Smoke Signals: Movie Analysis

This happened to Arnold in the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and this also happened to Victor in the movie Smoke Signals, both were written by Sherman Alexie. In the movie, Victor ended up becoming better friends with a boy named Thomas, who at first didn’t want to be his friend. What matters most to both the of the main characters, Arnold and Victor, are their families. There are many similarities between the book and the movie, like alcoholism and money, but there are also some major differences, like friendships. First, in both the book and the movie Victor and Arnold’s parents are alcoholics. Victor's dad struggles with alcohol throughout all of Victor's childhood up until he leaves Victor and his wife. Eventually he gives up drinking but he dies soon after. Arnold's dad is also an alcoholic so is his dad's best friend Eugene. One day Eugene got very wasted and ended up getting in a fight with another man. He then was shot and killed by the man who he had gotten into a quarrel with. Eugene and his friend Bobby were so drunk that Eugene was killed over who got the last drink of wine, “The police think Eugene and Bobby fought over the last drink in a bottle of wine”(168). These two cases show how alcoholism

Victor was always good at basketball, while Thomas isn’t good at any physical activity and wants to be Victor's friend. Victor ends up letting Thomas go on the Trip with him and slowly but surely becomes closer friends with Thomas. Now in Diary it is a different story, at the beginning Arnold is best friends with Rowdy, but once he switches schools he and Rowdy stop speaking. (quote). Although it doesn’t look good for their friendship, but in the end Rowdy and Arnold end up becoming friend again despite what both of them have been through. The differences in both the friendships prove how different the book and the movie