"Smoke Signals" - Movie

Smoke Signals is not your typical Native American movie but there are some themes such as the way life works that are Native American themed, it’s about the sense of how in life everything you do has consequences. “Some children are pillars of ash, me and Victor were born of flame… and ash.” In the movie “Smoke Signals,” one other major theme is definitely Fire. The first fire that occurs in the beginning of the movie results in the death of Thomas’s parents and would have led to Thomas's death. Also if he hadn't been saved by Victor’s father Arnold Joseph. The first fire in the beginning of the movie is the center of the story; it is where everything begins. No one truly understands the mourning that Arnold Joseph went through and why he was so strongly affected by the fire. 

He mourned by cutting his hair, jumping into his yellow pick-up truck and vanishing to Phoenix; the truth comes out towards the end when Victor speaks to Suzy. Victors father Arnold Joseph was the one who started the fire that killed Thomas’s parents and this quilt remained with him till the very end of his own death, who in result became ashes himself. The second fire that occurs towards the end of the movie brings about the sense of closing a chapter in life and embracing a new beginning. It was important for Thomas and Victor to return to the roots of their distress, by doing this it allowed them to accept what happened and move forward. They were able return home from Phoenix with a sense of relief and closure, "Sometimes to go forward you have to drive in reverse." 

"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again" is being written from not only a black man's perspective, but also from that of an immigrant, a poor man and an Indian. Hughes is hopeful of what America could one day be "Land of the Free," although it has never truly been. Hughes causes readers to question the patriotic images that are wonderfully painted for us and for those who come to America with the hopes of achieving the “American dream.” In the third stanza of the poem Hughes writes "But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe" this line in particular makes the reader question the true meaning of “opportunity” for all because as Hughes states, "There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this homeland of the free." Although America has never truly been America "the land of the free," we should never stop fighting for that dream, we must never forget what the original dream was and why we started fighting for our freedom in the first place. 


It is up to those who have been deprived to get back their America. It is up to those... to us who have seen the people that have come before us fight so hard up until this point. It is up to us to continue the long journey and to always fight. America has not been "good" to everyone equally there are people who have come to America with hopes and dreams and who have believed this land to be a promising one yet have been let down. For some America has never lived up to its reputation. Hughes ends the poem with the hopes that America can someday fulfill its destiny. He believes that America can still be all the things it was supposed to already have been. Everyday people forget what we originally started fighting for in the first place. Instead, we continue to fight each other when we should be lifting one another. Hopefully as time goes on we continue to fight for the original American dream... EQUALITY FOR ALL!