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.
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