Finding True Identity In Smoke Signals

Caught by Obstacles
Everyone has tried to doubt themselves and their actions. It can be hard to know exactly what your values and beliefs are and when to stand up for them. In general, finding your true identity can be a difficult task. Identity is a broad word but can be narrowed down as the condition of being oneself and not another. You have to know yourself well and be able to reflect upon all the things that happen in your life to know who you are or who you could strive to become. In Sherman Alexie’s movie Smoke Signals, he emphasizes that you will get caught in trying to find your true identity if you run away from the obstacles in your life instead of facing them.
Through the movie, the audience gets to know the teenage Cour d’Alene Indian Victor, whose dad left his family when he was younger. Victor is unknowingly going through an identity crisis due to his father’s disappearance and it does not help when he finds out that his father died. Victor thinks he knows all the answers to why his dad left and he thinks that the best thing to do is just to forget it, thus keeping him
Victor and his friend Thomas have been out on a journey to collect his father’s urn. They are experiencing many new things and perspectives on the life of Victor’s father. But Victor still seems to be caught in his ego and boundaries and has a hard time figuring out what to believe and relate to his new knowledge and experiences. But on the way home he gets time to reflect and finds out that he has actually confronted one of the biggest obstacles in his life. He is able to change his mindset about what happened with his dad and he somewhat let go of his ego. By doing that he is able to get out of his identity crisis with renewed strength. At the same time, he gets closer to finding his true identity because he faced obstacles in his life, which gave him new perspectives on himself and the surrounding