After watching “Smoke Signals”, directed by Chris Eyre (1998), one reoccurring motif I noticed was fry bread. Anytime there is a scene with eating there seems to be fry bread accompanying it. It is also the subject of conversation several times. The three instances in the film I’ve chosen to analyze show the symbolism of fry bread as a food that brings Native Americans together. The first scene is between Victor and his mother. Victor doesn’t want to accept Thomas’s help, but his mother uses her famous fry bread recipe as a way to convince Victor that it’s okay to rely on other people. Another example is after Victor tells Thomas he needs to change his appearance to make himself more Indian. Thomas achieves this new look by getting rid of …show more content…
his suit and putting on a shirt that reads “Fry Bread Power”. The last example of fry bread as a motif is when Thomas is telling the story of Victor’s mother feeding 100 Indians with only 50 pieces of fry bread. Since fry bread is featured in so many critical scenes it must have a level of significance. To me, fry bread signifies bonding among Native Americans. Across different tribes, fry bread brings people together and acts as commonality. Everyone seems to love fry bread and just talking about it create friendships. The film depicts fry bread as a crucial part of Indian culture that allows people to connect to their heritage and to their fellow Indian. Eyre achieves this by using techniques such as soft lighting, framing, camera angles and music. As a result you’re left with an impactful motif that helps the characters relate to themselves and their heritage. The first scene that introduces the idea of fry bread as a tool for bonding happens at around 14:45 and is between Victor and his mother, Arlene. Thomas offered to pay for Victor’s trip to recover his fathers ashes under the condition he can come too. Victor rejects the offer immediately, but Arlene asks him to reconsider. She says, “People always tell me I make the best fry bread in the world, but I don’t make it by myself. I got the recipe from my grandmother and she got it from her grandmother. And I listen to people when they eat my bread”. This speech convinces Victor to reconsider and accept Thomas’s offer. By using a piece of Indian culture Arlene is able to show Victor that it’s okay to rely on other Indians for help. The use of an over the shoulder camera angle when Arlene is delivering the speech makes Victor seem smaller. And when the camera is on Arlene she seems taller and wiser. The power shift is evident. Normally Victor is much larger that his mother but the filmmakers decision to shrink him down makes it seem like he has something to learn from his wise mother. Victor and his mother are also smiling while they eat fry bread. This pops out because Victor doesn’t really smile during the film, so when he does it’s memorable. The next example is after Victor tells Thomas he needs to start acting like a better Indian. He tells him to quit smiling like an idiot, let his hair down, and to get rid of his suit. So at the next rest stop Thomas goes inside to change. He comes out with his hair flowing, no glasses, and a shirt that reads “Fry Bread Power”. He also has a scowl on his face as he’s walking back towards the bus, but as soon as he puts on his glasses he grins showing that he’s still the same Thomas. Thomas chooses the fry bread shirt as a way to make himself more Indian because it’s something all Indians can relate to. Victor’s look of shock as Thomas exits the shop shows that he recognizes the shirt as something a true Indian would wear. This shared cultural background is something that bonds unlikely friends like Victor and Thomas. Eyre uses camera angles and music to show the significance of the shirt. When Thomas comes out of the story the camera is looking up towards him as slowly struts towards the bus. This effect makes Thomas seem like a mighty warrior, which is Victor’s vision of how Indians should be. The chanting music with a loud guitar riff also adds to the effect. But once Thomas puts on his glasses he is once again level with the camera and you can see his big grin. The music also turns into happy 90’s sitcom music showing us that even then Thomas can try to look like a warrior, he can’t change who he is. The last example of fry bread comes in Thomas’s story to Suzy.
