mps The... Fist Fight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven
By Sherman Alexie

This collection of short stories was has rightfully be said to startle and dazzle. It is the smartest collection of stories I’ve read to date. Using a free yet very descriptive style Alexie sets the tone for a poetic introduction to the oppressions and liberations of the Native American Culture. Alexie’s voice and word choice is dirty and honest but it is also spiritual and natural which makes it feel so pure… “Soon everybody from the party was on the lawn, dancing in the snow, fucking in the snow, fighting in the snow.” (Every Little Hurricane p.10) It’s a witty, lyrical interpretation of whom his people naturally are, laughing loving and fighting. His voice and style are also remarkably funny. It’s humor miraculously manage to dodge themes of misfortune, depression, and loss of his people. So instead of being dark or even sarcastic it is simply smart and clever. “…She named him ------- which means: He Who Crawls Silently Through the Grass with a Small Bow and One Bad Arrow Hunting for Enough Deer to Feed the Whole Tribe… We just called him James.” (Jesus Christ’s Half Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation p. 110)
It is Alexie’s voice that keeps these stories, all of which lack any sort of victory or overcoming, from being hopeless. It’s humor and honesty enveloped presence of mother earth’s character preserve us and allow us to accept that things are not good. But at least we can still laugh, we can love, and in time, yes eventually we’ll die.
I was captivated by Alexie’s story; A Train is an Order of Occurrence Designed To lead to Some Result. (P130) The story carries a theme common with most of the stories in the work. This inability the people have to fully assimilate to an American culture that is not their own. I was surprised by our main character Samuel’s optimism and than tickled by the renovations he made in his apartment (making it resembled the inside of a tipi.) eventually I was humbled as his view of the world became more familiar to the view I’ve come to know from other pieces in this work. Something like coming to terms with being at the bottom and deciding what to do about it. “Some times it’s called passing out and sometimes its called falling asleep (p138) Alexie says, after Samuel trips on the tracks of an on coming train. “ There is something about trains, drinking and being Indian with nothing to lose.” I enjoyed this intimate story of Samuel, just a fish out of water. He did his best but didn’t survive on the outside.

secretary of bestcornergroup08,

melissapierresaint





interview with sherman alexie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWolPAoDk3g