Smoke is a story about people and relationships and how life is not so black and white but grey. Smoke follows Auggie, Paul and Rashid and their unique yet similar issues. Their actions aren’t always unquestionable, but their motives remain pure and unified. Each of the primaries’ purpose is to survive, that may mean through monetary means but mainly through their need for human connection. A common conflict is Man vs Man Man vs Self and Man vs Society and these conflicts also happen to be their relationship conflicts. Race “Black is black, and white is white, and never the twain shall meet” Rashid aka Thomas tells Paul in reference to their difference of race. This represents the view of life being black and white, however yet there Paul and Rashid stand defying that proclamation. The anecdote paul tells in the beginning about measuring the weight of smoke is in fact a greater metaphor for every story. Smoke is unclear and not black or white, it’s grey, it’s seemingly weightless, because if you look at the cigar before and the ashes after you can see the difference which is the smoke. Life often seems futile, especially in NYC, you’re just another one of these millions of diverse stories. The smoke left behind may seem weightless, just death, however you can infer a lifes impact by the ashes they leave behind, the relationships they build are left behind like the ashes.