After accepting Suzy’s offer to dinner, Thomas and Victor sit down to watch cowboys vs. Indians on TV while Suzy serves them fry bread. Thomas tells Victor it’s almost as good as Arlene’s. Victor says that’s impossible and that his mother cooks the best fry bread in the world. Then Thomas starts to tell a story about how there was a huge feast on the reservation with over 100 Indians. They had deer meat and a lot of mashed potatoes and some fry bread. But Thomas goes on to say that the fry bread made all the difference in the world. And that “a good piece of fry bread turned any meal into a feast”. The problem was that there were only 50 pieces of fry bread. So Arlene ripped each piece in half to feed everyone. The story ends up being untrue but it shows just exactly how important fry bread is to this film. Suzy is able to relate to Thomas and Victor simply by feeding them fry bread and talking about it. It breaks down the tension between these strangers. Thomas’s story shows how important fry bread is among the people at the reservation. It can change a regular meal into a feast. The idea of feast seems so much grander than a meal, it means people coming together to celebrate. For Native Americans fry bread, a symbol of their culture, is reason enough to celebrate. They may have been persecuted for centuries, but they can hold onto their heritage through fry bread. The filmmakers make Thomas’s story especially memorable through lighting and framing. When Thomas is telling his story we are watching images of Arlene preparing the bread. At one point she holds the fry bread over her head to tear it. The image seems almost Christ like. During the last supper Jesus breaks bread in a similar way. The lights are directed towards the bread which makes it pop on screen. Arlene is standing at the head of the table and is perfectly centered in the shot. The combination of lighting and framing makes the fry bread
seem like it has religious significance. In sense I think it does have a religious aspect. Fry bread, like religion, brings people from different tribes together. Which it makes it arguably the most postive motif in the film.
In her article, “Sweet, Sour, and Resentful,” Firoozeh Dumas directs us through on how her mom readies a feast. She gives us detailed description on how her mother cooks the food for the guests by starting out grocery shopping until the part that the food is ready to be served. She writes about how because of their Iranian traditions they have to prepare a Persian feast for their newcomer friends and family, which brought joy to everyone, but her mother. Yet, we can see that she is trying to make sense to it all, every weekend they have guests over since the Iran’s Revolution started. Vitally, traditions stay great just when they convey satisfaction to the individuals celebrating those traditions. Also, the food that we choose tends to be based upon our culture, economic and social aspects. I agree with her even though traditions within various cultures are very different, but they all are supposed to do one thing that is bring everyone closer to each other, and bring happiness. However, that’s not always the case, especially in this article.
The meal, and more specifically the concept of the family meal, has traditional connotations of comfort and togetherness. As shown in three of Faulkner’s short stories in “The Country”, disruptions in the life of the family are often reinforced in the plot of the story by disruptions in the meal.
To start off, a key point that ended up in a shift of the author’s beliefs upon her culture was demonstrated in the quote, “On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns.The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food.” This quote is essential to the disrespectful tone of of the story. Amy is extremely condescending of her culture and seems embarrassed of her culture and its food.
I have always found communion to be an important sacrament to the Christian faith, but sometimes its meaning can be lost in repetitiveness. Sara Miles, in her book Take This Bread, has shed a new light on what it means to take communion as she writes about her transformation into being a Christian by receiving bread and wine. Hunger is the main theme of the book, whether it be spiritually or physically, all humans are linked by that common need. This transformation goes beyond her and pours into the souls and bodies of the San Francisco community, by sharing not only food but the body of Christ. This book has pushed me to get past my comfort zone and heavily consider the way in which food can be an important aspect of my faith and how I share
From Fire to Ash: A closer look at "Smoke Signals" and "This Is What It Means to Say Pheonix Arizona"
“Smoke Signals” is a movie that describes living conditions for Native Americans. Victor and Thomas are the main characters in the movie. Victor is a tough Indian guy who is hard to handle, even though he has a special attitude towards his mother. Thomas is a nerd, who is smart, and he enjoys telling stories to anyone. Victor’s father, Arnold Joseph, causes a fire accidently on Independence Day in 1976 on the reservation in Idaho in which Thomas’s parents died, but he miraculously saved Tomas from the fire. Even though Victor hates his father because of father’s addiction to alcohol, he manages to forgive him at the end of the movie.
