In the novel Flight" by Sherman Alexie, Alexie creates a character named Zits who was born to a Native American father and an Irish mother making him an unusual mixture with lack of a social culture. Zits never meets his father and his mother tragically dies of cancer when Zits is still just a boy, without parents he was put into the foster system. As an interracial kid in the foster system, Zits felt disconnected from society and had a very low self-esteem. His inability to connect with others led him to feel isolated and filled with a violent hatred towards society. A hatred so large he attempts to get revenge through a mass shooting at a bank after being guided by a boy named Justice. Throughout the book, Alexie brings Zits through a variety of situations in other characters bodies that relate back to his past allowing him to connect and empathize with each of them. Empathizing with the characters results in Zits realizing that everyone has issues of their own. Alexie uses Zits journey to show that empathizing with others allows a better understanding of justice, revenge, betrayal, guilt, the results of pain, and forgiveness that predisposes the …show more content…
Hank is an FBI agent during IRON vs. HAMMER, which means his duty was to murder Indians. He was supposed to kill innocent Indians, but Zits did not want to kill. He related to the Indians which made him abhor the fact he was required to participate in the act of murdering them. Now Hank was not asked to murder an Indian, but he was asked to shoot a deceased Indian man, who was previously killed by conspiring Indians to essentially prove himself. Zits hesitated and thought to himself " Justice made killing make sense. But it doesn't make sense, does it? " (Flight 53). But he shot the corpse anyways. Zits felt this act was disrespectful and wrong, not only because he related to the victim but also because he was beginning to realize that revenge is not
“The thing I hate about space is that you can feel how big and empty it is… ”
Yet, he had no desire to abandon his Indian culture. I wonder if William feels a sense of regret for the way that he thinks towards his family at the end of the story. “Flight Patterns” shows a repetitive feel for the patterns that William goes through each time he takes flight. For someone who enjoys excitement and a sense of interest, has a monotonous pattern each time he travels for business. He wanted all of it and he got it all: the good and the bad. Alexie’s story twists through numerous feelings as he explains his desires, sexism, sympathy when William feels that he is being victimized for his race, and confusion in the reader as I attempt to figure out if he is truly sincere or not. No matter how hard he tries to wear a mask to cover and conceal his thoughts and feelings, Williams’s insecurities are apparent and show throughout Alexie’s
...dividual struggles for self-definition and self awareness is connected to the discovery of their heritage, their ancestors and their culture. Ultimately Milkman's flight is the discovery of his connection with his ancestry. Toni Morrison believes that individuality without community leads to egotism. But community without individuality is a community without a spirit. Guitar and Macon are conditioned by society. Pilate and Milkman are inspired by community. “Milkman's flight is not a flight away from responsibility it is a flight into true consciousness”(Middleton 113).
Although, Zits has a heart of stone, he still commits an act of violence towards th... ... middle of paper ... ... atural human behavior, and there is no way around it. Zits’ journey show that violence is inescapable in all of history. Every single flashback or transformation is filled with murder, brutality and agony.
How White people assumed they were better than Indians and tried to bully a young boy under the US Reservation. Alexie was bullied by his classmates, teammates, and teachers since he was young because he was an Indian. Even though Alexie didn’t come from a good background, he found the right path and didn’t let his hands down. He had two ways to go to, either become a better, educated and strong person, either be like his brother Steven that was following a bad path, where Alexie chose to become a better and educated person. I believe that Alexie learned how to get stronger, and stand up for himself in the hard moments of his life by many struggles that he passed through. He overcame all his struggles and rose above them
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
During the course of this work, many ideas and themes are portrayed and readers are able to view subjects that surround the main topic of racial injustice and intolerance. With the three main narrators, Minny Jackson, Aibileen Clark, and Skeeter Phelan, the audience quickly gains an insight on how racial inequalities affected everyone. These thoughts help to form a plot that can easily keep readers entertained throughout the novel. During the course of the novel, there are many points in the plot that decide the actions and events other cha...
Society often pressures individuals within it to conform to different ideals and norms. This stems from the fact that individuals in a society are expected to act in a certain way. If a person or group of people do not satisfy society’s expectations, they are looked down upon by others. This can lead to individuals isolating themselves from others, or being isolated from others, because they are considered as outcasts. The emotional turmoil that can result from this, as well as the internal conflict of whether or not to conform, can transform an individual into a completely different person. This transformation can either be beneficial or harmful to the individual as well as those around them. The individual can become an improved version of himself or herself but conversely, they can become violent, rebellious and destructive. The novels Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess both explore the negative effects experienced by individuals living within the confines of society’s narrow-mindedness. In A Clockwork Orange, protagonist Alex was the leader of a small group of teenage criminals. He did not have a healthy relationship with either one of his parents or with others around him. Instead he spent most of his time alone during the day and at night roamed the streets in search of victims he could mug or rape. In Fight Club the unnamed protagonist was an outcast in his community. He chose to distance and isolate himself from others and as a result had no friends, with the exception of Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. Due to his isolation, he often participated in nightly fights that took place in Fight Club so that he could relieve his anxiety and stress. In this way, Alex and the unnamed protagoni...
