JE#1B

Discuss the ideological messages that are encoded into the Lone Ranger and Tonto. How are these messages different from what we saw with Speedy Gonzales?

Disclaimer: I, unlike the rest of a generation was not enchanted let alone aware of the Lone Ranger and his "good Indian" companion "Tonto." I did not have any access to the awesome world of Disney as a child growing up in Jalisco, Mexico. Perhaps it was this outsider's perspective that led me to see right through the episode assigned of the Lone Ranger.  Right away, I noticed the very acute case of white savior complex this particular Ranger suffered, and worse even the man alongside him who aided his disease. The simple ideological message is: “Let the white man save you from this treacherous wild landscape that is the unsettled West” Another important fact to note is that the Lone Ranger is “alone” rendering the presence of Tonto invisible. The lonely savior exemplifies the individualism that the U.S. has come to cherish and privilege escpecially from a character that is inspired by the oldest law-enforcement agency in North America, the “Texas Rangers”. Furthermore, Tonto is the representation of the “good Indian” or in other words the noble savage who stands by his leader and aids him in bringing order and peace to an unruly and savage population (his own) and the area. I don’t necessarily believe that these images should be forgotten from our visual imaginary, they ahold a great value and record a special type of history. Instead they should analyzed, watched again and again so that we can have a better idea of how an entire “enchanted” generation formed their constructions of the other through television shows.