Recently, in Mr. Hutchins 9th grade honors literary composition class, we watched the film Smoke Signals. Based on popular author, Sherman Alexie’s book Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven the movie stars, eccentric, awkward Thomas-builds-the-fire (Evan Adams) and fiery, aggressive Victor Joseph (Adam Beach), who embark on a road trip out of their Idaho reservation to Phoenix, Arizona to retrieve Victor’s father’s ashes (Gary Farmer). There, a friend and neighbor of Arnold, named Suzy Song (Irene Bedard) greets them. Not only does Victor find and retrieve his father’s ashes, but he finds himself in the process. The film’s plot flowed well throughout the majority of the movie, with the exception of a scene at the end of the movie. In …show more content…
the scene, Victor heroically runs twenty miles to save a few people who had gotten into a car wreck. Some may say that this scene was important to the development of Victor’s character, making it a necessary part of the movie, yet the scene feels rushed and merely put in to show change and growth in Victor’s personality. This definitely could have been shown in a different way, rather than with another tragedy and characters who are merely plot devices used for the development of the story. Smoke Signals carries an important message throughout the video about forgiveness, and that people are more than they seem.
Victor knew his father for twelve years of his life, but when he and Thomas travel to Arnold’s final home, Victor finds that he didn’t really know him at all. The film also touches on ideas of discrimination. Throughout the movie, Victor and Thomas were discriminated against many times, for example, when two white men stole their seats on the bus, telling them to “go back to their powwow.” Ideas of death and legacy also play a big part in Smoke Signals. The movie is centered around the death of Arnold, and Victor’s belief in the legacy that he left behind (whether he was an alcoholic who abused Victor, or a completely different man than Victor was willing to …show more content…
see). Not only do the themes in Smoke Signals all blend together to create a wonderfully fascinating movie, but the plotline subtly brings forward themes that are relevant today in our society. Although the events and people in Smoke Signals are fictional, there is a ring of truth to the general themes and problems that Victor and Thomas deal with throughout the movie. The video deals heavily with death, tragedy, and alcoholism, which are rampant in the native American community, and our society as a whole. Furthermore, racial discrimination and stereotypes are prominent in the film, from Victor trying to teach Thomas how to be a ¨real Indian” to racist rednecks stealing their seats on a bus. These themes prominent in the film, but also in real life and our society as a whole. Smoke Signals is an influential film, that has a similar ring to Alexie's other books, especially Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
The characters in both the book and the film have very similar traits-one being passive and the other being aggressive. Both tell a story of a journey that takes them out of their home on the reservation, complete with new experiences, people and finding yourself along the way. True Diary takes place over the course of a school year, in which Junior leaves his school, Wellpinit, a poor Native American school on the reservation to attend Reardan, a middle class white school, twenty miles away from his home. Smoke Signals is a story of Victor and Thomas leaving their reservation to retrieve Arnold´s ashes. Yet, they both return changed from their experiences outside of the
reservation. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Smoke Signals, the movie was masterfully created, and will strike a chord in all viewers. Though the movie's plot line was awkward, as there was no true ¨climax,¨ the film makes up for it by artfully weaving together themes of forgiveness and racism, along with humor, compelling characters, and a beautifully done storyline that will resonate with you for a long time.