Murphy expresses how justifying bad deeds for good is cruel by first stirring the reader’s emotions on the topic of bullying with pathos. In “White Lies,” Murphy shares a childhood memory that takes the readers into a pitiful classroom setting with Arpi, a Lebanese girl, and the arrival of Connie, the new girl. Murphy describes how Arpi was teased about how she spoke and her name “a Lebanese girl who pronounced ask as ax...had a name that sounded too close to Alpo, a brand of dog food...” (382). For Connie, being albino made her different and alone from everyone else around her “Connie was albino, exceptionally white even by the ultra-Caucasian standards... Connie by comparison, was alone in her difference” (382). Murphy tries to get the readers to relate and pity the girls, who were bullied for being different. The author also stirs the readers to dislike the bullies and their fifth grade teacher. Murphy shares a few of the hurtful comments Connie faced such as “Casper, chalk face, Q-Tip... What’d ya do take a bath in bleach? Who’s your boyfriend-Frosty the Snowman?” (382). Reading the cruel words can immediately help one to remember a personal memory of a hurtful comment said to them and conclude a negative opinion of the bullies. The same goes for the fifth grade teac...
Richard Wright introduces the main character in his novel, “Native Sun”, as a poor black man, named Bigger Thomas, living in the ghetto. In book 1 “fear”, I analyzed how Bigger lived and learned who his true character was. I also learned how he felt towards himself, family, and his friends. Bigger Thomas’ character is a very angry and violent person towards anyone who makes him feel afraid or out of place. Richard Wright uses imagery, sentence syntax, and symbolism to express how Bigger Thomas truly thinks.
In every culture there are many ways of releasing stress, releasing anger, and letting out what affects an individual on a day to day basis. Jamaicans smoke weed, Chinese individuals perform karate to let out their anger, and frustration. In a world where problems and stress is a part of an individual’s everyday life, many people deal with it differently. In The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fist fight in Heaven Sherman Alexie defines Indians as heavy consumers of alcohol, and symbolizes alcohol as a way of Indians to deal with their issues.
“I learned how to stop crying. I learned how to hide inside myself. I learned how to be someone else. I learned how to be cold and numb.” (Flight 161). In Flight by Sherman Alexie, a young kid named Zits has a lot of similarities and differences with Victor, the main character in the movie Smoke Signals. They’re both facing similar situations, but they handle it very differently. Zits learns to hate everyone and not to let anyone bother or hurt him in any way. Victor has other people to talk to, but he still does not respect them as well. The first couple minutes he spends with his new foster family, he immediately curses the parents out. “You bet your plopping ass I’m laughing at you.” (Flight 15). Zits and Victor are both similar and different because both their fathers left them, both people have an identity crisis, and both of them fix themselves at the end of the story. But, Zits and Victor fix their problems in completely different ways.
There’s an unsettling lack of empathy, seemingly on the author’s part. Yet, this emotional aloofness is quickly established as the story’s central theme. Seclusion,
“Flight Patterns” is written in a first person narrative point of view, the narrator being William. This lets the reader see the story from William’s perspective, giving them a different lens to see the story and the narrators troubles through. This is an effective tool in this short story because many of the readers do not know the feeling of being racially profiled constantly. Through many examples of minor problems throughout the story, Alexie provides the reader with a basic sense of what issues racial profiling can cause. One of these recurring problems for William is constantly being mistaken for a someone of Middle Eastern descent, rather than an American Indian. This causes different problems, one of them being Muslim taxi drivers constantly asking him if he is Jewish. Another effect of this being William is constantly being pulled aside for ‘random’ pat down searches. While these issues may appear to insignificant the reader at
In the Oscar award winning movie Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, a network of characters portray the lifestyles of different races in Los Angeles. In the movie, characters “crash” into one another, similar to pinballs, to spur new emotions and explain their actions. A main character Anthony, an African American male, steadily tries to prove why he does not and will not fall into the black male thug stereotype. He was slightly close minded and repeatedly had a negative outlook towards his environment. Anthony created contradictions between what he said and what his actual intentions were. His actions were guided by his environment and further analysis of them will prove his motivation.