...October 26, 2013 There are several things that are important about the line, “He didn’t mean to Thomas,” that Victor speaks in the movie, “Smoke Signals.” The first thing that needs to be discussed is the fact that when this statement was made, Thomas and Victor had just returned to the Reservation from a trip to Arizona to retrieve the belongings of Victor’s father who had just passed away. This seems normal, but in fact, it was the last thing Victor wanted to do. You see, Victors father left the family years before he passed away when Victor was a young boy. This, coupled with the fact that Victor’s father was an alcoholic, was abusive to his wife and to Victor, left Victor with extreme anger issues towards his father on the one hand, yet on the other hand, a love that he kept inside of himself for his father also. Native American culture has many things passed along through the oral tradition of story telling. The story of what happened when Victor and Thomas were babies is a story that has been told over and over. Victor’s father was a hero; he saved Thomas’s life when, as an infant he was thrown from a burning house. To most people he was a great hero although Victor did not see his father as a hero, only as a drunk, and as abusive. While in Arizona getting his fathers belongings, Victor found out many stories about his father that he was unaware of. He did not know that his father had saved not only Thomas, but also Victor. He did not...
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...Leslie Marmon Silko Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer - I climb the black rock mountains stepping from day to day silently. I smell the wind for my ancestors pale blue leaves crushed wild mountain smell. Returning up the gray stone cliff where I descended a thousand years ago. Returning to faded black stone. where mountain lion lay down with deer. It is better to stay up here watching wind's reflection in tall yellow flowers. The old ones who remembered me are gone the old songs are all forgotten and the story of my birth How I danced in snow- frost moonlight distant stars to the end of the Earth, How I swam away in freezing mountain water narrow mossy canyon tumbling down out of the mountain out of the deep canyon stone down the memory spilling out into the world Adrienne Rich Living in Sin She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love. Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat stalking the picturesque amusing mouse had risen at his urging. Not that at five each separate stair would writhe under the milkman's tramp; that morning light so coldly would delineate the scraps of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles; that on the kitchen shelf amoong the saucers a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own-- ...
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...Victor accepted the Tribal Council's offer. What else could he do? So he signed the proper papers, picked up his check, and walked over to the Trading Post to cash it. While Victor stood in line, he watched Thomas Buildsthe-Fire standing near the magazine rack, talking to himself. Like he always did. Thomas was a storyteller that nobody wanted to listen to. That's like being a dentist in a town where everybody has false teeth. Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire were the same age, had grown up and played in the dirt together. Ever since Victor could remember, it was Thomas who always had something to say. Once, when they were seven years old, when Victor's father still lived with the family, Thomas closed his eyes and told Victor this story: "Your father's heart is weak. He is afraid of his own family. He is afraid of you. Late at night he sits in the dark. Watches the television until there's nothing but that white noise. Sometimes he feels like he wants to buy a motorcycle and ride away. He wants to run and hide. He doesn't want to be found." Thomas Builds-the-Fire had known that Victor's father was going to leave, knew it before anyone. Now Victor stood in the Trading Post with a one-hundred-dollar check in his hand, wondering if Thomas knew that Victor's father was dead, if he knew what was going to happen next. Just then Thomas looked at Victor, smiled, and walked over to him. "Victor, I'm sorry about your father," Thomas said. "How did you know about it...
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...The film Smoke Signals began on the bicentennial fourth of July in 1976 in the Coeur D’Alene Indian reservation in Idaho. A fire at the house of Matty and John Builds-the-Fire was the how the lives of two Native American infants, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, first became intertwined. The road trip to Phoenix, Arizona occurred after Arnold Joseph had died and Victor was sent to retrieve his father’s ashes. Throughout the film, director Chris Eyre used symbolism, such as fire, ashes, and the names of characters to illustrate the journey of self-discovery for two long-time childhood Native American Indians. The film, Smoke Signals, started out with a house engulfed in flames on the bicentennial Fourth of July celebration in 1976....
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...In Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals, nature is used metaphorically to show accusation and forgiveness. Near the end of the movie, Susie burns down Arnold’s trailer. While the movie was showing how Victor, Thomas, and Susie have advanced with their lives after Arnold’s death, Susie burned down Arnold’s trailer as a way of moving on. The fire is a symbol of Victor’s forgiveness and the ability for Arnold to move on from his place of death, the fire also represents a clean start for Victor since all was forgiven on what Arnold did and his actions. Smoke Signals begins with Thomas telling a story of his parents’ passing and his and Victor’s association. “You know, there are some children who aren’t really children at all. They’re just pillars of...
