Fistfight In Heaven Essay, Research Paper
Leandro Tane Department of State Santos
Sophomore Seminar
September 14th, 2000
Analysis on The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Smoke Signals
Sherman Alexie based on some short narratives included in his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, wrote the screenplay for the film Smoke Signals. Both the film and the book portray jobs that Indians had to cover with, and how they dealt with it. The book is far more complex than the film, demoing a wider fluctuation of characters confronting different state of affairss.
In the film there is Victor, the chief character, which tries to be the typical Indian, or possibly merely a typical adult male. He shows merely hate towards his male parent, who left Victor and his female parent entirely and fled to Phoenix. The image Victor has about his male parent is that he was an alcoholic and ever tried to speak with his fists.
On the other manus there is Thomas, the other chief character. He lives a mystical life and is far more emotional than Victor. Thomas has besides another point of position about Victor s father. He remembered him as a nice cat, who took him to Denny s one time.
When Victor s father died, Thomas offered money to assist Victor to acquire to Phoenix and acquire his male parent s ashes and properties, every bit long as he could travel with Victor. On this portion of the film, it is easy to understand how Victor sees the Indians before the Whites. On the coach, he tells Thomas that the lone manner that white people would esteem them is by being serious ; demoing no feelings, non even a smiling, being a warrior.
In the film, Victor arrives to the topographic point where his male parent ashes are and meets a adult female named Suzy. Even though she said so many good things
about his male parent and about things he was afraid of, Victor did non desire to demo any compassion for his male parent. It is like the narrative on Real Boys, Inside the World of Boys: Behind the Mask of Masculinity. Victor was concealing behind this mask so he would non demo his emotions. However, after the accident, he began to believe about his male parent. He understood that no 1 could be perfect and he eventually saw that he truly loved his male parent.
The book has many short narratives that sometimes are connected with others. The book focuses chiefly on demoing the debauched Indian society, where everyone is or will be an alcoholic. The narrative The Lone Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn T Flash Red Anymore ( Alexie p. 43-53 ) is an illustration of how the writer depicts alcohol addiction in the Indian society. In this narrative there is a immature Indian that could hold a nice hereafter playing hoops. However, he turns out to be merely like most of the other Indians in his reserve. He was perpetrating offenses and so started imbibing.
By reading the book, the writer showed me was that the lone thing left for the staying Native Americans is to imbibe, since everything they one time had has disappeared. Most portion of the book is about Indians holding bad experiences in life and confronting the loss of their tradition.
The book and the film are great illustrations of how a adult male, or male child, tries to act like a adult male that has no fright, no hurting, no love, and does non necessitate aid. Both pieces prove that in all societies, work forces have this necessity to state: everything is alright.
Mention
Alexei, S. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Harper Perennial 1994.
Pollack, W. Real Boys. Inside the World of Boys:
Behind the Mask of Masculinity.