He did not want to go and leave his family and especially his mother behind. When he first got to school, he did not want to let go of his mother, and it took the teacher to pull him off from his mother in order for him to take his seat. He was not allowed to speak Spanish at school with the other kids. His teacher hated Mexicans, thought they were dirty and ugly, and how they will bring knives and guns to school. Then Victor tries to run away from home instead of facing the punishment from his parents. One his way of running away, he meets these two cowboys and he is so fascinated with them, he tells them they can stay at his family’s ranch. When he talks to his father and his father decided to let the cowboys stay at the ranch. When Victor learns that the cowboys told his father about him running away and how it deeply upset his father. The cowboys were surprised because usually the white kids are the ones who always run away how the Mexican kids the ones are known as good people. The story then jumps to when Victor started going back to school where he had a teacher who was actually nice to him and cared about him. He was very good at mathematics, but was not very good at reading and would try anything to get out of it. His teacher started to notice that he was not reading aloud and how he was paying some the other students a nickel in order to get out of reading. His teacher thought since he was so good at math he would be able to catch up with his reading by the end of the year. Yet, when the end of the year ended up rolling around his teacher had to call his parents to let them know that Victor had to be held back a year. Yet, he father ended up becoming angry that the teacher did not even truly know his son and how his teachers kept pushing them around. Then he asked how much it would take to buy off the teacher to let Victor go to the next
Throughout the film of Smoke Signals, the story centers on two characters, Thomas and Victor. Thomas, through his storytelling shows Victor that there's more to life than cynicism and pure anger, while Victor let's Thomas know what it means to be a real Indian. We can see this in the scene where Victor tells Thomas that Indians are not supposed to smile to white people and that Indians always should look mean in order to gain the respect of white folks. However, we can see that after they return to the bus their seats have been taken by two white men and neither did Victor’s mean face and faded smile help him gain their seats back. This scene shows us that those stereotypes about how what an Indian is supposed to act are not in fact true because
He always wants to help someone else in need before himself, whereas the father is only concerned about their own personal wellbeings. He “is the one” who worries about their ethical choices and wants to help a stranger in any way he can (259). McCarthy proves the importance of the boy’s spirit of love for other people when his dad dies and he must take the leap of faith to continue along the road with a new family. Despite all the corrupted people they encountered beforehand, the boy meets someone who is “carrying the fire” (129). This mantra by the father and son, symbolizes hope and humanity. The qualities Steinbeck labels for a writer to create in his writings can be summed up in “carrying the fire” since the two never did give up. It is the greatness of the heart and spirit Steinbeck notes that is “inside [them]. [And] [i]t [is] always there” (279). It is noteworthy that even in the midst of death and ashes, the two are able to hold onto their relationship and sanity. The “good guys” can continue to carry meaning and structure in their lives, even in a time where society turned into a battle to survive on the remnants of
Popular perception of both the Sioux and Zulu peoples often imagines them as timeless and unchanging (at least before their ultimate demise at the hands of whites). To what extent does Gump's book challenge the similarities and differences between the Sioux and Zulu people?
Sherman Alexie's literature often uses symbolic features relating to Native American culture. His characters tell their stories while Alexie tells his own story simultaneously. His 1993 short story, This is What It Means to Say Pheonix Arizona and later film adaption Smoke Signals focuses on two young native American men, Victor and Thomas on a journey to collect Victor's father's ashes. Throughout the journey, Victor reflects on previous events that relate to the death of his abusive father. Fire and Ash continually show up throughout the story; it can be seen through Victor's anger, actual fires and even symbolic fires. Although different,
It is this issue of forgiveness that is the most valuable from this film. The viewer can benefit from this by being able to notice how Victor got through his problems. If the viewer has problems of his or her own that are similar to this, then maybe the viewer can apply the film’s lessons to his or her life. The issue of forgiveness is the main point, but there are other great lessons and morals such as the importance of friendship, the danger of alcoholism, handling family conflicts, etc. Not to mention, there is a lot to be learned about Native American culture from this film.
In “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix Arizona”, Victor has become psychologically troubled because he has put his own traditions behind. Throughout the story, the readers find out that Victor has an internal conflict due to the unhealthy relationships in his life. His father abandons him at a very young age, which causes Victor’s loss of guidance and self-identity. The day that Victor’s father abandons his family, Victor gets “really drunk and beat[s] Thomas up for no apparent reason at all”(276).
Victor grows up in school both on the American Indian Reservation, then later in the farm town junior high. He faces serious discrimination at both of these schools, due to his Native American background. This is made clear in both of the schools by the way the other students treat him as well as how his teachers treat him. His classmates would steal his glasses, trip him, call him names, fight him, and many other forms of bullying. His teachers also bullied him verbally. One of his teachers gave him a spelling test and because he aced it, she made him swallow the test. When Victor was at a high school dance and he passed out on the ground. His teacher approached him and the first thing he asked was, “What’s that boy been drinking? ...
