Character Bonding in the Movie Smoke Signals

This movie about how a young man finds out his father has passed but in order to collect his belongings, he must leave the reservation. Victor, the main character he shares his flashbacks on how his father used to treat him and his mother when he was younger. Joining along on the journey to keep Victor company is Thomas. Thomas tries to help make Victor feel better by telling him stories about his dad but Victor just ignores him and thinks about his own memories he had before his dad left him.

The role of storytelling in Smoke Signals was used as a defense mechanism and a bonding technique. It helped them both keep busy and ignore the fact that they are on the way to pick up Arnold’s ashes. Storytelling in the movie is a known thing, people in the reservation pass down stories to others. It was entertainment other than watching movies or reading a book. Sitting down at a party with family and friends, telling one by one stories either they make up or from their past.

In this case, Thomas was known all over the reservation for his clever tales. In the movie, that is how he connects with people on a one to one basis. It is his way of socializing with everyone. Unlike Victor, the only storytelling he would say were about him and his dad. In the film, it is the storytelling in his head. That is what we refer it to as his flashbacks. They control and cross examine accounts all through the film, a component that is intriguing in itself, however it goes up against more prominent criticalness given how as often Native American individuals have been stereotyped and quieted on film.

Thomas was able to catch himself and Victor a ride to the bus stop by trading a story about Arnold's hostile to Vietnam activism to two ladies from the reservation. He becomes a close acquaintance with a gymnast on the transport by letting her disclose to him her story, and he swaps stories with Suzy Song, a modern companion of Arnold's.

It shows to you how in the reservation they did things. They would ask for stories and especially in this case Thomas, he’s the well-known ones, he gave them a good story. They tend to trade stories for favors at times. It became a constant thing, when they would either be with friends or just himself and Victor. The plot of Smoke Signals is meager, truly. Essentially, the boys get on a transport, go get a dead man's belongings and then backpedal home. There isn't much as far as activity. The story is all inside the characters, that is the place the genuine trip happens. Furthermore, the fuel of the excursion is the characters' connection to each other and to each other's stories. Nothing magical occurs in this film, yet this film is filled with it. It's about the dreamlike, that split amongst certainties and their actual importance.

That place where certainties and implications covers, where at various times, and where they are only somewhat out of match up, sufficiently only to give you a chance to see the past. This is a storyteller's point of view. This is the moment where this is between past and present. All through the film, stories from the past cuts in on the story we're following at the moment. Sometimes we see grown-up Victor on screen together with younger Victor and this makes a cover of stories and a layering of truths and meanings, a blending of substances that winds up plainly surreal.

Sometimes people tell stories in a different way to not hid the lies but to give you a good memory and though about it. An example would be that Arnold would tell the story about Victor when he was younger playing in a basketball game and he shot the winning point. Suzy ends up telling Victor and Thomas about it, Victor stops her and tells her that it was a lie. Arnold wanted to have that memory of his son happy and there was a joyous time in their life. Even though it was a lie and Victor’s team lost.

Everybody lies, it is normal. To cover something even if it is not a big deal but in this case Arnold wanted to talk about Victor to Suzy even if it was a lie and it did not end up like that.