Compare and contrast about the book Indian Killer and movie, Smoke Signal Essay

‘Inidan Killer’ by Sherman Alexie can be kept under the term murder mystery books, however there are lots more than the mysterious killings. Sherman wants to take his reader on a journey through the dark heart of current Native American life. The reader finds a mixture of substance abuse which gives rise to self-hatred, which is mixed with an ironic pride of being the native of America. With analysis of the characters of the book reader feels that the fuel is present there to ignite the fire. It is felt that the difference due to the color of the skin results in sourness in any relationship that arises between a dark kinned and a white skinned person. The story mainly surrounds a man, John Smith who was immediately adopted after his birth by a white couple. Throughout the book John is seen suffering a complex because of his skin color as he is of Indian origin. He previously has no idea about what an Indian is except from the books that her mother bought to read, from some documentaries and movies. He knew that no white people would like his or her daughter to date with one who is an Indian or simply just because of his dark skin. During one of the protest powwow, John meets an Indian called Marie Polatikin who also fights for the njustice Indians are facing. The protest usually included a professor of Native American literature class and a cop who later turned to be a mystery writer as both were quite partial to the Americans. Days passed and both, John and Marie were busy with their respective works but in the meantime the tension between the white and native communities also started to rise. The first body due to these differences was found with owl feathers and another white college student suddenly disappeared from an Indian casino parking area. This gave rise to violence against Indians in Seattle and a group of men started beating Indians f that area. To retaliate this, Marie’s cousin brother tortures a white hitchhiker in the same way as he was tortured by his stepfather who also was a white man and tried to beat the â€Å"bad† Indian out of him. The characters and the situations described in â€Å"Indian Killer† are actually representing an existing widespread problem. Three types of Indians are shown, one that are drunk which means that even if they are aware of the wrong treatment from the white community they don’t say a word in protest because they think they would not be able to defeat the whites. The second type of Indians are noble or good Indians who are in such positions that they don’t usually get disturbed due to these events. If any Indian from either of the two categories uttered a word about land claims or anything that seemed for the whites like threatening for their status quo, was immediately tagged as malcontent or radical. This was the third and the most problematic category of Indians for the existing whites. And this is the category that Sherman Alexie deals with in his book, â€Å"Indian Killer†. The reader gets carried away and starts caring for the characters o matter whether they are white or Indian because nothing actually matters, as all the characters are human and interesting. When Marie tells that the reason behind the killings is the ghost dance, Sherman Alexie wants his readers to examine their opinion of Indians and the consequences of the way they had been treated in past. Sherman Alexie has made use of overt and subtle racism along with harsh reality and few descriptions of violence. The story and plot goes along swiftly and straightforwardly. This novel can be an eye opener for those people whose land it was where their families had immigrated. Smoke Signals† is a movie which is also written by Sherman Alexie and is a film in which a young Indian, Victor makes a trip to pick up his father’s ashes who had fled from the family years back. Victor sets off in search of his father and everything about him and in this way tries to find his identity too. He has to borrow money from his neighbor and friend Thomas who in turn wants Victor to take him along his journey. Unflinching frankness of Indians is seen in the film and the comic scenes that make people laugh loud are in fact satire on Indians or the rest of Americans. Thomas here is seen quite considerate about his friend’s pain and he has helped Victor quite a lot of time in life. Later in the film Victor meets his father’s neighbor and one time lover and comes to know about the reason of his abandonment. Sherman adds real color to the story of â€Å"Smoke Signals† with Indian reservations. Sherman has introduced confrontation of Indians and rest of Americans in a very peculiar way. A man, who has a tag, â€Å"racist redneck† written on his forehead, takes over the seat where Victor and Thomas were seated and that too of no particular reason at all. It is seen hat even when the film flashes from back to past and from â€Å"present† to â€Å"past† or vice versa, there is no change in the background or the people or the dress they were wearing. Alexie has talked about Indian reservation in the film as if it existed from long past without even considering the progress. But here Victor gives a fighting chance for survival and to move on. This is the point where Sherman’s character John and Victor of the book â€Å"Indian Killer† and film â€Å"Smoke Signals† can be compared. Both of them are not ready to surrender to the injustice by the rest of Americans towards Indians. They oth fight for their existence and identity. The film â€Å"Smoke Signals† was written by an Indian writer and almost the entire cast is cool, calm and collected of Indians. Smoke Signals† is an important movie and a turn point for Native North America because of the long misrepresentation of them on silver screen. The Indian Victor is stereotyped and along with Thomas looks like a typical Indian. Thomas has a lot of stories to tell throughout the movie and tells personal stories along with family histories and myths. There is no shyness in the movie about the drunkenness or hopelessness of the people in the past. Everyday and persistent racism is seen in the movie once they leave the reservation. The film is a journey of two young Indian men to more mature ones. In the film Victor is seen reminding Thomas of behaving like an Indian and to stop grinning all the time. In both the film â€Å"Smoke Signals† and the book â€Å"Indian Killer† the Indian characters are not ready to leave their identity and come face to face with racism. There are references from popular cinema in the movie as well as the book â€Å"Indian Killer† every now and then. The film leaves the audience and the readers of the book feel that the uthor has much more to explore and to say but due to their limitations they have stopped and ended. It seems that both the stories are original and even if the movie does not have any famous or big names attached to it is worth watching and realizing the real status. The story itself is very simple but the characters of the present generation do not seem to surrender to the prevailing situation and circumstances. They fight for justice and want their identity back by hook or by crook. â€Å"Indian Killer† and â€Å"Smoke Signals† both show the differences between father nd sons and the troubled relationships of the two generations. Usually films appear to be personal but this film with a simple story line is quite universal in nature. The characters are confronted with racism fact to face and the manner Sherman Alexie has presented the situation is very unusual. Sherman’s style is somewhat typical and in both the stories he has taken almost the same issue of racism but presented it in a different way. His characters are quite strong and not ready to accept injustice to their community and they fight for it throughout the story.