"Hey Victor"

“This is What it Means to say Phoenix, Arizona” is a short story by Sherman Alexie. Alexie’s story was adapted into film in 1998 as Smoke Signals which was directed by Chris Eyre. The plotlines and themes between the story and the movie are very similar. Among many themes family, culture, and friendship dominate this story about two Indians named Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire.

Along with the common themes there are also many visible similarities between the story and the movie. One important similarity between the story and the movie is that Victors father is not around long. Victor in both instances of his story grows up with no male influence in his life. The absence of the father in the movie is important because it maintains the same storyline as in the story. Another similarity that is important is the presence of the character Thomas Builds-the-Fire. Thomas is an acquaintance of Victors; he is a strange and unique person who ultimately shows Victor in both the movie and the story what friendship and brotherhood are truly all about.

There are also visible differences between the movie and the story as well. It is important to note that these differences kept the theme and message of the story intact, unlike the differences in “Memento Mori” and Memento which put a new radical spin on the story itself. At the beginning of the movie we are shown exactly how Victor and Thomas’ paths cross in the scene with the burning house. In the story we know that the two Indians grew up together but we do not know the circumstances in which they grew up together, the movie provides us with the tragic circumstance that involves both families. In the movie we learn that Thomas’ parents die in a tragic house fire that is accidentally caused by Victor’s father while he was in a drunken stupor. These facts contribute to the storyline and provide answers to some questions that remained unanswered in the book. In the book we don’t know why this strange Indian Thomas is the way he is, “strange”. The movie implies that he is a good man but he grew up with his grandmother and essentially became a “grandma’s boy”, he had no mother or father to raise him. This fact may contribute to Thomas’ awkwardness. The movie also implies that Victors father became an alcoholic after he caused the horrible fire that killed Thomas’ parents. The guilt and alcoholism ultimately caused the fathers departure from his family to Phoenix Arizona.

The story uses flashbacks to tell the stories of the “then young” Victor and Thomas. The movie does this similarly in a very effective technique of its own. The flashbacks in the movie are essentially occurring in Victor’s memory as he travels to Phoenix to claim his father. One scene in particular demonstrated this well as “grown up Victor” looks out the window of the bus as “young Victor” runs beside it after beating up “young Thomas.” The movies way of demonstrating flashbacks was very well done and not confusing and complex as they were in Memento.

One may argue that Smoke Signals is a great film because it holds true to the powerful main themes of the story which were family, brotherhood, and culture. Victor has no “blood brother” however Thomas is the closest thing he has to it. In both instances Thomas gives his money to Victor and travels with him to claim Victor’s dead father, a trip that should never be taken on alone by anybody. In both the story and the movie Indians call one another “cousin” and the occupation of “story teller” is mentioned in both cases which illustrates Native American culture. Families, despite atrocities that they may have previously committed are still in fact family. This notion is shown in both the story and the movie because Victor goes on the pilgrimage to claim the dead father that he never truly knew. The ending scene of the movie where Victor simply breaks down while scattering his father’s ashes into the Spokane River best illustrates this sense of family. The similarity in the themes between the story and the movie make Smoke Signals a powerful and thought provoking movie.