ipl-logo

Smoke Signals Themes

1397 Words6 Pages

There are many purposes for art. To express, communicate, share beauty, values, and much more. The film is an art. In the movie, Smoke Signals, there is many themes that are all interconnected with each other which include loss, grief, love, and transformation. In the beginning of the film, there is a fire. A baby, who is later revealed to be Thomas is thrown out a window and Arnold, Victor’s father, saves the baby. The movie transitions to Victor and Thomas all grown up in modern day America. Throughout the film shows Victor having flashbacks of his childhood and memories of his father as a drunk, abusive alcoholic while Thomas story tells how great of a person he was. Victor’s mom receives a phone hearing call that Arnold, her husband, …show more content…

After hearing the news, Victor sets out to receive his father’s ashes. Although he does not have enough money, Thomas offers for help. Initially he is hesitant to accept, but lets him. The two go on a long drive to Phoenix, Arizona to get the ashes. Their journal involves a lot of transformation, but mostly for Victor.
When they get on the bus, Thomas talks to a girl but then Victor intrudes rudely so she changes her seat. He tells Thomas that he needs to toughen up, change his style, look meaner or else he will be walked over. Thomas takes his advice and begins to take out his braids, wears more casual clothes and tries to look more like a “warrior”. He isn’t being true to himself though so he goes back to his nerdy, friendly, eccentric self. Victor is a skeptical, pessimistic person. This shadow part of his personality will change though as the film goes on. As the film …show more content…

His unresolved childhood and relationship with his father has been transformed because of this journey and also with the help of Thomas, and the neighbor, also the processing of his memories. This film is like the quote by psychologist, Carl Jung, “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Thomas and Victor’s contrasting personalities integrated and made Victor reborn into a more healed self. Thomas didn’t really change that much though which is alright because he is not having much inner conflict. This film is about how you can’t change the past, but you can change how you handle it. Growth is not suppose to be comfortable, Victor had to push through and ride this wave of intense emotions. Kind of like in the Truman Show, where the main character had to go through the hurricane in the ocean and the storm, then everything comes to peace and stillness, a rainbow

Show More
Related
501 Words | 3 Pages

No matter how hard he struggled, Victor couldn’t pull free. He might have died right there, stung a thousand times, if Thomas Builds-The-Fire had not come along.” He didn’t freak out when the wasp nest got stuck on his foot. Ultimately, Victor dealt with all the bad situations that got put in his

Read More
662 Words | 3 Pages

But between those things, there are flashbacks to when Victor and Thomas were Kids and Victor 's father had left. Thomas came up to Victor and said did your dad leave because he hates you and Victor beats up Thomas because Thomas was Provoking him and Victors Mother had to get Victor off Thomas. This Part of the movie shows That Victor and Thomas had the falling out and weren’t friends. Then, theirs was the bus scene where Victor was telling Thomas that he should stop wearing the suit and that Indians have like mean face and he should make that face and let his hair flow since that’s how a typical Indian wears their hair. When they got off the next stop Thomas went change into a cooler outfit and let his hair flow out.

Read More
1008 Words | 5 Pages

Victor is described to be ashamed by the look of Thomas with "ratty old braids and broken teeth" holding a conversation with a "beautiful Olympic gymnast" (Alexie 277). The contact Thomas has with the women symbolizes the uneasy relation Native American communities have with the outside world. While Victor does have a moment of pride when he quickly tells the women that he is a "'Full-blood'" Indian, the encounter ends with Victor saying "'it's too bad we can't always be that way'" (Alexie 277). This foreshadowing event aims to convey the idea that Victor is aware that in other social circumstances he would hide being a Native American, but also shows the priming of his ability to be proud of his

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

Thomas has grown up to be a nerd with an optimistic attitude and a talkative storyteller. Victor on the other hand grew up to be quite pessimistic, having that his father left him and his mother at a young age. Victor comes home to his mother with news that his father had just died and he must go to retrieve his body. Thomas offers Victor money for the trip under one condition, Victor brings him with him too Thomas agrees and they set out on journey to go get Arnold.

