Rough Essay 3

Before you read you should know that I know I repeat a lot in this rough draft could not find the right words. Hopefully within the next week those words will come to me. Thanks

Roles of Forgiveness

Smoke Signals a movie we all have seen about two Native American’s journey to Arizona. On the way to Arizona and back Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph show all kinds of emotion, but one emotion stands out from the rest, forgiveness. Forgiveness plays an important and huge role in Smoke Signals from seeing characters grow to moving the story along. Starting with Thomas Builds-the-Fire the local storyteller, who mixes fact with fiction to make his stories.

Thomas a person who loves to tell stories but not everyone wants to listen especially when they are the same and are not quite true, which never stops Thomas from telling stories or what’s on his mind. This characteristic of telling what’s on his mind gets Thomas into trouble with Victor. Thomas always tells Victor what is on his mind, which gets Victor mad ending up in Thomas getting hurt. Even though this happen Thomas still sees Victor as a friend because he forgives Victor for his actions. The reason for the forgiveness is Thomas understands Victor and knows they both have had hard lives. This forgiveness Thomas has also goes for Arnold Victor’s father, Arnold who killed Thomas’s parents. Even something so terrible Thomas forgives Arnold and still sees him as a father figure and good person unlike Victor.

Victor the tough Native American, a character who is affected the most by the role forgiveness plays in the movie. Most importantly with his father Arnold, Victor does not see Arnold as his father anymore when Arnold leaves the reservation. When Arnold leaves the only events Victor remembers of Arnold are the unpleasant ones. Victor really shows that he does not like Arnold even to the point of hating everything about Arnold. This of course changes on the journey to and from Arizona with the help of forgiving a form of forgiveness. Victor comes to terms with Arnold in the end forgiving what Arnold for what he had done.

Victor’s enlightenment coming mainly from Suzy retelling Arnold’s happy memories from the reservation. Suzy helps Victor see that Arnold was trying to get forgiveness from the people he had hurt. This all comes full circle when Suzy reveals Arnold as the person who set the fire many years ago. Something Victor had no idea of as well as the reservation. With this news Victor is able to come closer to understand Arnold’s actions. Forgiveness is finally achieved by Arnold from Victor as Victor comes closer to understanding him. This in turn Thomas, who has always had forgiveness for Victor, is finally return back. Thomas the person who always initiated the conversation between him and Victor is repaid by the role forgiveness plays on Victor. Victor the person, who was always a bit mean or more to Thomas, shows Thomas a kinder side of himself; by giving Thomas some of Arnold’s ashes. This is done in part the forgiveness Victor finds with Arnold and Thomas being a friend. With roles of forgiveness played out by main characters, the story it self has forgiveness woven in.

Smoke Signals base story has forgiveness written in. A great example would be Suzy burning Arnold’s trailer at the same time at the same time Arnold’s pickup roars to life for Victor. This symbolizes Victor forgiving Arnold and knowing Arnold did care for him. This is one of many examples in Smoke Signals were forgiveness is not far off if not already there. So you can be sure there are many roles of forgiveness in Smoke Signal.