The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Analysis

Poverty can be a difficult thing to understand if you have never experienced it. It is one thing to see a picture of a hungry child, and another to have been a hungry child and understand the pains they feel. Being poor has lasting effects on a person, and on communities of people who live together in impoverished circumstances. Poverty is a reoccurring theme in many of the stories in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” It shows the struggles of a people kept in poverty and the effects it has on them generation after generation and what they come to accept as normal.
In “Every Little Hurricane” the story opens stating that Victor and his family live in HUD housing. HUD is low income housing for people who are poor enough to be …show more content…
It seems to be the middle of the day, but neither of them are at work. This is an example of the lack of jobs and income the people on the reservation have. It is while they are sitting on the porch that Adrian notices the traffic signal. “Hey, Victor,’ Adrian asked. ‘Now when did that thing quit flashing?’ ‘Don’t know,’ I said” (Alexie 44). This shows that the only traffic light in town is so under used that no one even noticed it stopped working. If just one of the traffic lights where I live goes out, it causes a 10-minute delay in traffic and everyone gets mad. This line shows how few people have cars or even drive through the reservation. They also see some young teenagers walking down the road looking for trouble to get into. There are no parks to go to, no movie theaters or malls where you commonly see those kinds of kids in suburbia. They aren’t even riding bikes, just walking. There is no money to have those kinds of things, and no money for the people to use them. “Traffic Signal” shows how few opportunities the kids have to stay out of troublesome behaviors to make better lives for themselves than their parents. This is also referenced when they are talking about Julius Windmaker and his basketball skills with the lines, “’He looks good,’ Adrian said. ‘Yeah he must not be drinking.’ ‘Yet.’ ‘Yeah, yet’” (Alexie 45). On the reservation, it is expected for everyone to fall into the same cycle of never leaving and giving in to alcoholism. This is also expressed in the lines, “It’s hard to be optimistic on the reservation. When a glass sits on a table here, people don’t wonder if it’s half filled or half empty. They just hope its good beer” (Alexie 49). Everyone just seems to accept this is just

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The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Analysis

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