...October 26, 2013 There are several things that are important about the line, “He didn’t mean to Thomas,” that Victor speaks in the movie, “Smoke Signals.” The first thing that needs to be discussed is the fact that when this statement was made, Thomas and Victor had just returned to the Reservation from a trip to Arizona to retrieve the belongings of Victor’s father who had just passed away. This seems normal, but in fact, it was the last thing Victor wanted to do. You see, Victors father left the family years before he passed away when Victor was a young boy. This, coupled with the fact that Victor’s father was an alcoholic, was abusive to his wife and to Victor, left Victor with extreme anger issues towards his father on the one hand, yet on the other hand, a love that he kept inside of himself for his father also. Native American culture has many things passed along through the oral tradition of story telling. The story of what happened when Victor and Thomas were babies is a story that has been told over and over. Victor’s father was a hero; he saved Thomas’s life when, as an infant he was thrown from a burning house. To most people he was a great hero although Victor did not see his father as a hero, only as a drunk, and as abusive. While in Arizona getting his fathers belongings, Victor found out many stories about his father that he was unaware of. He did not know that his father had saved not only Thomas, but also Victor. He did not...
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...Leslie Marmon Silko Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer - I climb the black rock mountains stepping from day to day silently. I smell the wind for my ancestors pale blue leaves crushed wild mountain smell. Returning up the gray stone cliff where I descended a thousand years ago. Returning to faded black stone. where mountain lion lay down with deer. It is better to stay up here watching wind's reflection in tall yellow flowers. The old ones who remembered me are gone the old songs are all forgotten and the story of my birth How I danced in snow- frost moonlight distant stars to the end of the Earth, How I swam away in freezing mountain water narrow mossy canyon tumbling down out of the mountain out of the deep canyon stone down the memory spilling out into the world Adrienne Rich Living in Sin She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love. Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat stalking the picturesque amusing mouse had risen at his urging. Not that at five each separate stair would writhe under the milkman's tramp; that morning light so coldly would delineate the scraps of last night's cheese and three sepulchral bottles; that on the kitchen shelf amoong the saucers a pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own-- ...
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...Alex Narvais English 1302 Professor Hawley 2/10/13 Love and Time Shakespeare’s uses three of his poems to describe love and the passage of time. Sonnets twelve, sixty-four, and seventy-three all share this meaning by Shakespeare. Love comes in to play by explaining to “love well” cause time is not endless. Each poem has its own different plot on time and love. Sonnet sixty-four deals with the speaker telling his loved one that time will soon take them from each other. In Sonnet twelve the speaker is preaching that the only way to defeat time is to procreate. Finally, in Sonnet seventy-three an old man is reflecting on his past life and telling it to a younger man, hoping the young man will understand how quick life goes. The poems all start off with the speakers explaining what they have seen or have been through over their lives. The beginnings to the poems are very emotional and serious. They all use interesting word choice to describe how quick time has gone by. Sonnet twelve begins “When I do count the clock that tells the time, / And see the brave day suck in hideous night (Shakespeare, 1-2).” The word clock was used to explain how the speaker has watched time pass and night fall as his life has gone by so quickly. Sonnet seventy-three begins “ That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang (Shakespeare, 1-2).” The words behold and hand describe that the speaker is describing his life like the season autumn. The speaker...
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...The film Smoke Signals began on the bicentennial fourth of July in 1976 in the Coeur D’Alene Indian reservation in Idaho. A fire at the house of Matty and John Builds-the-Fire was the how the lives of two Native American infants, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, first became intertwined. The road trip to Phoenix, Arizona occurred after Arnold Joseph had died and Victor was sent to retrieve his father’s ashes. Throughout the film, director Chris Eyre used symbolism, such as fire, ashes, and the names of characters to illustrate the journey of self-discovery for two long-time childhood Native American Indians. The film, Smoke Signals, started out with a house engulfed in flames on the bicentennial Fourth of July celebration in 1976....
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...In Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals, nature is used metaphorically to show accusation and forgiveness. Near the end of the movie, Susie burns down Arnold’s trailer. While the movie was showing how Victor, Thomas, and Susie have advanced with their lives after Arnold’s death, Susie burned down Arnold’s trailer as a way of moving on. The fire is a symbol of Victor’s forgiveness and the ability for Arnold to move on from his place of death, the fire also represents a clean start for Victor since all was forgiven on what Arnold did and his actions. Smoke Signals begins with Thomas telling a story of his parents’ passing and his and Victor’s association. “You know, there are some children who aren’t really children at all. They’re just pillars of...
