Smoke Signals Essay

Smoke Signals Essay

     In the film "Smoke Signals", the two main characters, Victor and Thomas, struggle with being seen as just Native Americans and fitting into the stereotypes associated with there race. They both go through this struggle in different ways. For example Victor struggles with seeing his race in specific ways; one being that they have to have long hair and keep it down and flowing. While Victor sees his race this way Thomas chooses to stay himself and not fit into the stereotypes that Victor believes in. Although Thomas does have long hair he keeps it in braids as opposed to down and flowing. One other stereotype that Victor begs Thomas to adapt is that he must angry. Thomas is a pretty happy guy and that seemed to get him pretty far with the people they met along the way to find Victors father. Victor believes in this stereotype because he thinks that if they don't look or act angry all the time they will never be taken seriously. 

   When it comes to the Native American history, Thomas never actually states his opinion on the difficulty of their past. However, Victor believes that nobody has ever gone through anything as difficult as he has. While Victor seems to be ashamed of his history he is still able to find power and meaning in what happened. When Victor meets Suzy Song and is able to learn more about his past he is able to see how important history actually is to his life and chooses to change his idea of being required to fit into a certain stereotype because of the color of his skin and cuts his hair, something he believed defined him as Native American. Thomas also found meaning in his history because he was able to tell stories about history to make connections with the people he ran into on his journey with Victor.  One of the cultural traditions Victor and Thomas both found power in was song. The two were able to sing a song together on a bus and by singing this they showed the other passengers on the bus that they didn't care what they thought them, they were proud of who they were and where they came from.  In this film the boys history is used it two ways, to show where they came from and to show power behind their past. 

    



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