There are several paths to understanding yourself and others. However, there is no other path that will ultimately provide the most profound insight as that of one taken in forgiveness.
The movie is the kind of movie that teaches this poignant issue which will eventually reveal how it is possible to forgive a person which has slighted you even though the pain is too deep. It also poses the essential question of whether one should forgive even in the light of severe pain.The author maintains that by being able to forgive, one will be able to understand the dynamic of how easy and how significant forgiveness is for those people who are face-to-face with forgiving someone. The Film and its many elements This film defines several stereotypes that are present in today’s society. The film chooses to focus on a different type of indigenous people which is the “Native American Indian” people. The normal connotation that this name carries is the fact that people normally think of feathers and bow and arrows along with machetes.
However, when watching the movie, it depicts a different type of “Native American Indian” who have the exact same problems with the rest of the population. With regard to the different characters in the plot, it involves a more modern approach regarding the personalization of the members and one will often find these Native American Indians doing the same things that other people do. Victor, who is one of the characters in the movie, is one of the people that the movie focuses on. He is one type of person who can be classified as a child of a broken home—one that has witnessed the ill-effects of alcohol on his family.One of the things that Victor constantly struggled with is the fact that his father almost had a split personality when he was drunk. Victor saw the different shifts in moods.
This is one of the reasons why Victor is ashamed of his family situation. He thinks that he has a humiliating family setup because of the domestic abuse that happens because of his father up to the point that Victor scolds his own father and says that his favorite Indian is “Nobody…nobody and nobody! ” (Eyre, 1998)The angst and the bitterness that engulfs Victor is something that many children experience whether they are Native American Indian or not. One example of Victor’s outburst is when during one time in the movie, Victor went about to smash the back of his father’s pickup with beer bottles. Upon analyzing this particular scene where Victor was lashing out, it could be that this was the only way that Victor could get back at his father because Victor believed that these were the only two things that his father valued in his drunken and complicatedly irresponsible life. Eyre, 1998) It is because of this outburst that Victor’s mom proceeds to let her children’s father choose between being a family man or a drunkard.
Sadly, the father leaves the family and never returns. After this sad event in the life of their family, Victor learns that his father is dead, around after 8 years. If one would look at this isolated event in the family of Victor, this would be a significant event in his life and the life of his mother.It is tragic enough in order to put Victor into a very bitter and angst-filled state to the point that stories from Thomas, his companion during the entire movie, angers him because of the stories of his father. The abandonment of his father can easily explain the raging hurt that is in the heart of Victor. This can be seen in the different reactions that he has with Thomas and the things that he says about people.
The leaving of people in his life leads Victor to be very aggressive and ultimately, very lonely in spite of the different things that he does with Thomas.Victor once mentions, "People will walk all over you! ” (Eyre, 1998) He says this to Thomas during one of his talks as he rages with cynicism. Due to this particular mistrust with people, it poisons his friends as well as his feeling about his father. Victor is seen to be filled with different emotions as he goes about judging the different things that he sees that belong to his father when he was still alive. One of the most poignant scenes on the movie is when he sees a photo that has been worn because of time with the word “HOME” written all over it.
Eyre, 1998) Comparing and contrasting Victor and his dad, both characters are found to be guilty of cowardice.His dad was able to tell about his sins to strangers in that land which is a thousand miles from home but he could never undo the damage that he had done to his family. Victor is also suffering from cowardice as he realizes that it is this type of emotion that prevents him from taking out his distant and fierce mask. This particular realization becomes the cause for his repentance and the cutting of his hair which is done because of the symbolic importance of grief. ConclusionVictor eventually ends up cutting his hair which essentially gives him a sort of turning point regarding his feelings and the anger that has consumed him all his life until the realization that he needed to forgive his father. The film ends with the character scattering of his father’s ashes into the river which means that Victor has already made peace with his father and has already chosen to move on in forgiveness.
The movie ends by concluding through the actions of the main character that it is quite possible to forgive even when things all lead to it being an impossibility.
