“The Fun House” vs “All I Wanted to Do as Dance”
“The Fun House” and “All I Wanted to Do Was Dance” are stories written by Sherman Alexie in his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. “The Fun House” is centered on Nezzy, the aunt of the narrator. Throughout the story, she struggles with the lack of gratitude she receives from her husband and son which leads to an anger that drives her desperately to change her life. However, In “All I wanted to do was dance” the story is focused on Victor, who is the narrator of “The Fun House”. The story goes through Victor’s love life where he suffers from a broken heart. The pain started to prevent him from moving forward in life. He tries to compensate his pain by getting drunk and dancing. Both of these stories depict the protagonists’ love relationships and the pain they carry. However, in “The Fun House” aunt Nezzy strives to change her life, while Victor, the protagonist of “All I Wanted to Do Was Dance” is trapped in depression.
Both stories illustrate the symbols of pain that the protagonists carry throughout the story. “The funhouse” begins with the narrator stating that his aunt Nezzy sewed a beaded dress that was too heavy for anyone to wear (76). The weight of the beaded dress is a symbol of burden she carries for the family. Aunt Nezzy has to put food on the table for her husband and son, while her thirty year old son still needs a job. This put an extra weight on aunt Nezzy's shoulder. Nezzy mentioned, “When a woman comes along who can carry the weight of this dress on her back, then we’ll have found the one who will save us all” (76). When Nezzy came back from swimming in the creek, the narrator illustrates how she put the “heaviest beaded dresses over her head” and “almost fell from the weight” (82). This symbolizes that she is no longer capable to carry the burden for her family; therefore, she went to the creek although she never knew how to swim. In contrast, a symbol in “all I wanted to do was dance” is alcohol, which represents the pain that prevents Victor from moving forward in life. The pain dwells within Victor in the beginning of the story. As the story moves on, he couldn’t drink alcohol anymore. The narrator mentioned that “he would open one [bottle of alcohol], touch the cold glass to his lips, and feel his heart stagger” (89). As time goes by, he starts to heal from his pain and throws all the alcohol he bought away. The narrator later implies, “the small explosions [of the alcohol bottles], their shattering, was the way he measured time” (89). At the end of the story, Victor met a stranger that advises him to let the alcohol “breathe” as he should let his pain rest.
Another symbol in “All I Wanted to Do Was Dance” is the images of bright/white color that symbolizes the woman that Victor lost. Every time when Victor sees or envisions a bright/white color, it reminds him of the white girl he used to be with. Living through these visions without her beside him leads Victor to emotional pain. When he imagined her in the river, the narrator mentioned “she was so white his reservation eyes suffered” (84). The Narrator stated “In his memory she was all kinds of color, but the only one that really mattered was white “(85). Victor suffers once again by the imaginary presence of the white girl when he turns on his television with a blond woman broadcasting the local news. He switches channels from “tired reporters”, “forest fire” to candy commercials. For him, there was no difference as long he saw bright colors. Victor was baffled by color and led him to vomit (87).
Victor and Nezzy both try to change their relationship life. However, they have different approaches to handle their distress in relationship. Nezzy is more driven by her emotions, while Victor breaks down. When Nezzy’s husband and son were teasing her, she got frustrated and went immediately to the Tshimikain Creek. The narrator mentioned “My aunt walked down her dirt road until she was dizzy” (79). This portrays that the creek was far away from her home. It was not an easy task to reach there by foot. Yet, despite the difficulties she decided to walk to the creek. Nezzy did not have a clue how to swim, but she still decided to swim in the Tshimikain creek even though “the water was brown, smelled a little of dead animal and uranium” (79). Her anger made her to strive for change despite the circumstances. It portrays that Nezzy has a strong will for change. At the end of the story when she came back from the creek, the narrator stated, “she knew things were beginning to change” (82). Victor on the other hand, let his emotions control his whole life. He cannot seem to move on from his lost love, therefore, he endures the pain by getting drunk. Throughout the story, we see that losing his girlfriend starts to affect other aspects of his life. His depression has led him to insomnia. At first, he plans to sleep in 10 minutes. If not, he would read a book (85). The narrator points out “ten minutes passed and he [makes] more promises”. After failing to read a book, he planned to wake up for breakfast and watch the sunrise. However, He ends up lying down till dawn. (85). Victor cannot seem to follow his schedule he planned in his mind. When he finally got up from his bed, he