarily false- but also

Richard Rodriguez's essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reinforces the idea that race does not identify a person, culture is what defines a person and should be used to identify someone. Richard Rodriguez was in church listening when “[These people] were being welcomed into a new community for a reason of culture” (Rodriguez 90). Culture is being welcomed in church and other people are being nice enough to welcome a person just by their culture and traditions. Rodriguez’s considers himself Chinese because of that fact that he answered a survey with the following “I answered that I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city and because I want to be Chinese. ”(Rodriguez 91).

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” Unfortunately Native Americans have deep roots with racism and oppression during the last 500 years. “In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven,” Sherman Alexie tries to show racism in many ways in multiple of his short stories. These stories, engage our history from a Native American viewpoint. Many Native Americans were brutally forced out of their homes and onto Reservations that lacked resources. Later, Indian children were taken from their families and placed into school that were designed to, “Kill the Indian, save the man.” In the book there are multiple short story that are pieces that form a larger puzzle that shows the struggles and their effects on Native Americans. Sherman Alexie shows the many sides of racism, unfair justice and extermination policies and how imagination is key for Native American survival.

Racism, much like classism in the book is presented in a subversive manor throughout the landscape of the reservation. Whether through conditions imposed upon Native Americans, or the overall neglect. We are, however, presented with a few direct examples in the book of the destruction inherent in smaller forms of racism. At one point during a conversation, Victor, thinking to himself said, “It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.” (Alexie 1993:49) Victor puts forth an interesting concept of how daily minute racism has more damaging impacts than even some of the most severe transgressions against Native American Culture. Considering the title of the book, which

For Milestone Two project, I have chosen the film Gran Torino starring Clint Eastwood to analyze, this film is filled with a profusion of cultural diversity, which is met with contention, stereotypical actions, and prejudice by the main character, Walt Kowalski. This film begins in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan where the grumpy widower Walt Kowalski is a Retired auto worker and Korean War veteran full of prejudice despising the many Asian, Latino and black families in his neighborhood. Walt’s whole world is altering; his wife died, his Detroit neighborhood is deteriorating, his relationship with his sons and their families is remote, and his memories of the Korean War continue to destroy his ability to fully enjoy life. Walt learns he has more in common with his neighbors than he thought and through an unlikely bond with the Hmong children next door, Thao and Sue, Walt becomes a reluctant hero when he stands up to the gangbangers who tried to force Thao to steal Walt 's treasured car.. This paper will analyze the anthropological themes of intercultural conflict and cultural adaptation, ethnocentrism, and the differences in gender roles that are evident in the film Gran Torino.

In America there has always been “racial” tension. Although it would be more accurate to state that there has always been “ethnic” tension in America. The term “race” can be used to target an individual’s differences in physical appearance, and while in the past this was commonplace practice, today, however, it is more apt to use “ethnicity’ to differentiate (Segregated America - Separate Is Not Equal). A person’s upbringing that helps shape who they might become (Persell 98-107).

Throughout the 1960's and 70's I watched one group after another -- African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans -- stand up and proudly reclaim their roots while I just sank back ever deeper into my seat. All this excitement over ethnicity stemmed, I uneasily sensed, from a past in which their ancestors had been trampled upon by my ancestors, or at least by people who looked very much like them. In addition, it had begun to seem almost un-American not to have some sort of hyphen at hand, linking one to