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... In the collection of short stories "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist fight in Heaven" Sherman Alexie writes about the importance of songs and stories in the lives of the people on the reservation through drug induced visions, the character of Thomas Builds-A-Fire, Jimi Hendrix's music, and basketball players on the reservation. In the short story a drug called tradition the main character, Victor, and his two friends Thomas Builds-a-Fire and Junior take drugs that give them visions of themselves in strange historical Indian settings. The stories they tell of these visions relate to Indian culture and tradition. Junior has a vision of Thomas performing a dance around a campfire that brings back all the dead Indians. Victor has a vision of Junior singing. Both visions include real things from history, end with the idea of the Indians winning and/or driving out the white people, and use music or dance to show this. This shows their views on white peoples versus Indians as well as giving a look into their culture. Thomas tells to stories of his visions, both of which have to do with proving one’s worth and becoming a man through Indian tradition. In his second story he says that the boys are trying to be “real Indians tonight” (p.20) through drugs and the like. It is a way of showing how things have changed and in the modern world you can no longer do things like steal a horse as your rite of passage so instead these visions are a personal way to keep the traditions alive...
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...Submit your text hIn the book, An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie it talks about a young boy named Junior who lives on the Spokane Reservation. On the reservation, the only thing Indians do is drink and try to forget about the dreams they never achieved. Junior believes that he shares the same fate as everyone else. But Junior decides that he wants to succeed in life, he wants to go beyond staying at the reservation in his parents' home to be left alone with only two things, alcohol and the regret of knowing he didn't do anything great in life. Instead, he tries to understand the world with cartoons and wishes to be the first to truly follow their dreams in life. Junior is the only survivor of leaving the reservation, he knows he doesn’t have to feel helpless and trapped anymore. Junior is a survivor of doing what Indians thought could only be done if you were white. All "Indian families [stuck] together like Gorilla Glue," (89) and no one left the reservation. But at Wellpinit Mr. P talked to Junior about leaving the reservation. He (Mr. P) had told him that he was "going to find more and more hope the farther and farther [he walked] away from [the] sad, sad, sad reservation," (43). After, he began to really think about what he was going to do to rewrite his fate. On the walk home, he found a solution to this problem, he was going to attend Rearden Middle School, "one of the best small schools in the state," (46). When he had talked to his parents...
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...Arnold is the misfit Native American teenager outcast that just wants to find his place in the world. In the novel, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, Arnold discovers his true self by trekking his way through a series of challenging events. He breaks stereotypes by coming to realize the struggles of an alcoholic, addictive lifestyle and in the process, finds himself. There are three hundred and thirty six reservations in America. One of the biggest difficulties each reservation faces is addiction. Arnold, as well as many others on these reservations come across the reality of this, in their own homes. The stem of alcoholism among Native Americans can be one of many things, including hurt being passed down among generations and generations. Native Americans have lived in America for years and years, even so, they have experienced so much hurt in history. They have experienced unfair treatment by white settlers, including being taken away from their homes to be put into boarding schools and being kicked off of their own land. This happened because in the early centuries racism existed, racism still exists in modern days as well but not to the extreme that was shown back then. Racism occurred mostly among colored people. This was the belief that white skin was superior to darker skin like African Americans and Native Americans, and they were shamed for it because they weren't accustomed to white skins lifestyle. Because Native Americans...
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...Once, there was a boy named Arnold Spirit who lived on the Spokane Reservation and he wanted the luxury that most people had. Arnold wanted a better life for himself because of the deaths of people around him, he was going to live in a world that might not be at his favor to achieve his goal. In the Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie explains how Arnold wanted to explore the world and move around more, he decides to transfer to Reardan High School and leave Wellpinit High School, because of his actions, he resembled the traits of a Nomadic Indian, which were the need to travel and ambition. Transferring from Wellpinit to Reardan made Arnold more of an old type of indian, which made him more unique with the hope he had in himself to be nomadic and explore new places while other Indians had given up on themselves. Travelling from Wellpinit to Reardan made Arnold an old type of Indian, a Nomadic Indian, with hope. Junior's journey away from the reservation transformed him into an old time Nomadic Indian. "You're going to find more and more hope," Mr. P explains, "the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation" (43). Mr. P is explaining to Arnold that the only way he will find hope, which is the virtue he is grappling onto, is if he travels far away from the Spokane reservation to find another place where others who demonstrate hope. After getting a book thrown at his face, Mr. P confessed his wrongs that he did in the past to...
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...Close Reading of a Poem Jason Mobley ENG/125 Oct 26th, 015 Dr. K Close Reading of a Poem “On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City”, is the poem that spoke to me most, of all the poems we went through and read. I found that I could relate to his anger of not being heard or even acknowledged for his history in the America’s. Sherman Alexie is a Spokane Coeur d’Alene Indian and he now writes everything from the point of view from his heritage. I read the poem first and then read the brief biography of the author. I found that after reading the biography, I had a much better understanding and more clear and concise grasp of where the author was coming from when he wrote. In analyzing this poem, it seemed that Sherman Alexie was very angry with the white man. He expresses this throughout the poem, but shows the woman who speaks of Walden Pond respect. Sherman appears to only show her respect and continued to listen to the woman described in his words close to the end of the poem, because of her age, he states very pointedly that “I respect elders of every color” indicating to me the woman who was speaking of Walden Pond to him was in fact an elder. Though he was respectful to her, he shared his frustration and ill feelings in many different ways from beginning to end. In the second stanza he states that he “learned little more about American history” during his few days back east but really it seemed as though he could care less in knowing more. He expresses that everyone...