The book and the movie are alike in the portrayal of a young girl, Winnie Foster, on the verge of womanhood, who feels discontent with her sheltered life. She comes upon the Tuck family, Mae, Angus (referred to as Tuck), Miles and Jesse, who share a surprising secret, everlasting life, the source of which is a spring found in the woods belonging to Winnie’s family. Winnie is kidnapped by them until they are sure she will not reveal their story. The Tucks are being searched for by a mysterious man in a yellow suit who suspects their secret. The man in the yellow suit desires to own the woods and exploit its contents for personal gain. He discovers where Winnie is held and offers to tell her family in exchange for ownership of the woods. Winnie’s family agrees and the man in the yellow suit leas the sheriff to the Tuck’s home. Mae, the mother of the Tuck family, hits the man in the yellow suit over the head when she discovers his plan. Mae is then taken to jail and sentenced to hang when it is discovered that the man in the yellow hat died from his injuries. The Tucks are extremely concerned because Mae will not die when she is hung and their secret will be revealed....
“This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona” discusses the physical and mental journey of Victor, a Native American man in the state of Washington, as he goes to Phoenix, Arizona to claim his father’s remains and his savings account. While on this journey, Victor learns about himself, his father, and his Indian culture with the help of his estranged friend, Thomas Builds-the–Fire. The author, Sherman Alexie, plays on the stereotypes of Native Americans through the characters of Victor and Thomas. While Thomas is portrayed as the more traditional and “good” Native American, Victor comes across as the “bad” Native American. Through the use of this binary relationship, Alexie is able to illustrate the transformation of these characters as they reconcile with each other, and break out of these stereotypes in the process.
Victor knew he was a Native American that lived on the reservation. However, as he has grown up, it seems he has forgotten the tribal ties of the Native Americans. The people of that culture consider everyone in the tribe to be family and they are not ashamed of who they are and where they come from. Towards the end of the fictional narrative it is said, “Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams. He owed Thomas something, anything” (519). At the end of the story, Victor has finally realize that he is acting self absorbed. He realizes that this is not who he wants to be and he should not be ashamed to talk to Thomas Builds-a-Fire. Remembering his tribal ties, Victor gives half of his father 's ashes to Thomas. By doing that, Victor is thanking Thomas in his own way. Victor said, “listen, and handed Thomas the cardboard box which contained half of his father. “I want you to have this” (519). Individuals on the reservation thought Thomas was just a madman with weird stories. But in reality he was always true to his tribal identity and has even taught Victor how to get back to that. For example Thomas says, “I’m going to travel to Spokane Falls one last time and toss these ashes into the water. And your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge, over me, and find his way
was a spectacular film there were some things that I did not enjoy like, the
...r, this movie is lack of depth of storyline. The audiences can even predict what will happen in the next scenes. Moreover, the ending of this movie is too cheesy and irrational according to me. If only they change the ending to become more interesting and rational, I will give a four or five stars out of five. In spite of a lame twist ending, this movie is a perfect example to show that managers should be able to motivate and challenge their employee. It is important to remember that a happy employee means a productive employee.
...movie that I fell in love with. But most of all I love how the story line is a great overlap into the cinematically engaging movie. There is a great use of camera, timing, shots and story line that are portrayed in this movie without being too overwhelming. This allows the audience to relax during the movie and just take in the scenes as a story from reality. To this day, and even still doing this paper I still come to find different aspects of the movie that I missed the previous times I have watched it.
As most of you know, smoking is bad for your health, but what some of you might not know is that you don’t actually have to smoke to be harmed by smoking. Lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women, is mainly caused by cigarette smoking. Secondhand smoking causes approximately 2 percent of lung cancer deaths each year. It causes respiratory disease, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), middle ear disease, and asthma attacks in children.