Alcoholism In Every Little Hurricane And Smoke Signals

Both Sherman Alexie’s short story, “Every Little Hurricane” and Smoke Signals, a motion picture inspired by another Sherman Alexie short story — “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” — illustrate the struggles of the Joseph family and with living on an indian reservation. Victor Joseph’s memories of his family cause him pain, but paradoxically comfort him. The cause of this internal conflict is due to his childhood experiences involving alcoholism and poverty. Victor Joseph’s roots are embedded in all memories of growing up amidst a hurricane of conflicting emotions. His childhood memories of growing up amidst a hurricane of conflicting emotions are a direct result of his exposure to family issues of alcoholism and poverty. Not

Arlene works very hard for her son, and tries to give him the best life possible. However, due to the nature of living on the reserve, it is highly unlikely that everything was going to be good. Victor’s dreams and nightmares involving “Mother’s Kitchen”, although something that didn't actually happen, reflect his subconscious desires and fears. The desires being a nice warm place with good music, food, and both parents. His fears being the lack of food, music popular in white culture, and rainstorms. These dreams and all that is contained within them are a mirror of his reality, where a good day involves food, his father and music, and a bad one does not include food and no mention of his father. “Mother’s Kitchen was always warm in those dreams. There was always a good song on the jukebox”…“Sometimes, though, the dream became a nightmare and mothers Kitchen was out of soup the jukebox only plays country music, and the roof leaked,” (Alexie, 5-6). In the movie similar conflict appears when Victor remembers how his mom used to make fry bread, its is comforting for him because everyone regards it as the best on the reservation and it brings pride. But this memory is bittersweet because he knows that his mother is sad and in pain from her husbands absence and later, his death. No matter which memory of his parents he recalls essentially all of them are attached to

He is constantly faced with not only the current situation of his families financial standing, but also has a horrific event from the past haunting him, the accidental ignition of the Builds-the-Fire residence. The combination of shame and guilt leads him to drink. Instead of offering Arnold freedom from his feelings, he enters a cycle of alcoholism that ultimately leads to his only son alienating him. Beginning with the abuse of his son after he spills some of his fathers beer in the truck. As punishment of his mistake Arnold slaps his son across the head, the effect of this action,not only physically hurting his child but mentally changing him. After that experience Victor now has a different view of his father, not only a loving man that plays basketball and chases away Thomas, but also a man with violent tendencies. This betrayal shows another side of his father which enacts conflicting emotions within Victor. In the story, alcohol fuels the Adolph and Arnold, two brothers who are reach both extremes of the emotional scale. The brothers love, and hate each other so intensely they cant help but fight all the time. “Victor's uncles. They always fought. Had been fighting since the very beginning,”(Alexie, 2). Their violence is partly due to the fact that they always remind each other of the pain they went through as young children and partly due to alcohol induced rage. This love and hate has an effect on