Throughout this chapter Schlosser takes his reader through the journey of the french fry from spud to stomach. Schlosser uses his talents to educate the world about the ins and outs of the processed food and flavor industry, informing the fast food nation, “Why the fries Taste Good.”
Cobbs states “Thomas…. is a story teller… he was really the vehicle, he’s the natural character in order to make a movie (pg224). Thomas story telling is one of the things that made the movie more relatable to its audience. The only thing that made me wonder was if the stories were actually true or was it just Thomas making up stories to entertain his audience. When Thomas was telling a story to Victors fathers neighbor in Phoenix, victor claims that his story was false. Smoke signals is also an act of sovereignty given the fact that this was the first major film directed, acted and written by Native Americans themselves. It gave the Indian audience a sense of hope and joy being that this was not a film that negatively depicted them or had Indians as the bad guys. Also in the film, there was a scene that humorously referenced one of the movies that portrayed Indians negatively, which was when Thomas and victor were on the bus singing about John
Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the carbohydrates and calories that maintain any culture. Food offers a dynamic cross-section of man's tendencies. "Nourishment, a basic biological need," argues anthropologist Sidney Mintz, "becomes something else because we humans transform it symbolically into a system of meaning for much more than itself" (7). By examining food consumption and preparation, much is discoverd regarding the intricacies of culture. The preparation and consumption of food in Puritan society are reflected in Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Rowlandson's view of food and admissions of hunger in the infancy of her captivity cast a revealing light upon the roots of her conceptions and ideas about food and, more generally, about her culture's conceptions and ideas about food. As the conflict between her soul and her stomach raged over food, Rowlandson's attitudes toward the Native Americans' preparation and consumption of food reflect the socialization of the Puritans to believe that every meal ...
People mistake the Indian culture for living in T-Ps and going to powwows and always being drunk. But Smoke Signals really shows how the Indian culture really is. It includes how their culture is different from the white man but the stereo types that people put out for Indians are really inaccurate. Victor and Thomas not only take us on this interesting adventure to see his dad but they show us all of the Indian stereo types.
Various narratives have been put after each other so that the reader can compare two characters to see the different impacts that society had on them. This Juxtaposition is used to confront the reader with the inhumanity of the views of some characters such as Sanders Senior, the placement of Cook straight after shows that contrary to Sanders seniors disgusting beliefs she is quite human and is dramatically effected by his beliefs, the societies beliefs.
...od bond as well as a Vietnamese society and food. symbolism through the motif of food in the connections in the book, the author has gotten the message out that no matter what you're going to do or how bad the situation is, family, relationships, and bonds between people are very important, and you would be nothing without your family and friends. It is a great blessing to our family and friends, but the love they give you. A quote from Dan Wilcox "I don't care how poor a man is, if he has his family, he's rich." and I completely agree with this quote because as shown through the novel with or without symbolism of food, you would be nowhere without the love from your family and friends. The connection in the novel, food is so great and real in society today. Food brings people together as shown through the novel, Paradise of the Blind, written by Duong Thu Huong.
... I had never even seen most of the food displayed, I eagerly and respectfully tried each dish. After everyone in the room sat down at the massive table, the Rabbi picked up a glass of wine and made a prayer over it. Then, Rabbi Kanelsky passed around pieces of Challah bread to the entire table. This lunch festival was yet another ceremony dedicated to one of the member’s deceased relative. At the conclusion, the Rabbi said another prayer out loud for the deceased and the relative expressed his gratitude to everyone.
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
The chef in the Indian family, Hassan Kadam, has certain ways to handle the food and present it. The Indian culture uses many herbs and spices which is how he finds the perfect taste in every dish. He strives to make every dish a warm and delightful feeling which is very important to Hassan’s culture. Most of the food he served had bread with it, mostly a certain type called naan. The families who were eating, use the bread as utensils because that is proper etiquette within their beliefs. They would also eat in certain orders in the ranking of the family No matter what food was made in the Indian kitchen, there was also something unique about the dish.