Smoke Signals

A smoke signal is a story about the modern day lives of Native Americans. The movie Smoke Signals is about a boy trying to find himself, but in this process, there are symbolism's and metaphors that gave the movie deeper meaning. Fire, was the symbol of fire. When Thomas' house burned down when he was a baby, it set up a metaphor where Thomas said "some kids are born from fire and some are born from ash." This is a metaphor for Victor, who is the fire, and Thomas, who is the ash. Victor is viewed as fire because he is a strong and angry all the time. Thomas is considered ash because he is frail and weak. Another metaphor that relates to Thomas being considered ash is the fact that when his house burned down he survived, but his family and his home were gone, which could show that he, metaphorically, burned in that house too and part of him is in those ashes.
Looking at symbols in the movie, basketball seemed to be a very important one.                                                     
    I became so engaged in this movie that I researched other Sherman Alexie work, such as Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This movie also shares a lot of parallels to Sherman Alexie's novel. One of these parallels is also thy symbol of fire. In both the movie and the book fire kills Thomas' parents and Junior's sister, taking people that were major figures in their lives. The fire's also show a parallel because they were both alcohol-related, which seems to be a common theme in Native American literature. Also, in both of them the fires come back to haunt them. In the novel, the fire haunts Junior and keeps causing him to blame himself for his sister's leaving and her death. In the movie, the fire keeps coming back to haunt Arnold Joseph, who accidentally started it during the party. The memory haunts him so badly that it drives him to leave his family and live in a constant state of drunkenness.

In that moment, Victor’s father becomes a hero to Thomas. In that same moment, Victor’s father is driven to an unshakable grief, the kind of grief that forces a man to leave his wife and only son. Thus, Victor has a radically different and conflicted feeling about his father. And Victor confronts the pain of his father’s leaving over and over in the many stories told about his father by Thomas, notorious for his storytelling.

Victor’s feelings grow even more complicated after learning of his father’s death in Arizona and the two young men journey there to settle his affairs. Throughout their journey, Victor is exposed to the human intricacies of his father’s life and choices. In learning more about the man his father was, and surprisingly with the help of Thomas’ stories, Victor discovers more about himself and the man he will become. Friendship arises and personal growth.