Summary/ Application TLRATFIH

Summary:

In this article, Critics arguet hat Alexie's writing demonstrates Indians and their culture as a cliche to be laughed at.  They claims that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven disrupts the Indian and white community.   Coulombe thinks that Alexie's humor creates positive interactions betweeen individuals. Coulombe claims that Alexie doesn't ever use a moral to the story but that his humor is written in an honest way.  He brings up the second story in Alexie's novel, "A Drug Called Tradition" by saying that Victor may feel like the target of their laughter.  Coulombe says that Alexie writes with a purpose and sometimes, his use of humor distracts critics and readers or his audience.  Critics argue that Sherman Alexie's writing pokes fun at Spokane Indians and their traditions but in reality, Alexie writes stories that help explain the problems that Indians still face today.  Alexie'swriting tells the truth with humor.  Making jokes about a culture helps to accept the problems for some people.  Coulombe argues that Alexie's writing might poke fun at some of the Indian culture, but at the same time, it allows stories of Indian people to be put out in public so people will understand them more clearly.  Coulombe explains that humor is another type of intimacy that allows friendship and connection and humor is something that everyone has in common.

Application:

Sherman Alexie and Joseph Coulombe are writers that attempt to spread the culture of the Spokane Indians in a different way than most.  Coulombe defends Alexie by saying that he tells the truth in writing about his culture.  Alexie uses much humor in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to write about the Spokane tribe.  Many of his stories are very sad and some may call them shameful against the Spokane people but Alexie and Coulombe just believe that his stories are honest and real.  

In "Amusements," a character known as Dirty Joe passes out from too much alcohol and Victor and Sadie decide that it would be a good idea to put him on an amusement ride and watch him tumble around in the car.  In the meantime, the white people are gathering around him and judging him be  cause he is a Spokane Indian and it seems that they are making assumptions that he is a shameful person.  Victor and Sadie stand around laughing at the amusement they had made for themselves until they realize that all of the white people are laughing at them and not with them.  This is a good example of why the critics in Coulombe's article characterized Alexie's writing as shameful and often misleading.  In Alexie's eyes, this story is about the good times he had and also about how life being a Spokane Indian can be tough because of the image others perceive in them.

Another example of how Alexie demonstrates Spokane Indians with humor is in the story, "A Drug Called Tradition."  In this story, they are having a large party and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Junior, and Victor run off to tr a new drug.  On their way to Benjamin Lake, Thomas tries the new drug and begins to tell Victor and Junior stories of what he sees.  Alexie writes, "when Indians make lots of money from corporations that way, we can all hear our ancestors laughing in the trees. But we never can tell whether they're laughing at the Indians or the whites.  I think they're laughing at pretty much everybody." (Lone 13)  Victor thinks that he is a target for the whites and ancestor's laughter.  Alexie transforms the troubles he feels into humor in this story speaking of stories they all see while on their drug.

 

In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,  Alexie uses humor to substitute the hardships of his Spokane tribe. Coulombe defends and agrees with Sherman Alexie whereas the critics critisize his way of writing by saying that it is shameful and misleading.  Critics are somewhat offended by the way Alexie uses alcoholism and how the Spokane Indians have dreams that the critics believe are made unreachable by Alexie.  Coulombe claims that the critics did not read the stories all the way through but just stopped as the humor upset them.  I agree with Coulombe on this statement because I believe that they critics would find more meaning by the conclusion of the stories.  I know I did.