Fistfight In Heaven

When you feel like you don’t belong, everything can feel foreign to you. A place that you’ve spent your whole life can feel just as unfamiliar as one visited for the first time. In the short story “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie, we meet a character that feels out of place everywhere he goes. Due to his Native American heritage in a white American culture, he feels like there is no true place for him to call home. The narrator expresses this by saying “Sometimes, though, I would forget where I was and get lost. I’d drive for hours, searching for something familiar. Seems like I’d spent my whole life that way, looking for anything I recognized” (402). When our narrator states that he would forget where he

“I woke up tired and hungry, so I grabbed the want ads, found a job I wanted, and drove to Spokane to get it” (402). This creates a catalyst for change in his life. He no longer indulges in drinking and begins taking charge of his life. Not only might he be physically tired and hungry, but mentally as well. Tired of the way he’s been living and hungry for a change. He is ready for a fresh start, which he believes will occur in Spokane. At this time the narrator begins to come to terms with himself and his role in the world. No racial issues prohibiting him from what he wants to achieve. There is only his desire to succeed and the steps he must take to bring these things to volition. He is no longer exhibiting behavior of self-pity and cynicism. As the main character develops, his mentality changes as well. No longer is he the pessimist we met reflecting on the late night drive. Although he still allows race to play into his judgment of people, this view is less prevalent and he is more optimistic. There is a window of opportunity. He is at a place where he hopes to one day have dreams. Although he doesn’t seem too hopeful about the outcome of those dreams, there remains a gleam of hope, that maybe in one of these dreams he just might find that familiar place that he has been searching