Smoke Signals the Film Smoke Term Paper

As such, despite the fact that he is a likable character - certainly the "popular" type, who is good at sports, attractive, and with a good sense of humor - he also has certain flaws that are rooted in his sense of abandonment. It is clear that he never really got over his father leaving him and his mother when he was so young. He had to grow up without having any further contact with his father, and he clearly feels that as a major absence in his life.

At the same time, Thomas has had to grow up as an orphan - both of his parents died before he even got a chance to know them. This may explain why, in certain moments of the film, Thomas appears to be insensitive towards Victor on the subject of his father. As Thomas never had any strong feelings towards his own father, never having known him, it is difficult to understand Victor's complex feelings towards his lost father.The feelings of both young men are compounded by the fact that they are Native American Indians. At an important moment halfway through the film, when the two young men are on a bus to Arizona, Victor makes front of Thomas for not knowing how to be a "real" Indian. At the same time, as young men growing up on an isolated Indian reservation in the 1990s, it is understandable how they might have an identity crisis. By the end of the film, it becomes apparent that the only way to maintain an authentic Indian identity is by holding on to your memories of the past - and making peace with those memories when they are not so pleasant......