“The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie and “Separation Anxiety” by Evie Shockley discuss the complications of identity while living in worlds of different cultures. Victor is the main character of “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” and he has an identity crisis throughout the story since he lives in the city but is from the Indian reservation. He identifies not only as a Native American, but he lives in a community surrounded by mostly Caucasian people which makes him feel out of place. He feels that he does not belong in the reservation and also does not belong in the big city. The narrator, Peaches, in “Separation Anxiety” identifies herself as an African American and lives in a community where everyone …show more content…
Peaches and the other characters in “Separation Anxiety” know who they are because of the society they have grown up in. They still compare their way of life to the white society out of the ghetto. Peaches describes some stereotypes when she says to Trevette, “why you talking that health consciousness shit? that’s white people madness,” (“Separation Anxiety, 62). Peaches uses the view that white people are concerned with their health and as a result she calls out Trevette who is African American and uses it as a negative connotation. The view that Peaches has on white society gives her a preconception of people out of the ghetto, but Trevette wants to go out into another community to prove that African American dance has a future and can get more recognition. Trevette says, “if we went out into the open territory, they couldn’t single us out. we’d get the same treatment as the whites…and we deserve that, too!” (59). Trevette has the view that the white population has more opportunities and treatments that she cannot get in the ghetto and in turn she wants to go into that society and discover more of who she is and what she can do with