Thursday, April 8, 2010

Smoke Signals

The biggest difference between the movie and written version would have to be the absence of the fire in the written version. The fire was really the basis of the movie . It was the cause of the tragedies in the characters lives. Especially for Victor and Arnold, they suffered the most from the fire. It caused of the guilt and shame Arnold carried because he couldnt save his friends from the fire. That guilt led him to become an alcoholic who eventually left his young son and wife to try to leave all those memories behind. It was also the cause for Victor to have an absent father, a boy left with awful memories of a drunken man who beat his mother and him self, unable to understand why his father left. And there was Thomas who also lost a father and a mother to that fire, left for his grandmother to raise him.


The absence of that fire in the written story changed the story dramatically. You don’t feel that sense of tragedy and heartbreak like you did in the movie. It also changed the relationship between Victor and Thomas. They didn’t have that connection with each other through that awful fire that changed both of their lives. In the written version, they were just mere acquaintances, and kids that grew up together on the reservation. At one point in the reading Victor asked Thomas if he remembered his father Arnold, which seemed strange after seeing the movie because Thomas thought Arnold was a hero and talked about him all the time.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Chapter #8 Active Verbs

We all know that verbs convey an action, but weather you use a passive verb or an active verb can really make a difference in how the action is perceived by the reader. Active verbs are more descriptive and exciting, while a passive verb lacks excitement and conveys no action. When telling a story we all have a voice, and that voice may be that of a passive or active nature. The active voice is one that is more affective and to the point making the character more affective than using a passive voice. The character tends to get lost in a passive voice because it focuses on the actual doing, not the character doing.
Be verbs are passive verbs in the form of: is, was, were, being, be, am and so on. They work well connecting a subject to a noun, or a subject that describes it. Be verbs are fine when describing an on going action or when you want to minimize a characters importance but if the be verbs are dull and wordy you may want to replace it with an active verb.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Smoke Signals

After watching Smoke Signals I was left thinking about the Last scene in the movie, where we see Victor standing on the bridge looking over as the Columbia River roars below him. We watch as victor releases his fathers’ ashes into the river, he lets out a holler that comes from deep within him and you can feel all the pain and hurt he has kept inside since his father left him all those years ago. When he let go of those ashes he let go of the anger that he held for this father. Then we hear Thomas say “Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs? Or in their deaths saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers what is left?”

I think Victor was afraid to forgive his father, like Thomas said “If we forgive our fathers what is left?” In a way all those bad memories was all Victor had left of his father. When Arnold died Victor set out to retrieve his ashes in Arizona where his father lived before he died. There he met Suzy Song, one of Arnolds only friends, who gave Victor insight on who his father really was and why he left the reservation, Victor was finally able to let go of all the anger he carried for years.