Essay #3 Smoke Signals

Emily Lopez

April 21, 2011

L. Servias

English 100

                                                                 Essay #3

What kind of person are you without integrity? Can you still be considered a loyal and truth worthy person. Are they still an honest person? In the movie Smoke Signals, Victor’s father, Arnold Joseph is a person of no integrity; he is a lair with no respect for himself or anyone else. He was an angry man most of his life; he lived as a drunk, abusive husband and father. I am not sure that Arnold knew that integrity was, but he certainly did not have it inside of him. I do not even believe that he was an honest person. He was always so focused on drinking and being selfish that I don’t think he knew what honesty was until he fled to Phoenix.

            I believe that Arnold’s first mistake was being a drunk; it created him to be an abusive drunk, carless father and deadbeat husband. With that said the night that the he light the house on fire, he was partying and was drunk. He wanted the people who lived in the home to come out and party some more, he had a torch in his hand and was waving it all around their house, and it eventually caught fire. Inside that house were a family, a mother, father and a baby boy names Thomas. Arnold rescued Thomas from the fire, and he was praised for rescuing Thomas, but little did anyone know that Arnold started the fire. Arnold never admitted to starting the fire, he lived his life without telling anyone until he went to Phoenix and meet a woman named Suzy Song, whom he gained trust with and told her all of his secrets. He had no integrity; I am not sure how he slept at night with that huge guilt on his shoulders. He may have not intentionally light the house on fire but that fact is that it was his fault and he did not admit to the horrible tragedy.

            Another reason why I think that Arnold lived with no integrity is because I feel that he was not up front and honest about leaving his family, he was selfish and just up and left his wife and son. I think he did this because of all the guilt that he lived with on the reservation. He could just not take the pain anymore, so he thought by up and leaving to Phoenix it would all just go away. He damaged his son and hurt his wife by leaving. His son yearned for a relationship with his father and he never got it due to his drinking and damaging him by being abusive. I think that any person who can leave their family has no integrity.

            Lastly I think that by Arnold leaving to Arizona and never coming back for his son is a huge sing that this man did not have integrity. I am not even sure how he lived there and lead a life daily without feeling so guilty. He knew that his son wanted him around and knew that he had a huge secret about burning down Thomas; house and yet he still was able to live a life in Phoenix. I am not sure how he lived as long as he did.

            In conclusion, I think that by the end of the movie Victor realizes that his father may have not intentionally set Thomas’ house on fire, but he understood that he did not mean it, and when I say that I mean that Victor now knew that his father lived a life with no integrity. He was not an honest man, he just knew that he lead an angry life and that is all that his father knew, he grew up on a reservation that did not hold any boundaries. I think that Victor is now at peace and will continue to live his life knowing that he did all that he could to get closure by traveling to Arizona to get his father.