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...really are. Today, Native Americans struggle to fit into the mold of behavior and appearance that Hollywood has constructed for them. In “Smoke Signals”,a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, and later a film by Chris Eyre, two youths, Victor and Thomas, must journey to Phoenix Arizona to retrieve the ashes of Arnold, the father of Victor who left him and his mother years earlier. The journey of these two young men is, in a way, a metaphor for the identity search. Though “Smoke Signals” is a road movie, as claimed by...
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... In the collection of short stories "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist fight in Heaven" Sherman Alexie writes about the importance of songs and stories in the lives of the people on the reservation through drug induced visions, the character of Thomas Builds-A-Fire, Jimi Hendrix's music, and basketball players on the reservation. In the short story a drug called tradition the main character, Victor, and his two friends Thomas Builds-a-Fire and Junior take drugs that give them visions of themselves in strange historical Indian settings. The stories they tell of these visions relate to Indian culture and tradition. Junior has a vision of Thomas performing a dance around a campfire that brings back all the dead Indians. Victor has a vision of Junior singing. Both visions include real things from history, end with the idea of the Indians winning and/or driving out the white people, and use music or dance to show this. This shows their views on white peoples versus Indians as well as giving a look into their culture. Thomas tells to stories of his visions, both of which have to do with proving one’s worth and becoming a man through Indian tradition. In his second story he says that the boys are trying to be “real Indians tonight” (p.20) through drugs and the like. It is a way of showing how things have changed and in the modern world you can no longer do things like steal a horse as your rite of passage so instead these visions are a personal way to keep the traditions alive...
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...Submit your text hIn the book, An Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie it talks about a young boy named Junior who lives on the Spokane Reservation. On the reservation, the only thing Indians do is drink and try to forget about the dreams they never achieved. Junior believes that he shares the same fate as everyone else. But Junior decides that he wants to succeed in life, he wants to go beyond staying at the reservation in his parents' home to be left alone with only two things, alcohol and the regret of knowing he didn't do anything great in life. Instead, he tries to understand the world with cartoons and wishes to be the first to truly follow their dreams in life. Junior is the only survivor of leaving the reservation, he knows he doesn’t have to feel helpless and trapped anymore. Junior is a survivor of doing what Indians thought could only be done if you were white. All "Indian families [stuck] together like Gorilla Glue," (89) and no one left the reservation. But at Wellpinit Mr. P talked to Junior about leaving the reservation. He (Mr. P) had told him that he was "going to find more and more hope the farther and farther [he walked] away from [the] sad, sad, sad reservation," (43). After, he began to really think about what he was going to do to rewrite his fate. On the walk home, he found a solution to this problem, he was going to attend Rearden Middle School, "one of the best small schools in the state," (46). When he had talked to his parents...
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...Arnold is the misfit Native American teenager outcast that just wants to find his place in the world. In the novel, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, Arnold discovers his true self by trekking his way through a series of challenging events. He breaks stereotypes by coming to realize the struggles of an alcoholic, addictive lifestyle and in the process, finds himself. There are three hundred and thirty six reservations in America. One of the biggest difficulties each reservation faces is addiction. Arnold, as well as many others on these reservations come across the reality of this, in their own homes. The stem of alcoholism among Native Americans can be one of many things, including hurt being passed down among generations and generations. Native Americans have lived in America for years and years, even so, they have experienced so much hurt in history. They have experienced unfair treatment by white settlers, including being taken away from their homes to be put into boarding schools and being kicked off of their own land. This happened because in the early centuries racism existed, racism still exists in modern days as well but not to the extreme that was shown back then. Racism occurred mostly among colored people. This was the belief that white skin was superior to darker skin like African Americans and Native Americans, and they were shamed for it because they weren't accustomed to white skins lifestyle. Because Native Americans...
