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Arielle Baba
Professor Bradley
ENC1102
25 February 2017
The Vicious Cycle
Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” is an award–
winning, critically acclaimed collection of short stories that highlight a Native American’s daily
struggles in adapting to American society and his quest for establishing identity throughout the
process. However, my first reading of the selected short only prompted more questions than I
was given answers. I was unfamiliar with the background, context, why the antihero was the way
he was, and why he criticized various stereotypes while only perpetuating them through self-
destructive behaviors.
The text begins in a seedy scenario, the protagonist’s encounter at a 7/11 with the
graveyard shift’s manager. The first look the reader gets into the mind of our Native American
friend is his stereotyping of graveyard shift workers to be rather disgruntled, unsightly, and
always assessing the threat levels of their customers due to frequent robberies at this hour. He
continues on by acknowledging his own stereotyping, that the manager, “looked me over so he
could describe me to the police later,” (pp. 402). As for myself, I am familiar with the
stereotyping game on a personal level. Growing up with a Middle Eastern heritage in a post 9/11
America did me absolutely no favors in grade school. It was all too often that I found people
wary of me for my tanner skin or my interesting last name. However, it taught me that trying to
argue stereotypes is not worth the effort. For every instance of racial bias and ignorance that you
dissuade, there will always be another ignorant mind just around the corner. I have found that the
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best method is to carry yourself so highly that your actions speak louder than any words of a
bigot you may encounter. Our protagonist does not seem to care for this method and would
rather consciously poke fun at his circumstance than attempt to avoid the interactions altogether.
“He [manager] knew this dark skin and long, black hair of mine was dangerous,” he says as
confirmation (p. 403). He gets an opening to use his wit when the cashier turns his back to get
him a large slushie. As a former graveyard shift 7/11 employee, the protagonist’s inner
monologue highlights that turning your back to the customer is an easy way to get a gun pulled
on you or hit in the back of the head. The cashier is also aware and turns around again to confirm
the size of the slushie, at which our protagonist changes the size to small. When the cashier trips
up saying he thought he wanted a large, the antihero makes him aware that if he already knew
what size he wanted he would’ve never turned back around. He then proceeds to relish in smug
