The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian And Smoke Signals

The abuse of alcohol is prevalent in many aspects of Indian life. In the Novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and the film “Smoke Signals” alcohol abuse is one of the main factors of creating hardships. The negative effects of alcohol are evident in both stories through the examples of Death, Physical abuse and Addiction. First, The abuse of alcohol is prevalent in the novel and film because it's the main factor of death in both stories. The death of juniors sister mary in the novel was caused by alcohol. “They had a big party --,” my father said. “And your sister and her husband passed out in the back bedroom. And somebody tried to cook some soup on a hot plate. And they forgot about it and left. And a curtain drifted

The abuse of alcohol cause physical abuse stemming from the lack of hope and opportunity that the reservation offers. In the novel rowdy's father beats him and is the reason for rowdy's anger at everything around him. "His father is drinking hard and throwing hard punches, so Rowdy and his mother are always walking around with bruised and bloody faces. 'It's war paint,' Rowdy always says. 'It just makes me look tougher.'”(pg 17). When rowdy's father beats him, I think rowdy wears the bruises like a badge of honor because he doesn’t want other people to see how much he is emotional hurt, over physical pain. The film also portrays physical abuse in the form of victor’s father abusing him. Victor’s father beats him because he has no hope of a better life and that makes him angry at the world around him. He takes out his anger on anyone that is around him, like victor. Including victor’s mother, from a scene in the film we saw that when victor’s parents were in an argument he got violent and slapped her. The abuse of alcohol produce physical abuse by taking away people’s thought to what their actions are. The scene shows that victor and victor’s mother were abused by arnold, victor's