Different Ways of Coping

Throughout The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, pain is a constant. Whether it is the painful history of the Native American people or the painful reality of being a modern day Native American on a reservation, the characters in Alexie’s stories seem to be struggling with pain at all times. As I read, I noticed that there seems to be two different methods for coping, and that for the most part every single character can be placed into one of the two categories. First, there are those that deal with their pain by avoiding it. This includes all the characters who turn to alcohol as a means of numbing themselves, and also those that run away from the reservation and/or their families, such as Victor’s father. The second method is to embrace the pain and make the most of things. This is the more constructive method, and it includes people like Samuel from “A Train” and Norma from “Powwow”, who find happiness in life despite their poorness, and Junior in “A Good Story”, who chooses to count his blessings instead of obsessing over what’s wrong with his life. Thomas-Builds-the-Fire also employs the second method, by using his storytelling as a sort of therapy for understanding and coming to terms with the past.