Smoke Signals Rough Draft

Forgiveness is a very powerful and relieving feeling.  When you feel you have been abused and abandoned you will carry around a lot of anger and hostility towards life.  Talking it out plays a huge role in healing.  Healing is the only way to achieve happiness.  A young child can only take the blame for his father leaving the home and not ever returning.  In turn, he carries around a lot of pain, hostility and anger.  His feelings are taken out on another child that lives on the Indian reservation. When the child can forgive his father, he then can become a better person and treat others around him with dignity and respect.  Another child taking abuse from the child that was abused continually forgives his friend that he truly admires.  No matter how bad he is treated, he will do anything to be his friend.

Victor’s father would hit him when he was drunk.  He was very abusive to him and his mother.  Both of his parents would argue all the time.  The movie “Smoke Signal” shows Victor’s father, Arnold hugging Victor and leaving, never to see his father again.  Victor may have felt as if it was his fault that his dad left.  Victor carried a lot of anger around with him.  A boy left without his father is very hard on a young child.  He then in turn took all his frustration, hatred and anger out on Thomas.  Thomas lost both of his parents due to a fire and looked at Victor for friendship no matter how horrible Victor treated him.

Victor allowed Thomas to go with him to get his father’s ashes.  When they showed up at his father’s house, a friend named Suzie approached them with Arnold’s ashes in hand.  At this point, Victor was able to talk about his hurt and frustration of his father’s actions.  He felt comfortable talking with her about how hurtful it was to have lived without his father.  Suzie reassured Victor that his father talked and thought about him every day.  This is when Victor felt a sense of relief and compassion for his father.  I believe this made Victor realize it wasn’t his fault and that his father loved him very much.  I can’t imagine the sense of relief he felt after all these years of holding all that in.

When Victor and Thomas are younger, Victor beats Thomas up for no reason.  Victor has a lot of built of anger from his dad beating him and leaving him and his mom.  I believe all the built up anger that Victor had, he took it out on Thomas.  Thomas always looked up to Victor and wanted so badly to be his friend.  I believe Victor separated himself from the world.  Thomas tried so hard to become Victor’s friend.  The movie shows how they are riding bikes and hanging out together as kids on the Indian Reservation.  Thomas says something that sets Victor off.  Victor starts beating up Thomas and if it hadn’t been broken up by an adult, it could have been very bad.  Thomas forgave Victor and decided to go on a road trip with Victor to obtain his father’s ashes.  Thomas put all those mean things Victor said behind him and insisted on traveling with him to get his father. Victor continually put Thomas down about how he didn’t dress like a real Indian.  Eventually, Thomas went and bought some clothes that were Indian suitable (up to Thomas’s) standards.  Thomas told all sorts of stories that people couldn’t understand usually and Victor would tell him nobody cares and nobody is listening.  Victor asks Thomas “why do you tell such stupid stories that nobody understands?” Victor acted mean throughout most of the movie to Thomas.  I believe he took all his anger he felt for his father out on Thomas. 

The power of forgiveness is a beautiful thing.  It’s a very strong sense of relief.  It can be a difficult thing to achieve but in life you must forgive to become a better and stronger person.  We all make mistakes in life but it’s also a learning experience.  This movie “Smoke Signals” had a lot of scenes where forgiveness was a key factor.  Carrying around all that anger makes you a miserable person and when you can accomplish forgiveness you are a much happier person and treat people a lot better than when you are angry and miserable.