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”In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” (Albert Schweitzer) Shortly after his father’s death, Victor, the main character in "This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona", is lucky enough to have his spirit rekindled by a long lost friend named Thomas Builds-The-Fire and his friendly deeds. The character that I believe has made the greatest transition by the end of the story is Victor, through growing up and realizing a few things that he was unable to see before, with the unfailing guide of Thomas-Builds-the-Fire.
Although his father has passed, Thomas shows Victor that he must still embrace his Indian culture, and revive himself through interaction with others. On an Indian reservation in the late 1900s called Spokane Reservation located in western Washington, Victor receives the news that his father has passed away.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
Knowing that his father’s ashes need to be retrieved, along with his father’s savings, Victor must immediately plan a trip to Phoenix, Arizona, the place where his father ran away to some years ago, and now his place of death. Without any money or a car, Victor asks the Trading Post if they have any funds available for a situation like this. When all they have to give is $100, Victor realizes that he must make other arrangements. He runs into the reservation’s storyteller, Thomas, a former friend of his, and Thomas already knows the sad news.
He offers to help fund Victor’s trip, if Victor would allow him to tag along. On their journey, Victor discovers many things about himself and his past.
Throughout the movie "The Smoke Signals", it is revealed that Thomas and Victor were friends through their teenage years, but Victor eventually shuns Thomas, because of the fact that many of Victor’s friends do not accept the annoying way Thomas-Builds-the-Fire always tells the same stories over and over again. I believe that Thomas is willing to pour out his stories because of the fact that he is an orphan, and he received no love from his parents, causing him to seek love from his audience, which sadly, wasn’t given. The thing I admire about Thomas-Builds-the-Fire is that although people of the reservation constantly send him negative vibes, he continues doing what he loves in spite of everyone, and he takes pride in himself. I believe that because of these admirable qualities, the time spent together on the trip to and from Arizona really changes Victor’s outlook on a lot of things.
The death of Victor’s father marks the beginning of Victor’s transformation. Thomas-Builds-the-Fire states that he knew about Victor’s father’s desire to leave his family, way before this action was actually taken. One day after having a vivid dream telling him to go to the Falls, Thomas runs away from the reservation and finds himself at the Falls, eventually running into Victor’s father, who feeds him and takes him home under the condition that he promises to watch over Victor in the future. His father explains to Thomas that he wants to leave his family soon. “The story states that Victor’s father exercises power over them. His father’s influence is the key in explaining their relationship. Victor gradually realized the misconception of his father since he was young, as he understood the story between his father and Thomas. Therefore, under Thomas’s help, Victor decided to change himself by reviving the relationship with other people.” (Barcott, Bruce) Thomas-Builds-the-Fire definitely keeps his promise to Victor’s father, watching out for Victor from a distance over the years and ultimately helping him finance his trip to Arizona to retrieve his father’s ashes and leftover funds. Thomas-Builds-the-Fire did all of this for Victor, despite the fact that Victor treated him like garbage throughout their teenage years in order to keep his reputation.
Throughout the movie "The Smoke Signals", intermixed between the actual plot are anecdotes of what occurred between Thomas-Builds-the-Fire and Victor during their childhood. “It is this goal of the journey that drives the plot, but through the flashbacks are the stereotyped descriptions of Victor, the stoic warrior, and Thomas, the storytelling shaman who “was a storyteller that nobody wanted to listen to” presented.” (Two Shoes, M.) The first flashback, triggered by the memory of Thomas always being the talkative one of the two, describes how Thomas had a bad gut feeling stemming around Victor’s father’s unhappiness an the notion that he would soon abandon his family because of it. This flashback serves to show the boys’ relationship and also presents them as stereotypes. The second flashback describes a happy time, when Victor actually enjoyed Thomas-Builds-the-Fire’s stories “Thomas Builds-the-Fire sat on the bicycle and waited in Victor’s yard. He was ten years old and skinny” (62) this memory explains the boys’ relationship and history together, along with Native American history as well. The third flashback consists of Thomas’ memory of two Indian boys who wanted to be warriors. This memory helped me to understand Native American history more clearly. The fourth flashback about the fistfight between Victor and Thomas serves to describe the rough relationship between the two over the years, but mostly as they grew older and Victor’s friends shunned Thomas from their group, along with displaying Victor’s struggle within himself about what is right and wrong. After the plane ride to Arizona, Victor feels quite guilty about this, and brings it up to Thomas. He apologizes, and humble Thomas begins making excuses for Victor, although Victor deserves much less than anything Thomas has given him.
