troubles in paradise

Sherman Alexie’s short story, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” is told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, a Spokane Indian, who has troubles integrating into his society. In the course of the story we follow the protagonist through a series of digressions that paint his struggle with white society as well as himself. These episodes lean against a single element: the protagonist’s relationship with a white woman. This relationship is the foundation to the character’s struggle for maturity, following the disjointed arch of the story from student years in Seattle, to hanging in the background during life on the reservation, and emerging with the character’s maturation in the end.
From the beginning, the central character approaches the relationship with his girlfriend as a “hooded executioner” and with “war paint and sharp arrows,” meaning he has its termination in mind from the onset. (185) He is a minority, a red-skinned Indian, living in Seattle with a white woman, so there is a sense of great tension in sustaining this relationship in a white society which profiles strangers. Caustic words exchange between the two characters – she, knowing “exactly what to say to cause the most pain,” while his hollow insults bounce off – attributable to the Indian’s drinking problem. Simultaneously, there is a sense of jealousy from the protagonist toward his girlfriend’s job. He works in a 7-11, while she is a kindergarten teacher. This is not to say that he wants to oversee six year-olds but it is a want for a secure place in society, and he releases this want in the form of negativity directed at her. Their connection is severed and he goes back to his people, carrying her memory with along the way.