Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven depict the difficulties faced by Native Americans in the face of the overwhelming force of dominant American culture. Alexie uses multiple perspectives in her book to express the complexity of the situation on the reservation. However, its recurring themes such as survival, tradition, and underlying cultural connections connect the stories, as does the overall message about the resilience of Native American people and their culture. With these consistent themes, the multiple perspectives found in his stories prove the validity of his cultural arguments due to their repetition. In her composite novel, Alexie reveals the resilience of Native American culture by breaking it down into a mathematical equation that makes an important statement about the survival of Native American culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Alexie highlights the importance of imagination through her illustration of the survival process: “Survival = Anger x Imagination. Imagination is the only weapon in reserve” (150). The ability to imagine a better world or situation is a coping mechanism for Native Americans. One way to do this is to tell stories. This is seen when the narrator of “A Good Story” tells a happy story at the request of his mother. He observes the bad situation he and his mother find themselves in at the beginning of the story, with no food in their cupboards and only sad stories. He concocts a light-hearted story for his mother and declares at the end, “Believe me, there is barely enough goodness in all this” (Alexie 144). Using imagination to form a simple story that painted a pleasant picture was enough to make life's difficulties bearable. In this case, the use of imagination was “barely sufficient.” Alexie attributes the power of such imagination to its necessity in Native American society in his epigraph to the chapter "Imagining the Reservation", which is a quote from Lawrence Thornton: "We must believe in the power of imagination because it is everything we have and ours is stronger than theirs” (Alexie 149). This quote comes from one of Thornton's novels in which a character finds himself in a situation similar to that of the Native Americans because he must imagine his country as it was in the past to deal with the declining situation of the present. This quote itself shows that imagination is stronger in Native American society because it is an integral part of their survival. The need for imagination is also illustrated in history by the need for tradition and the deep-rooted need for stories as a connection to tradition. This is seen when Victor decides to let Thomas accompany him to Arizona. He lets him go because he “felt a sudden need for tradition” (Alexie 62). Imagination is strengthened by its necessity and this necessity is extended because of imagination's roots in its storytelling tradition. With this in mind, Alexie's composite novel can be seen as a product of necessity and imagination in an effort to perpetuate a piece of Native American culture. While expressing its necessity and power, Alexie indicates that the Indian imagination is linked to modern America. Company. The narrator of "Imagining the Reservation" asks an important question regarding the effect of modern society on the Indian imagination: "How can we imagine a new language when the tongue of the enemy keeps our dismembered tongues attached to its belt ? (Alexie 152). Native American culture does not find its.