told himself “I’m going to run”, but instead he watched television which reminds him of the vision of the woman he lost. His whole life is cycled by his depression. He even told himself, “Nothing more hopeless than a sober Indian” (87). This shows that he knows that his depression leads to hopelessness. However, he cannot seem to let go of the past and ends up not having the strength to fix his situation. Unlike Nezzy, his action does not lead to change. Nezzy does whatever she can to relive her moment when she was happy. In contrast, Victor does the opposite. The narrator illustrates, “On payday, his wallet stuffed with money, he would stand in front of the beer cooler in the trading post” (89). Alcohol is a reminder of his lost love, yet, he still chooses to continue to drink alcohol which leads him to relive the breakup of his girlfriend. If Victor had the personality of Nezzy, he would have been able to let go and move on with his life. A trait that Nezzy has and Victor does not is that Nezzy take action without planning. Victor makes a to-do list in his mind before taking action and end up in idleness. Comparing to Nezzy, she would have gotten up from her bed, eaten breakfast, watched sunrise, and run three miles without thinking about it in Victor’s situation. In contrast, If Victor was in Nezzy’s situation, he might think of going to the creek, but he wouldn’t able to follow through his plans. Instead he would probably continue sewing beaded dresses or doing something else to cope with the pain. One of the major differences between Victor and Nezzy is that Victor focuses on the past. Victor’s biggest flaw is that he dwells in the past which trapped him from moving forward in life, while Nezzy think how she can take immediate action to change the present.
Although the protagonists of “The Fun House” and “All I Wanted to Do Was dance “have the opposite personalities, both stories contains flashbacks to illustrate the protagonist’ lifestyle of their past. One of flashbacks of “the fun house” illustrates Nezzy’s relationship with her husband where they dance in an Indian cowboy hat (78). This was during Nezzy’s early life when she was dancing with her husband. Although she had some financial difficulties to pay for her education, she enjoyed her occupation as a dancer back in the day. The narrator mentioned “My aunt smiled and laughed. She was a beautiful dancer, had given lessons at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio to pay her way through community college” (78). After the dance they went back home and end up in a car accident. Although Nezzy was bleeding terribly, she still stayed with her husband in the hospital and took care of him. When her husband woke up, he asks if he was in the hospital again. From this flashback, it shows that this is not the first time that Nezzy took him to the hospital (78). Another flashback in “The Fun House” takes place on the day Nezzy was about to give birth to her son where she had to go through tremendous pain. Both these flashbacks show how she was sacrificing for her family multiple times and had to go through many painful experiences throughout the years. Similar to “the funhouse”, the flashbacks of “All I Wanted to Do is Dance” also focus on the past experience of the protagonist relationship. Victor still remember “how white and small [the girl’s hands are and how] they looked against his brown skin as they lay together, wrapped in sheets. She fell asleep easily and he watched her, listened to her breathing, until breath fell into the same rhythm, until he slept”. These memories emphasize the pain of Victor’s lost. One of the flashbacks portrays how alcohol destroyed Victor’s relationship. The girl asks him to dance, but Victor chooses to drink one more beer instead. The narrator declared, “He thought one more beer could save the world…One more beer and he would sign any treaty for her” (88). Victor follows the path of his parents. Alcohol was reinforcement for Victor’s parents’ love relationship. Victor observed “they were drunk”; “They were in love” (88-89). Therefore, he desires alcohol, because from his experience, alcohol supposes to lead to happiness and love instead of separation. When Victor was eight to nine years old, he was fancydancing “in the same outfit his father wore as a child” The narrator mentioned, “The feathers were genetic; the fringe was passed down like the curve of his face”. This depicts that Victor has adapted the behaviors from his parents.
In essence, both stories are focused on the love relationship of the protagonists. The beaded dress of Nezzy symbolizes the pain she carry throughout her life. In comparison, alcohol represented the pain of Victor that he carries until the end of the story. However Nezzy, the protagonist of “the fun house” was able to experience change almost instantly because she took immediately action, while Victor could not let go of his past. The flashbacks of both stories portray the protagonists’ past experiences and give the reader a deeper sense on how they end up in their position.

Work Cited
Alexie, Sherman. “The Fun House” The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.
Alexie, Sherman. “All I Wanted to Do Was Dance” The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.