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Smoke Signals Film Analysis

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The responsibility for the identity crisis among Native Americans lays on the Hollywood. It has assigned an abundant amount of unrealistic stereotypes to Native Americans, which are the reason that Native Americans don't know who they really are. Today, Native Americans struggle to fit into the mold of behavior and appearance that Hollywood has constructed for them. In “Smoke Signals”,a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, and later a film by Chris Eyre, two youths, Victor and Thomas, must journey to Phoenix Arizona to retrieve the ashes of Arnold, the father of Victor who left him and his mother years earlier. The journey of these two young men is, in a way, a metaphor for the identity search. Though “Smoke Signals” is a road movie, as claimed by …show more content…
These words can be interpreted from the viewpoint of the monomyth as: we have the opportunity to move forward; the things that were holding us back, no longer hold us back; will we let go of our past and move forward, or will we cling to our past and be trapped in it some more? All the hatred and resentment Victor had toward his father were now resolved, when he found out the truth. Victor’s past no longer had any power over him, but it was his responsibility to turn his back on it and move forward. In the same way, the identity crisis among Native Americans can be resolved, if they would only leave the stereotypes behind, and create the identity for themselves that they’d be comfortable with. No one should let his environment define him, but everyone must define himself, and not succumb to labels. The closing shot of the “Smoke Signals” pans away from Victor, who tosses the ashes of his father into the river, with a loud cry of agony. No one said that letting go of the past would be easy. It will take more than a ten second shot from a film, for Native American’s to let go of their imposed identity, but it is doable, if they will only take

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