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In almost every story in The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Sherman Alexie engages directly with the common cultural stereotype—and devastating real-life epidemic—of Native Americans falling victim to alcoholism, or engaging in excessive drinking. In the introduction, Alexie himself states that he was “vilified in certain circles for [his] alcohol-soaked stories” when the collection debuted. “Everybody,” he continues, “in the book is drunk or in love with a drunk.” Throughout the text, the appearance of alcohol—or an alcoholic character—represents the cultural loss, longing, and pain that all of these characters experience each day; alcohol represents a void that opportunity might have filled in, were opportunities for success, health, and happiness more readily available to the Indians of Alexie’s reservation. In “A Drug Called Tradition,” Alexie writes longingly of a shared vision experienced by Victor, Junior, and Thomas—a vision attained after the three of them experiment with drugs at a local lake. “They are all carried away to the past [by their visions], to the moment before any of them took their first drink of alcohol.” This longing can be seen as a symbolic metaphor for a kind of cultural longing that resents the pain of white America’s influence on Native life.
Alcohol Quotes in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
The The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven quotes below all refer to the symbol of Alcohol. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Every Little Hurricane Quotes
Victor could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly.
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This quote, and the moment it describes—a drunken, messy fight between two of Victor’s uncles, Arnold and Adolph, which takes place in the middle of Victor’s parent’s New Years Eve Party, which itself takes place in the middle of a storm—introduces several of the major themes operating throughout the text. Love and hatred, bearing witness, and cultural versus personal pain are all thematic engagements here. Victor bears witness to his uncles’ fight—he knows that they love one another, and that their desire to hurt one another is folded into that love. The personal pain between them that leads them to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimu
Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation… Quotes
It’s almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language and land and rights. It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins. And, just like everybody else, Indians need heroes to help them learn how to survive. But what happens when our heroes don’t even know how to pay their bills?
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Victor and his friend Adrian, while sitting on Victor’s porch, notice that the only traffic light on the reservation has broken. A group of kids walk by the porch—one of them is Julius Windmaker, a rising basketball star. The kids are on their way to make some trouble, and Victor and Adrian discuss the basketball stars of the past, the “reservation heroes” who become “heroes forever,” even after their failures to make it big or make it out—often due to the fact that they succumb to alcoholism. Victor and Adrian wonder whether Julius will be able to make it “all Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam dolor
Ain’t no children on a reservation.
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Adrian’s assertion that there “ain’t no children on a reservation” speaks to the sealed-off, insular culture of reservation life, and the losses and advantages that comprise most of existence in the world of the reservation. Victor and Adrian are talking back and forth about Julius Windmaker, a bright and talented young basketball star on whom both Victor and Adrian—and their friends and families—have pinned hopes of not just success but glory. Julius’s ability to make it off the reservation, to make it through college, to make it as a basketball star—these are all things that Victor and Adrian envision with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui digni
All I Wanted To Do Was Dance Quotes
He counted his coins. Enough for a bottle of wine in the Trading Post. He walked down the hill and into the store, grabbed the bottle, paid for it with nickels and pennies, and walked into the parking lot. Victor pulled the wine from its paper bag, cracked the seal, and twisted the cap off. Jesus, he wanted to drink so much his blood could make the entire tribe numb.
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“All I Wanted To Do Was Dance” reveals to readers Victor’s life in the middle of a low point. He has left a failed relationship with a white woman off the reservation, and has now returned. Lonely, isolated, embarrassed, and in pain, Victor endures a struggle with alcoholism, insomnia, and desperation for escape. In the story’s climactic moment, Victor, after having succumbed to his desires and experienced a drunken night out, remembers his struggles to remain sober, his efforts to escape from the desire to make himself “numb.” However, his desire for escape seems to win out, and he goes Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Elig
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Alcohol Symbol Timeline in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
The timeline below shows where the symbol Alcohol appears in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Every Little Hurricane
...and his nightmares often feature drowning. He also dreams of swallowing other liquids besides water; “whiskey, vodka, and tequila, those fluids swallowing him just as easily as he swallowed them.”
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...a specific, painful memory.” The collective pain at the party grows and expands, and the drinking intensifies. Victor, back in bed, feels as if the basement ceiling above him is “lower[ing]...
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A Drug Called Tradition
Thomas tells a story of three Indian boys drinking diet Pepsi out by Benjamin Lake, “wearing only loincloths and braids.” The boys, Thomas says,...
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Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock
Throughout Victor’s childhood, Victor says, Jimi Hendrix and his father “became drinking buddies.” Victor would put on the tape of “The Star-Spangled Banner” every time his father...