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...Is a life lost when kept within boundaries? For Sherman Alexie the answer is yes. He is a Spokane Indian and also a prominent writer. He is the author of “Superman and Me” a short essay first published in Los Angeles Times, April 19 1998, as part of the series “The Joy of Reading and Writing”. In this piece Alexie describes how he taught himself how to read at the age of three and how he manage to literally read his way out of the reservation in which he grew up. By narrating his own story, he illustrates how few were the chances for him as well as for all young Indians in a reservation to succeed in life, not only because of poverty or because of the limited school system, but more precisely because of the mental barriers Indians have imposed themselves when exposed to the challenges of the Non-Indian society. In contrast to this panorama, and against all statistics and predictions, Alexie succeeded and he states his success in life to inspire other Indians to undertake the challenge. His passion for reading and pursuit of knowledge would become the driving force that would take him beyond the confines of his cultural heritage and into a successful career as a writer, and it is with this passion that he wants to inspire the new generations of Indians. Alexie writes this statement for all young writers. He speaks to them with conviction; he deeply believes reading makes the mind explore different worlds and hence it makes the reader want to explore what is beyond his own world...
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...Great decisions come with great thought and time. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior had a dilemma that would ultimately affect his life. Although, the pressure was building up Junior made the right decision to leave the Rez and attend Reardan because of the environment and the opportunity to grow and prosper. There was a greater opportunity for growth in Reardan mostly because of their white middle-class population.According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 9.2% of Native Americans ages 12 and older were current heavy alcohol users, the highest rate of any ethnic group (Hanes 1) while at Reardan a typical middle-class neighborhood almost “more than half of the graduating class...
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...“I grew up not being accepted by society for a long time due to having an accent, I wasn’t aware of the standards society sets for people with different backgrounds, Sherman Alexie and Nancy Mairs made me realize that there are indeed certain standards and norms society expect of you. I believe Sherman Alexie’s and Nancy Mairs essays are comparable because they both talk about what in their cases was acceptable by society and how they refused to be like everybody else. In Alexie’s and Mairs essays, I understand that they both have the same message I believe they both try to encourage and motivate people to break out of that stereotype and to make them understand it is ok to be different. Both talk about how they were expected to be and how they wouldn’t let anyone “non-Indians” as Sherman Alexie wrote or anything the disease multiple sclerosis in Nancy Mairs case defeat them. Mairs and Alexie both state in their essays that due to their background or circumstances society had clear expectations of them. They also both agree that if you were different from the “rest” you were often not accepted or you would have it harder than the average “normal” person. Nancy Mairs writes “In our society, anyone who deviates from the norm had better find some way to compensate.” (Nancy Mairs 18) In a very similar way Sherman Alexie writes “As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and appropriately pitied...
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...The Absolutely True Diary of Part-Time Indian: a Journey of Hope “There is another world, but it is in this one” (W.B Yeats), this is how Sherman Alexie managed to begin the journey of his eye-opening novel, The Absolutely True Dairy of Part-time Indian. It is a magnificent story of overcoming the obstacles of being an Indian teenager while stepping outside of the reservation world and striving for better opportunities in the world. Junior, who carries the Native American blood in his roots, gives an insight into Native American culture, encompassing all of its sacred and astonishing details. Through Junior’s experience and between the storylines, various aspects of the Spokane Indians community are revealed, such as poverty, alcoholism, and kinship that make the novel stand as an unique Indian literature piece. Poverty is a never-ending cycle influencing almost every dimension of the Spokane community. This devastating aspect of poverty appears throughout the novel in different shapes and forms. It is not only about the lack of material possessions or money; rather it is about how poverty crushes the dreams to achieve their goals. Unlike some life-threatening situations, that can teach one something beneficial to survive during the journey of life, poverty teach none of these things. As stated by Junior, “Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor” (13). In fact, poverty on the reservation is an inherited...
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...Sherman Alexie’s, “This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”, is about a young man going on a journey to retrieve his dead father’s ashes. Throughout the entire story there is sadness, loneliness, and sorrow. The story begins with the main character, Victor, losing his job and soon afterward finding out his father just died of a heart attack. Victor is unable to travel to Phoenix, Arizona to retrieve his father’s ashes due to the inability to fund the trip. Thomas, a childhood friend, lends Victor money for the trip but only if Victor will let him go on the journey. Victor isn’t really excited for the trip that they will be taking but the only thing getting him through it is the money he will inherit from his dad. The personal hurricanes that Victor goes through are brought up from the beginning of the story. “Victor hadn’t seen his father in a few years, only talked to him on the telephone once or twice; but there was a genetic pain, which was soon to be pain as real and immediate as a broken bone (page #).” The pain Victor has is on a more personal level but is also a pain that is personal because of a broken relationship and the loss of an important person in his life. Although Victor did not have much of a relationship with his father and also with Thomas, part of the trip to Phoenix involves Thomas telling stories of his experiences with Victor’s father. This creates new tales and frames Thomas’ flashbacks. The flashbacks provide information on the characters...
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