The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie is a collection of short stories that explores the ongoing struggles of Native Americans in the modern era. The result of more than 500 years of oppression and persecution, the world of Native American reservations is plagued by poverty, dysfunction and alcoholism. Living on one of these reservations, Victor Joseph is a man torn between the modern world and the world of ancient tradition. He wrestles with questions of identity and the place of Native American beliefs and history in a hostile environment dominated by white Americans. On his way to a 7-11 at 3 a.m. on a particularly hot night, Victor remembers leaving the reservation with a white girl to start a new life in Seattle. Depicting Victor's tribulations, the short story "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" explores issues of Native American alienation and assimilation and how these issues can be addressed by members of the community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of Alexie's main themes in his short story is the sense of alienation that Native Americans feel in the modern world. The story begins with Victor going to 7-11 to get ice cream at 3 in the morning. Once he enters the store, he notices the clerk watching him carefully, commenting, "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.” He is not just a man buying a simple ice cream, but a suspect who will later be described to the police. Victor's identity as a Native American is constantly reinforced by this sense of alienation. As Victor walks down a Seattle street to escape a violent and rowdy argument with his girlfriend, he is stopped by an officer and accused of “Making people nervous. You don't fit the profile of this neighborhood." He himself comments how he doesn't seem to fit anywhere. This sense of alienation is not just a literary device, but a very real perception by many Native Americans. According to a study conducted in 1987, many Native Americans suffer from “perceptions of feelings of alienation” (Trimble). It is this feeling of Native American “otherness” that Alexie attempts to capture in his work Alexie also shows in his narrative how feelings of alienation can lead to desire to assimilate with the force of the “other.” Critic Andrew Dix comments on how such pressures to assimilate not only lead to the drowning out of Native American voices, but also make it impossible to construct a cohesive 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 his attempt to free himself from the cognitive dissonance of living in these two worlds at once way to assimilate his “otherness” into the 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 stopped by the police officer in Seattle, Victor thinks to himself, "I wanted to tell him that I didn't fit the profile of the country, but I knew he would get me in trouble." Even hundreds of kilometers away from the reservation, Victor feels as if he is somehow still confined there. Although Victor's attempt at assimilation ends with his return to the reservation, he never allows his negative experiences to leave him jaded and cynical..