Read More
992 Words | 4 Pages

Major conflicts of the story included the fight between Thomas and Victor, and also he conflict within Victor’s mind as well. The moral of the story is “Treat people as you would want to be treated and never take anyone or granted.” Victor took Thomas for granted and mistreated him because he was different. But in the end it was Thomas that came to his rescue and not only helped him get to phoenix for his father’s possessions, but helped him find his true identity as

Read More
272 Words | 2 Pages

Victor grew up to become a very loving, affectionate and humane individual, due to the love and

Read More
1512 Words | 7 Pages

Victor presents his childhood as idyllic and free from contempt, whereas, he presents his adulthood as the extreme opposite. He very strongly believes, or at least acts as if he believes, that his family and childhood were perfect, that he was the happiest child, his relationships as the epitome of mutual care for one another. This strikes me as naive because he presents such a binary between his childhood and adulthood. It is likely he views these times in this way to either support his point about the monster ruining his life or because people generally frame times of happiness and despair in the two extremes. Further, all the people murdered are presented as completely innocent and perfect.

Read More
772 Words | 4 Pages

When Thomas tells Victor the story about his journey to Spokane Falls to find Victor’s father, it’s at that point Victor realizes the tie between his father and Thomas and that Thomas is a very important part of Victor’s own story. When he left or abandoned Thomas, he abandoned a part of himself; and this is part of what Victor reclaim. Victor learns from Thomas and in doing so learns about himself and home is similar to the rebirth of a

Read More
803 Words | 4 Pages

The beating might have gone on until Thomas was dead if Norma Many Horses hadn’t come along and stopped it.” (284, 285) Victor ends up learning a larger lesson from this time in his life, while reflecting on his treatment of Thomas over the years when Thomas so easily steps up to aid his friend in getting to Phoenix to gather his recently deceased father’s belongs which he wouldn’t have been able to do without the financial help of Thomas. Victor feels shame for the way he has treated Thomas, he goes on to tell Thomas, “‘Listen,’ Victor said as they stopped in front of the trailer. ‘I never told you I was sorry for beating you up that time’ ‘Oh, it was nothing.

Read More
758 Words | 4 Pages

Victor has had supportive people around him since birth; however now that he is at the university he has nobody to help keep him level headed. "Every night I was oppressed by a slow fever, and I became nervous to a most painful degree; the fall of a leaf startled me, and I shunned my fellow creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime" (35). The isolation being portrayed by Victor is now shifting from not only

Read More
1273 Words | 6 Pages

Life can be rough, and both Victor and the monster figure this out in specific ways. Victor begins by being a dedicated and persistent young lad who just wanted to get his name out there, but his obsession sent him into a spiraling descent into madness; however, the monster figures this out by getting abused, tormented, and treated like a megalomaniac even though all he did was be nice and helpful to everyone he came across. To make things worse, these changes impacted both characters in very bad ways personally. The transformations significantly impacted the way they lived and thought, even bringing on suicidal thinking. If the story would have been any bit different in terms of having a positive change, then the story probably would not have been as entertaining to the audience as it is currently, and in addition, Victor and the monster would have had better lives.

Read More
689 Words | 3 Pages

While seen having multiple setbacks Victor was able to persevere and achieve greatness. While overcoming the fear of being misunderstood Victor was able to complete his goal and achieve greatness, whether that greatness be good or bad. Many people have the fear of not being accepted by society because of your ideas or beliefs. Vicor overcomes this and shoes that other people opinions do not matter and people should do what makes them happy. Not all ideas are great.

Read More
596 Words | 3 Pages

Victor damages his mindset by allowing himself to go mentally insane. Because the sight of medical tools tortures Victor’s mind, he becomes psychotic and depressed. Secondly, this character devastates himself when he views his monster alive for the first time. Victor becomes ill for several months and eventually recovers; however, this ailment disturbs him for the rest of his life.

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

Victor doesn’t want to be embarrassed because he likes Teresa and wants her to like him. the boy is scared because he thinks he has a disease and is going to die. Victor likes Teresa because he’s like her. The boy thinks he has a disease because his neighbor has the disease and he thinks now he has it. Teresa is like Victor because she is taking French.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

An important murder occurred that would affect Victor even greater than the death of his little brother, William. The death of his bride, Elizabeth, made Victor make decisions that would even put his own life in danger. Before the death of Elizabeth, Victor had been very nervous leading up to the wedding and even told Elizabeth that he had an important secret to tell her after their wedding. She eventually would find out what that secret would be when the monster would sneak into her room in the cottage and murder her. At that point, Victor had been looking for the monster, and instead of the monster coming for him, he went for Elizabeth.

Read More

More about Smoke Signals Themes

Related Topics

Open Document