Character Analysis Of Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals follows two young Native Americans, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who must journey far from their home to retrieve the remnants of Arnold Joseph – the father of Victor and rescuer of Thomas. Victor is an ornery, resentful youth who constantly berates others including Thomas; he has deep trust issues and views the world in a cynical manner. Meanwhile, Thomas is inquisitive and enjoys partaking in the oral tradition by incessantly delivering tales to anyone. While dead for most of the film, Arnold is pivotal character. As deeply troubled man, Arnold was an alcoholic and physically abused his wife and son despite the love he had for them. Coming in later in the film, Suzy Song is young Indian woman from a different tribe …show more content…
Despite being in the United States, the reservation is seen as separate since it is ostensibly sovereign land. Velma and Lucy reveal this view when they ask Thomas and Victor whether or not they have their passports. Thomas questions why they would need them to which they respond by stating that America is “a whole different country” and “as foreign as it gets.” Similarly, the Natives of the movie show some contempt or disregard towards the white man. This can be seen from start of the movie as Thomas denotes the Fourth of July as the day of the white man’s independence. Later, an uneasiness can be observed between the two young Indians and the white people they travel with on the bus. At one point, their seats are commandeered by some older white men who refuse to return them. Thomas states “the cowboys always win” alluding to the old game of Indians and cowboys. When they begin to travel on foot towards Arnold’s home, Thomas relates few occasions on which the white man has forced Indians to “travel” beginning with the arrival of Columbus. Arnold himself tells Victor, in one of the flashbacks, that he’d make the white people disappear sending them “back to where they …show more content…
This is most evidently shown by Arlene Joseph who explains to Victor that she has had help with making the best fry bread; the people she directly refers to are other women. However, this is not overt and is the only real example of any gender roles in the film. Conversely, there are abundant examples of the society being egalitarian in terms of gender with a number of activities being shown to be gender neutral. First of all, one of the few people shown working on the reservation is a woman who runs the general store on the reservation. Victor goes to said store to cash a check and has no qualms doing business with her. Thus, it is more probable that the reservation has a flexible or integrated division of labor rather than a dual sex configuration. In a similar fashion, aside from Arnold Joseph, only one person is shown driving on the reservation: Lucy. She drives a red car, which is perpetually in reverse, and gives the protagonists a ride to the bus stop. Neither Victor nor Thomas seem to care that she is a woman driving. In one of the flashbacks, there is a party at the Joseph’s house in which men and women revel together rather than divided by gender. Additionally, Arlene and the other women that appeared in the scene were drinking as much the men suggesting it is perfectly acceptable for women to imbibe in alcohol in this culture.