The Symbols of Storytelling

The film Smoke Signals by Sherman Alexie, symbolism was valued throughout the film, depicting the emotions and thoughts of each character it gives a hint of the reality that the characters face and the history behind it.

Native American storytelling displays the lessons with symbols to be learned in life. Sherman Alexie displays this in the movie Smoke Signals, when Thomas has a natural gift of storytelling. Storytelling is a part of the Native American tradition that Thomas has really taken to heart. He takes every opportunity to tell people a story. In the film is is used to trigger flashbacks. These flashbacks are important in the film because it allows us to see the history of the tribes culture. In one significant flashback is the Fourth of July fire in the beginning of the film. This flashback/ story was consistently shown throughout the film, because the fire is an important key in understanding the characters in the film. During this part Thomas is also narrating and comparing children to flames and ashes. Thomas states, “You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that falls apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash.” (Smoke Signals) This really gives a key insight into what flames mean. The comparison throughout the whole movie with the two boys. Victor always seems to have an anger issue (mostly because his father left him) and Thomas just has such a sensitive and caring soul. It seems fitting that Thomas is the ashes because he was in the fire and lost everything, therefore he’d be the end result of the fire and its destruction. Victor is still the flame, because he has all of this anger pent up inside of him. His fire is still raging on and until he can come to terms with this, he will never get to ashes. One of the factors that help Victor come to terms