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...Once, there was a boy named Arnold Spirit who lived on the Spokane Reservation and he wanted the luxury that most people had. Arnold wanted a better life for himself because of the deaths of people around him, he was going to live in a world that might not be at his favor to achieve his goal. In the Absolute True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Sherman Alexie explains how Arnold wanted to explore the world and move around more, he decides to transfer to Reardan High School and leave Wellpinit High School, because of his actions, he resembled the traits of a Nomadic Indian, which were the need to travel and ambition. Transferring from Wellpinit to Reardan made Arnold more of an old type of indian, which made him more unique with the hope he had in himself to be nomadic and explore new places while other Indians had given up on themselves. Travelling from Wellpinit to Reardan made Arnold an old type of Indian, a Nomadic Indian, with hope. Junior's journey away from the reservation transformed him into an old time Nomadic Indian. "You're going to find more and more hope," Mr. P explains, "the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation" (43). Mr. P is explaining to Arnold that the only way he will find hope, which is the virtue he is grappling onto, is if he travels far away from the Spokane reservation to find another place where others who demonstrate hope. After getting a book thrown at his face, Mr. P confessed his wrongs that he did in the past to...
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...In the book The Absolutley True Diary of a Part-Time Indian it’s very common on Junior’s reservation for people to give up on their dreams. But it seems like Junior is a exception to that trend. It seems like he will succeed and in the book you can see examples of qualities that Junior has that will correlate into success in his life. Some of the internal qualities Junior has that will help him in his road to success are he is true to himself, he is truthful, and he lives his dreams. Junior is a authentic kid he always is himself and he doesn’t lie to Rowdy when he makes the decison to leave the reservation to go to Reardan he tells him he is going when he easily could have avoided Rowdy from that point on but he is a truthful person so...
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...Indians have been stereotyped and discriminated by many for abusing alcohol, so people don’t believe they can achieve anything. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is a young adult book about a boy named Junior who decides to leave the reservation to attend an all white school to better his education. This book has been challenged quite frequently, but it has not been banned as often. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian should not be banned because Junior shows humor, determination, and criticism from others. The main character Junior likes to use a great deal of humor because he likes to make life enjoyable. On the first day of high school Junior was in Geometry class and he starts to talk about...
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...Close Reading of a Poem Jason Mobley ENG/125 Oct 26th, 015 Dr. K Close Reading of a Poem “On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City”, is the poem that spoke to me most, of all the poems we went through and read. I found that I could relate to his anger of not being heard or even acknowledged for his history in the America’s. Sherman Alexie is a Spokane Coeur d’Alene Indian and he now writes everything from the point of view from his heritage. I read the poem first and then read the brief biography of the author. I found that after reading the biography, I had a much better understanding and more clear and concise grasp of where the author was coming from when he wrote. In analyzing this poem, it seemed that Sherman Alexie was very angry with the white man. He expresses this throughout the poem, but shows the woman who speaks of Walden Pond respect. Sherman appears to only show her respect and continued to listen to the woman described in his words close to the end of the poem, because of her age, he states very pointedly that “I respect elders of every color” indicating to me the woman who was speaking of Walden Pond to him was in fact an elder. Though he was respectful to her, he shared his frustration and ill feelings in many different ways from beginning to end. In the second stanza he states that he “learned little more about American history” during his few days back east but really it seemed as though he could care less in knowing more. He expresses that everyone...
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...Is a life lost when kept within boundaries? For Sherman Alexie the answer is yes. He is a Spokane Indian and also a prominent writer. He is the author of “Superman and Me” a short essay first published in Los Angeles Times, April 19 1998, as part of the series “The Joy of Reading and Writing”. In this piece Alexie describes how he taught himself how to read at the age of three and how he manage to literally read his way out of the reservation in which he grew up. By narrating his own story, he illustrates how few were the chances for him as well as for all young Indians in a reservation to succeed in life, not only because of poverty or because of the limited school system, but more precisely because of the mental barriers Indians have imposed themselves when exposed to the challenges of the Non-Indian society. In contrast to this panorama, and against all statistics and predictions, Alexie succeeded and he states his success in life to inspire other Indians to undertake the challenge. His passion for reading and pursuit of knowledge would become the driving force that would take him beyond the confines of his cultural heritage and into a successful career as a writer, and it is with this passion that he wants to inspire the new generations of Indians. Alexie writes this statement for all young writers. He speaks to them with conviction; he deeply believes reading makes the mind explore different worlds and hence it makes the reader want to explore what is beyond his own world...
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...Great decisions come with great thought and time. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Junior had a dilemma that would ultimately affect his life. Although, the pressure was building up Junior made the right decision to leave the Rez and attend Reardan because of the environment and the opportunity to grow and prosper. There was a greater opportunity for growth in Reardan mostly because of their white middle-class population.According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 9.2% of Native Americans ages 12 and older were current heavy alcohol users, the highest rate of any ethnic group (Hanes 1) while at Reardan a typical middle-class neighborhood almost “more than half of the graduating class...
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