Student Question
In Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, which stories discuss poverty and oppression's impact on marginalized community relationships?
Quick answer:
In "Every Little Hurricane," Sherman Alexie illustrates how poverty and oppression impact relationships within marginalized communities. The story highlights how these conditions lead to alcoholism and violence on the Spokane Reservation. The protagonist, Victor, observes that poverty-driven worries push individuals like his father into alcoholism, which breeds violence, as seen in the violent fight between his uncles. This cycle of alcohol, violence, and painful memories damages relationships within the community.
Sherman Alexie's book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
is full of stories concerning the impact of poverty on relationships. One is
the very first story, "Every Little Hurricane," in which he poetically
describes that one affect of poverty is alcoholism, and
alcoholism breeds violence.
As the young narrator Victor describes, the Indians on the Spokane Reservation,
like his father, were so consumed with worries from poverty,
especially the worry of how to feed their families, that they turned to
alcohol to forget their worries. Even young Victor knew the dangers of alcohol on an empty stomach, as we can see based on his description of observing his father: "Victor could hear that near-poison fall, then hit, flesh and blood, nerve and vein." Young Victor further narrates that such alcoholism breeds violence, just like the fight between his two uncles, Adolph and Arnold, one year...
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at his parents' New Year's Eve party. Their fight was so violent and full of hatred that he likens the fight to a full-force hurricane. But Victor further observes that the storm isn't just inside of and between his uncles; it's inside of and shared between all of the Indians on the reservation, showing us just how severelypoverty and oppression is
affecting their relationships.
Though Arnold and Adolph stop fighting and go back into the house with "arms
linked," their storm has not truly died, and all Indians at
the party are fully aware that the storm has not died. The storm is now giving
all of the Indians a "painful memory," such as the time Victor's grandfather
was "spit on" while waiting at a bus stop in Spokane. For Adolph and Arnold,
one memory that caused their storm concerns the fact that they had to hide
"crackers in their shared bedroom so they would have something to eat."
All in all, Alexie's story informs his readers that poverty and oppression
creates painful memories, which drive the oppressed to
alcohol. Plus, the alcohol and the painful memories burst out in episodes of
violence that drive wedges in the relationships between the
Indians.