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The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore
...his friend Adrian, seated on Victor’s front porch, play around with a BB gun and drink Diet Pepsis, since they “don’t drink” anymore. They look out at the reservation, and notice...
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...“on the same porch in the same chairs.”They see Julius Windmaker “staggering” down the road, “drunk as a skunk.” Adrian and Victor know that Julius has a basketball game that evening,...
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...shots, and eventually benches himself. Back on Victor’s porch after the game, Adrian and Victor drink Pepsis and Adrian notices that the traffic light is still broken. The two of them...
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Amusements
...the taverns at closing time [and] drank all the half-empties,” passes out on the ground, intoxicated, “in the middle of a white carnival.” Victor and his friend Sadie stand over Joe’s...
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This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
...were fifteen; they had long since stopped being friends,” and got into a fistfight. Victor, intoxicated, beat Thomas up “for no reason at all.” Their friends, including Junior, stood by and...
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The Fun House
...a flashback to thirty years previous, before the birth of her son, the narrator’s aunt—named Nezzy—drinks and dances with her husband in an “Indian cowboy bar.” On the way back home,...
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All I Wanted To Do Was Dance
Victor drunkenly dances with a Lakota woman at a bar in Montana. He is dancing with “the...
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...and watches as a “pretty blond woman” delivers the local news. Suddenly overwhelmed by his hangover from the night before, he runs to the bathroom and throws up. He returns to...
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...and sees his mother and his father; they wave. Victor notes that they are both drunk. After the dance, Victor eats fry bread and drinks Pepsi. His parents fall asleep together,...
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In another memory of his past, Victor recalls being drunk on a night out with his white ex-girlfriend. She urges him to stop drinking, but...
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...jobs in order to make ends meet. On paydays, he stands in front of the beer cooler at the Trading Post, staring for hours at the bottles. Once, he remembers, he bought...
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...sleepless night, Victor counts his spare change, and takes it to buy a bottle of wine from the Trading Post. As Victor is about to take a drink, a stranger approaches...
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Jesus Christ’s Half-Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation
In 1967, the (unnamed) narrator is in a bar drinking with Frank Many Horses and another friend, Lester FallsApart. The three of them hear sirens...
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...he still hasn’t cried though he’s “a few years old.” Afterward, the narrator goes out drinking “all night long,” while James is passed around from one of the narrator’s friends to...
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...to a Christmas party and leaves James with a relative “so [he] can get really drunk.” The narrator plays basketball despite his bad knee, and worries that James will stay “like...
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The narrator prays each day not to drink but doesn’t know “who [he’s] praying to, and if it’s the basketball gathering ash on...
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...some younger Indian boys and girls. When he plays, he says, he doesn’t feel like drinking. James watches him play. The narrator says that James “always talks whenever [he’s] not in...
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...He says the first thing he wanted after he was born was a shot of whiskey. He says that we should be living for each other.”
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A Train is an Order of Occurrence Designed to Lead to Some Result
Samuel heads to the Midway Tavern, where he knows “all the Indians drink in eight-hour shifts.” Samuel considers the idea that God is just the planet’s maid. Samuel...
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Samuel stays in the bar until closing time. Then he staggers through Spokane, drunk and alone, and falls “face down” onto the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. He can hear...
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The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor
James remembers his and Norma’s wedding. One of his cousins, “drunk as a skunk,” stood up in the middle of the ceremony and began to eulogize...
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Indian Education
...people.” Junior recalls that fourth grade was “the year [his] father drank a gallon of vodka a day and the same year [his] mother started two hundred quilts but never finished...
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...next door. The sound, Junior says, is familiar “after years of listening to [his] father’s hangovers.” On the reservation, Junior stands in line for food with his mother, “happy to have...
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...with] diabetes.” Meanwhile, though, a Chicano teacher approaches Junior and asks him what he’s been drinking. “Indian kids,” the teacher says, “start drinking real young.” Junior learns that “sharing dark skin...
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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
...often; Victor teased her about her job as a kindergarten teacher, and she berated his drinking. Victor began having disturbing dreams, and often saw himself as a doomed war chief, or...
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Family Portrait
...a game of playing pretend with this brother and sisters. His father, he remembers, stumbled drunk off the bottom step of the porch and “came back years later with diabetes and...
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Witnesses, Secret and Not
...his father see an Indian man they know—they call him Jimmy Shit Pants. He is drunk, and the narrator and his father give him some money, then “dr[ive] off and [leave]...
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...once, in a car crash, he killed a white driver accidentally. Because the man was intoxicated, and the narrator’s father was sober, he bore no responsibility in the man’s death.
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Junior Polatkin’s Wild West Show
Lynn tells Junior that she notices he drinks a lot at parties. She asks him if it is “lonely” being the only Indian...
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