- Title
- Kemo Sabe : Tonto as a developing construction of the Indian character type
- Creator
- Moll, Nicholas
- Date
- 2014
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/99985
- Identifier
- vital:10455
- Identifier
- http://library.federation.edu.au/record=b2670974
- Abstract
- At the opening of each episode of The Lone Ranger radio series, audiences are invited to “return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear”. From 1933 through to 2013 productions of The Lone Ranger media franchise have continued to extend this invitation. The evocation of the past through The Lone Ranger franchise includes Tonto: the masked man’s Indian sidekick. Tonto has remained an element of the franchise since the inception of The Lone Ranger and the development of Tonto presents an intriguing map of changing Indian characterization across the twentieth-century. This study argues that Tonto has developed as the masked man’s foil to incorporate colonial violence and Anglo-American culpability into The Lone Ranger narratives. In doing so, this thesis notes that Tonto’s assimilation within narratives of The Lone Ranger can be read like a parable, presenting a model of appropriate social responses for the interrelation of races through the masked man and Tonto’s partnership. The structure and style of Tonto’s assimilation develops gradually in the franchise over the course of the twentieth-century. Initially Tonto’s assimilation suggested a Romanticized future for the Indian following colonization. However, later productions of The Lone Ranger juxtapose assimilation with extermination. In analysing the development of Tonto, this thesis examines six features of the character. The first three are foundation concepts consisting of the idea of the Indian, the Western genre and franchise theory and development. The second three are constant facets of characterization comprised of Tonto’s status as an Indian, the recurring theme of Manifest Destiny in The Lone Ranger texts, and the growth of Tonto parallel to activism of the 1960s and 1970s. This thesis contributes to knowledge as the first study of Tonto as an ongoing development rather than a static characterization discussed in broad terms.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- Copyright Nicholas Moll
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- Kemo Sabe; Tonto; Indian character type
- Full Text
- Thesis Supervisor
- Speed, Lesley
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