When the boys arrive at the trailer where Victor’s father’s body lay rotting away, Victor catches a hint of the stench, and offers to journey into the trailer alone to search for valuables, but Thomas-Builds-the-Fire, being the selfless person he is, refuses to let Victor endure such a thing alone, and besides, Victor would probably need some assistance. This brings about the fifth flashback, of a time when Victor’s foot got caught in an underground wasp’s nest. If it wasn’t for Thomas’ valiant rescue, Victor truthfully could’ve died right then and there from all the painful, debilitating wasp stings. This shows how good of a person Thomas-Builds-the-Fire is, along with how much he values their friendship and his promise to Victor’s father to watch over Victor. This memory is parallel to the fact that Thomas refused to let Victor face his father’s death alone, solely because of the fact that he has a big heart, is very selfless, and also cares about Victor a lot, regardless of what Victor had done to him in the past. To me, this is why I deem Thomas as the hero of the movie "The Smoke Signals".
After searching through Victor’s father’s belongings within his trailer and coming up with merely a photo album and a stereo, Victor begins asking Thomas-Builds-the-Fire what he knows about his father. The sixth flashback is the story of when Thomas met his father at the Falls in Spokane, and how the rendezvous concluded with Thomas’s conscience telling him to make sure that him and Victor take care of each other. This story causes Victor to relive some of the memories he had saved up of his father. Thomas concludes his story by telling Victor that the reason he had helped him journey to Phoenix was because of his father. The seventh flashback consists of the story in which young Thomas-Builds-the-Fire becomes the envy of all the boys on the reservation after believing he could fly, and proceeding to launch himself off the roof of the tribal school, fearlessly making his dreams come true, if only for a second, before crashing to the ground and “breaking his wing”. I enjoyed this anecdote, because of the fact that it describes hope, and the belief that dreams really do come true, even if this occurs in strange ways. I believe that because of Thomas’s humble attitude and big heart, that he deserved these 15 minutes of fame, even if the boys did end up making fun of him. On the drive back to the reservation, ashes in the backseat and a very sleepy Victor at the wheel, it is finally Thomas’ turn to drive, and even though there was no wildlife to be seen the entire time Victor was driving, and he kills a long eared jackrabbit. They conclude that the rabbit was probably committing suicide. I believe that the rabbit incident was parallel to the life of Thomas, because of the fact that the rabbit was all alone in the wilderness with not a living thing around. This is like Thomas in the sense that no one wanted to be around him because of his incessant story telling. It’s quite sad, really. This leads into the final flashback, “Thomas Builds-the-Fire walked through the corridors of the tribal school by himself. Nobody wanted to be anywhere near him because of all those stories. Story after story” “This explains how hard it is for Victor and the others to accept Thomas and his stories and therefore part of the Native American tradition.” (3 DE LEON, FERDINAND 1997)
“Victor knew that Thomas would remain the crazy storyteller who talked to dogs and cars, who listened to the wind and pine trees. Victor knew that he couldn't really be friends with Thomas, even after all that had happened. It was cruel but it was real. As real as the ashes, as Victor's father, sitting behind the seats.” "I know how it is," Thomas said. "I know you ain't going to treat me any better than you did before. I know your friends would give you too much shit about it." After researching the metamorphosis of Victor throughout the story, I’ve concluded that most experts on this story, and Native American culture, such as Bruce Barcott, who wrote a book on Native American activity, discusses the book and comes to the conclusion that “the trip made Victor realize that he was wrong to treat Thomas the way he had, and that Thomas has no family, no friends, and all he really wants is for someone to listen to his stories and he isn’t ashamed of who he is. I also think that Victor realizes just how often Thomas has been there for him, even though he has treated him badly.” (Barcott, Bruce). I definitely agree with his statement in reference to this story, because after following Thomas’s life through the many flashbacks, I can tell that he has been humbled by the fact that he is an orphan, but that he doesn’t take anyone’s opinion of him too seriously. “Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams. He owed Thomas something, anything.” Victor’s transition became more and more relevant as the story went on, causing him to feel remorse for his actions. “Ultimately, Victor is able to make the realization that the keys to his existence are to be found within his human connections-the connections that were sadly lost with his father during his remaining years. Whether in new friends, reviving relationships, or simply the act of appreciation for connection between people, it is this very human interaction that is to become the shaping force of Victor's life.” (Barcott, Bruce).
Plot Analysis: Movie The Smoke Signals. (2024, Feb 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/plot-analysis-movie-the-smoke-signals-essay
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