101 pages 3 hours read

Sherman Alexie

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1993

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Character Analysis

Victor Joseph

Content Warning: This section references racism, genocide, alcohol addiction, violence, incarceration, and end-stage cancer.

Victor is the protagonist of at least 11 of the collection’s 24 short stories. His name is the first one readers encounter, and his presence—whether as a child, a young adult, or somewhere in between—pervades and grounds the work as a whole.

Victor typifies Alexie’s vision of the contemporary young Indigenous man. He is sensitive, impulsive, and confrontational—a combination of traits that slate him as an antihero. His point of view illuminates many of the traumas associated with life on the reservation: poverty, violence, alcohol addiction, political oppression, cultural loss, and tribal disconnection. Although Victor internalizes these harsh realities, he seeks to find meaning in them without staying victimized by them. His internal conflict lies in Cultural Belonging and Isolation: determining the extent to which he can fashion a personal identity within his tribe. He longs to be the ideal, the warrior, and (as his name suggests) the victor, but he feels doomed to powerlessness. He bemoans not having a testing ground for his manhood, remarking, “my generation of Indian boys ain’t ever had no real war to fight” (28).

Related Titles

By Sherman Alexie

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

Flight

Sherman Alexie

Flight: A Novel

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

Indian Killer

Sherman Alexie

Indian Killer

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City

Sherman Alexie

On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

Reservation Blues

Sherman Alexie

Reservation Blues

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

Reservation Love Song

Sherman Alexie

Reservation Love Song

Sherman Alexie

Plot Summary

logo

Ten Little Indians

Sherman Alexie

Ten Little Indians

Sherman Alexie

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE

logo

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

The Facebook Sonnet

Sherman Alexie

The Facebook Sonnet

Sherman Alexie

Plot Summary

logo

The Toughest Indian in the World

Sherman Alexie

The Toughest Indian in the World

Sherman Alexie

Study Guide

logo

This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

Sherman Alexie

This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

Sherman Alexie

Plot Summary

logo

War Dances

Sherman Alexie

War Dances

Sherman Alexie