Ya-hey!
You have several options for blogging about our final course text, Sherman Alexie's
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
As I said in class on Saturday, this is a short story collection, and each story can stand on its own as a separate literary work. So one option is to focus in depth on a single story--preferably one that intrigues or confuses you--to try and work through what Alexie is trying to do in that story. For example, you could write your whole post about
"A Drug Called Tradition" and explore questions such as: why is tradition represented as a "new drug" in this story? What is the significance of each vision? Why does Alexie end the story with Big Mom and her drum? What is with all that skeleton business? Or, you might want to investigate
"The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire" and figure out what it means that Thomas's storytelling lands him in trouble with the law.
But I also said in class that
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven has novelistic qualities, meaning that certain characters, themes, and motifs repeat throughout the book. So another option for your blog is to focus on one of these repeating elements. The clearest examples are
Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, two contrasting characters who appear in many of the stories. (Alexie has said that they represent different parts of himself.) Here's an image of the two characters, played by Adam Beach and Evan Adams, from Alexie's 1998 film adaptation,
Smoke Signals:
Can you tell which is which?You might compare and contrast Victor and Thomas and think about what each contributes to the book as a whole. For example, Victor is an ex-basketball player and Thomas is a compulsive storyteller. What is significant about these characteristics?
Of course, there are other recurring elements you could blog about too, such as the issue of
father-son relationships, the word
"survival," or the figure of
Crazy Horse. No matter what you write about, don't forget to include specific passages from the book in your post.
