Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals is a film directed by Chris Eyre, that is about Indians and is, also, created by Indians. It is based off of stories in a book called The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, who also served as the screenwriter for the movie. Sherman Alexie is a Native American himself and experienced a tough childhood, which he managed to get through with humor.

The setting of the movie is Idaho at the Coeur d'Alene reservation in 1998. The film is about two Indian boys of the same age, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Victor is the more popular, stubborn, and serious of the two. Thomas is the opposite in the sense that he is the nerdy, story-telling type of person. Thomas is very spiritual and he's been raised by his grandmother, because his parents died in a fire that Arnold Joseph, Victor's father, saved him from. Arnold Joseph was an alcoholic and actually started the fire that he saved him from. They were having a Fourth of July party and he set off a firework while he was drunk and it flew into the house, causing the fire. Thomas' parents died and Arnold was able to save him and hand him over to his grandmother. The guilt was too much for him to handle and he cut off his long hair because of it. Arnold's alcoholism caused him to lose everything about eight years later when he argued with his wife and left the reservation. Victor never saw his father again. Then, about ten years later his mother got a phone call from Phoenix, Arizona from a woman calling to inform her that her husband was dead. This is when Victor and Thomas make their journey from Idaho to Arizona to gather his father's ashes and truck, however, when they arrive, Victor gathers more than just ashes and a truck.

Victor and Thomas produce a friendship through their journey to Phoenix. Back at the reservation, Victor was mean to Thomas and bullied him in a way. Meanwhile, Thomas was always kind to him and showed concern for Victor when his father left him and when he died. He even offered to help pay for him to go to Phoenix as long as he would take him along. At first, Victor didn't want this at all and then he changed his mind about it, because he needed the money. Through taking this journey together, Victor came to realize that Thomas was a true friend to him. Thomas was a story-teller and he enjoyed just going on and on telling stories about Arnold, but most of the time, Victor claimed they were untrue. Perhaps Thomas was trying to make Victor see a better side of his father that he hadn't seen before.

Victor spent most of his life with a growing hatred towards his father for leaving him and his mother behind. Through taking this journey with Thomas, he came to realize his father was not the terrible guy he thought he was. He, also, had many flashbacks of moments he had with his father when he was young. These flashbacks served as the memories he had of his father. When he arrived at his father's trailer in Phoenix, he spoke to Suzy, the woman that informed his mother about his father passing. Victor found many truths about his father from Suzy, including the fact that his father went into the fire to save him when he was a baby. Victor did not think that his father went to save him. He thought that he only tried to save Thomas.  

The lesson that the film served to teach it's viewers is that we should forgive our fathers. In the end of the film, Thomas' last speech consists of a poem by Dick Laurie. The poem is called "Forgiving Our Fathers."

"Forgiving Our Fathers"

How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream.

Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often,
or forever,
when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage,
or for making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all?

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying,
or not marrying,
our mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses
of warmth
or coldness?

Shall we forgive them
for pushing
or leaning?

For shutting doors?
For speaking through walls?

Or never speaking?
Or never being silent?

Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs?

Or in their deaths,
saying it to them,
or not saying it?

Thomas says a version of this poem at the end of the film. This serves to represent the lesson that viewers take away from the movie. The last thing Thomas says is "If we forgive our fathers, what is left?" I think that Thomas was an important character to the film, because he was there to help Victor see that he should forgive his father, because overall he was not the man that he thought he was. Thomas serves as his conscience throughout the movie in the sense that he is slowly convincing Victor that he should forgive his father for the things he has done. Dick Laurie's poem provides a strong meaning to the end of the film. It tells viewers that our fathers may have done terrible things throughout our lives, but we should always forgive them. Sometimes we don't have all of the facts and just assume that they didn't do it for a good reason, when they very well could have.

