Smoke Signal's Importance Of Story Telling

Smoke Signals: The Importance of Story Telling Most of us are familiar with storytelling, being told stories throughout our lives. Story telling plays a huge role in Native American culture. Stories are told within households and communities to richen the relations and bonds between people. In Sherman Alexie’s film Smoke Signals, stories are used to show relationships between Suzy Song, Victor Builds-The-Fire, and Thomas Joseph which is illustrated in the stories shared between them. In the movie Smoke Signals during an accidental house fire, Arnold Joseph, an Indian man, saves a baby boy named Thomas. Arnold had a son of his own named Victor who was also saved from the flames. As the two boys grew older, Arnold took Thomas under his …show more content…
Stories are also used to insight readers on the relations between characters. Within the film, they are shared quite often. In fact the opening story of the house fire shows the beginning of the relationship between Thomas and Arnold, by the telling of Arnold saving Thomas’ life. Throughout the movie, Thomas shares stories with Victor about his dad. Some including times where he himself had bonded with Victor’s father. All of these stories embraced the fact that Thomas and Arnold had a good relationship, and hinted that Arnold had taken Thomas under his wing. Flashbacks of Thomas and Victor also showed their relationship and how they viewed each other. From the flashbacks you could tell that Victor was more of the traditional Indian rather than Thomas, who wore a suit and wore his hair in braids. The “traditional” Indian wore “modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths... and they only wear fancy traditional regalia on special occasions like a wedding or a dance” (Coeur D 'Alene Indian Fact Sheet). You could also sense that Victor was more of a role model to Thomas. An example of this would be when Thomas told him, “Hey Victor! I remember the time your father took me to Denny 's, and I had the Grand Slam Breakfast. Two eggs, two pancakes, a glass of milk, and of course my favorite, the bacon. Some days, it 's a good day to die. And some days, it 's a good day to have breakfast” (Smoke Signals). When Victor and Thomas arrive to pick up Arnold’s ashes, they meet a woman named Suzy who tells them stories of what Arnold was really like. To Victor, the stories she told seemed make belief, but in the end finally accepted them as being reality. Suzy told them about how Arnold had missed his son and wife and regretted leaving them back home. This changed the way Victor imagined his