A Struggle for Identity

Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” briefly tells of a young Native American man’s struggle to find identity among racial stereotypes in America. The narrator has clearly experienced racial oppression because of his ethnicity, but it seems that the stereotypes of Native Americans has become such an overwhelming issue in his life that he can’t see past them. He even goes so far as to imagine or expect racial profiling, and he then seems to receive an unhealthy amusement in the reactions he gets from being a Native American.

Upon entering the 7-11, the narrator automatically assumes that he will be expected to rob the gas station. In fact, the actual dialogue of the clerk is completely casual, but it seems that the narrator believes he is able to read his thoughts. For instance, when the clerk innocently asks, “Can I help you?”, the narrator insists that he’s actually “searching for some response that would reassure him that I wasn’t an armed robber” (183). He then proceeds to make rather mysterious/shady remarks as an attempt to evoke fear in the clerk. The narrator assumes the white clerk is already fearful, because he is a Native American, so he then fulfills this “stereotype” of the Native American for his own amusement. However, was this a stereotype the clerk created, or something that the narrator himself produced?

Living amongst stereotypes, even from Native Americans, has affected the narrator in a negative way. His search for identity is continually failing, because he is constantly living up to the expectations of his surroundings, whether he realizes it or not. He believes that every American, or white person, finds fault with his Native American ancestry, and therefore he can never be successful in American society. In reality, his constant expectation of failure because of his race is preventing him from success. Even the last line of the story ends with his depressing statement of, “I know how all my dreams end anyway” (190). If the narrator would stop finding his identity with Native American Stereotypes, he might be able to overcome them and find his true identity, both as a Native American and a human being.