   

"My Name" by Sandra Cisneros

"My Name" by Sandra Cisneros, a part of House on Mango Street, has a very strong message. The speaker, Esperanza, does not feel that her name suits her personality. She explains that she has inherited her name from her great-grandmother and gives a description of what she was like. Then, she describes how she does not want to have the same fate as her great-grandmother. She, also, goes on to explain that at school no one pronounces her name properly. She has a strong jealousy towards her sister, Magdalena, because she, at least, has a nickname, while she is always Esperanza. She will do anything to change her name and feel more like herself.

Esperanza is Mexican-American. She desires a more Americanized name. She has inherited her name from her great-grandmother, who was a lot like her. She is described as a "wild, horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry." For this reason, Esperanza would have liked to have met her. "Horse woman" is referring to the Chinese year of the horse. People born in the year of the horse tend to be extremely independent and confident. She, also, mentions that it is "bad luck if you're born female" in the year of the horse and she believes that this is a "Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong." Mexican men want a woman who is going to be their trophy and do as they are told. They want their women to be obedient and quiet. They don't expect them to express their opinions or go against their husbands. Esperanza's great-grandmother did not want this life either, until her "great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier." This represents the way that women were treated by men. The comparison of her having a sack thrown over her head and carried away like "a fancy chandelier" shows that women were treated as if they were objects. A chandelier is proper and decorative. It is something that is there for decoration and not utilized. This is what men expected of their women.

Esperanza did not wish to be named after her great-grandmother because of what she went through. She feels that since she has her great-grandmother's name, she will face the same fate as her. She wants to be different and she wants to be herself. She doesn't want to follow in her great-grandmother's footsteps, because she doesn't approve of her fate. In the fourth stanza, she says, "And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow." The window could represent her way out of the life that she is stuck in. Her great-grandmother was looking out the window, out of her life, and into the world she could have made it in. She wonders about whether she made the best out of her life or if she was sorry that she never became everything that she wanted to become. Then, she states, "Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window." Esperanza feels that her great-grandmother just watched her life go by and was unable to do the things she wanted to do. When she says, "I don't want to inherit her place by the window," she means that she doesn't want to live the same life as her. She wants to live her life the way that she wants. Her name has a huge impact on the person that she will become, so she wants her own name. She wants a name that she can relate to.

In the fifth stanza, Esperanza discusses the fact that in school people cannot pronounce her name properly. She says, "At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver." She seems to like the sound of her name in Spanish, but dislike the sound of it in English, because of the mispronunciation. She goes on to explain how her sister's name, Magdalena, is not as pretty as hers however, she is jealous of her name at the same time, because her sister has a nickname while she does not. She says that Magdalena "can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza." This part of the poem explains another part of the reason that she does not like her name.

Esperanza does not like what her name represents when it comes to where her name came from, her great-grandmother, and what her fate was. She, also, does not like it because of the issue with mispronunciations in school. Another reason is for the fact that she cannot even come home and be called something else, like a nickname.

In the last stanza, Esperanza discusses the idea of baptizing herself under a new name. She comes up with suggestions to replace Esperanza. Her name is a representation of who she is as a person. So, she wants a name that she can call her own and feel like herself with. Baptism is reference to a new birth or rebirth in a sense, so when Esperanza says she would like to baptize herself, she means she wants to recreate herself under a better suited name for herself. She throws around some names, like Lisandra or Maritza or Zeze the X. Zeze the X is her favorite one, because she goes on to say "Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do." Zeze is a very simple name. It could very well be American and it is easy to say. When she says Zeze the X, this makes the reader wonder what the "X" could represent. When I think of the letter "X," I think of algebra problems and how you usually need to solve the problem for x. Esperanza wants a name, like Zeze the X, because it makes her a little bit mysterious. It makes you wonder, what the "X" could represent. "X" could represent anything about her. It could be her future profession, a characteristic about her, or it could be there just for people to interpret about her. Esperanza desires the ability to be anything she wants to be. She does not intend to have a set future, she wants to live her life and live it the way she chooses.

Sandra Cisneros