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“The mother died two feet away from her daughter. Separated. They are cursed to be ghost mother and ghost daughter and will wander the grassy plains in the endless search for each other” (Sherman 87). Michael, better known as Zits, says this about the little girl killed by the Indians when he was in Gus’s body. The quote is a metaphor for Michael’s quest for a parental unit, whether it be a mother, as was stated, or a father. Zits has been an orphan for most of his life in the book Flight by Sherman Alexie. Unfortunately, this scenario is more common than people think. Native Americans such as Zits suffer from a relatively high number of orphans due to alcoholism, suicide, living conditions on reservations, and the forceful removal of Indian children from their families through US history. Alcohol was introduced into Native American culture many years ago and has been a source of suffering since. In Flight, Zits states that his father “was more in love with vodka than with him and his mother,” and it is this statement that helps drive the story along (Sherman 4). Zits addresses the stereotype that come along with being Native American. The major one mentioned in the story is that Native Americans consume a lot of alcohol. This follows what is known as the firewater myth, which says that Native Americans “…may be genetically predisposed to crave ever increasing doses of alcohol…”—this was and still is believed by several researchers (Lamarine). This alcoholism leads to instability within homes and leaves the child to suffer. A perfect example of this is when Zits says that his father “vanished like a magician” shortly after he was born (Sherman 5). It was fear that made Michael’s father run, but it was fear mixed with alcohol that... ... middle of paper ... ... father, turned to alcohol to make the pain less noticeable. It is important to understand stereotypes because they often have a deeper meaning than what is seen at the surface. In addition to the stereotypes, it is also important to understand that the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same. History repeats itself, and Flight takes that statement literally to develop a coming-of-age story that is deeply rooted in Native American history. The story of an orphaned child who has to live through vivid tales of murder, mutilation, suicide, and alcoholism from the past to come to a point of self-realization shows the reader how important it is to have knowledge of the past so that they can apply it to the present and eventually guide what course they take in the future. Hopefully, this cycle that often begins and ends with alcoholism will soon be broken.
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
Prior to the arrival of the whites, Native Americans experienced little to no contact with alcohol, or “firewater.” The main introduction of alcohol to Native Americans came through the fur trade. Quickly upon its initiation to Native Americans, alcohol had various social, economic, and political ramifications. [note] To form new relations with Native Americans and to continue existing ones, the consistent distribution of alcohol was established.
Consumption of alcohol affects children in many negative ways. Jeannette Walls and her siblings have faced an abundance of obstacles thrown at them by their father. Despite his major flaws, Jeannette still views him as the person she used to admire. But because of
Julius Lester’s folktale, “People Who Could Fly” explores the African-American myth, which states that people of African decent has the powers to physically take flight. Throughout “People Who Could Fly,” the “flying Africans” decide to take flight on a quest back to Africa to escape slavery and oppression. “People Who Could Fly” displays the theme of flight by showing the “flying Africans” escaping from restraining circumstances and becoming free.
Community, rituals, magical beliefs and practices are very important things to Native American people. Native American people live by these rituals and beliefs, they live around their community; their community isn’t just that, but their family as well. Parents don’t just raise their children but the whole community has a hand in raising all of the children. Family is a very important part of Native American people’s lives, they keep traditions going with their families, parents raise their children the same way that they were raised by their parents.
They considered drunkenness ‘degrading to free me’ and questioned the motives of those who would offer a substance that was so offensive to the senses and that made men foolish. Most Native people who did drink alcohol were reported to show ‘remarkable restraint while in their cups’. Most drank alcohol only during social or trading contact with whites. Although drinking patterns since colonization grew almost exponentially, since 1975, drinking patterns among Native Americans have remained constant.( Alcohol 3)
The analysis explored in this document is implementing a program UNIT for parents adopting a different race from their own. Adopting outside of a race is a life altering decision because of regulating mechanisms that condition people to accept or reject individuals based on their appearances. There are not any programs that guide transracial adoptions after they occur. Society as a whole has its own prejudices. The adoptive parents should know about their children’s cultural backgrounds. Society is not very conscience of prejudging it is just something that is a part of life. This is unfortunately one more issue dealt with by adopted children.
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
Growing up on an Indian Reservation is a tough thing to do. Everyone is poor, and almost every adult is always drunk and unhappy. Junior’s own father suffers from alcoholism. His father will sometimes forget about Junior and never shows up to give him a ride home. Junior is then forced to walk or hitchhike all the way back to the Reservation. His father also constantly spends all of their money on alcohol, even during the holidays, “...Dad did what he always does when we don’t have enough money. He took what little money we did have and ran away to get drunk” (Alexie 150). Junior’s unfortunate understanding of alcoholism makes him see the world as an unfair place. He knows that he never wants to be like his father when he grows up. Alcohol also causes a lot of deaths in Junior’s life. His sister died in a terrible fire because she was too drunk to escape her burning RV. Junior is let out of school early because of his sister’s death. He has to wait for his father to come get him, and he laughs and he cannot stop laughing at the thought of his dad also dying on his way to pick Junior up, “...it’s not too comforting to learn that your sister was TOO FREAKING DRUNK to feel any pain when she BURNED TO DEATH! And for some reason, that thought made me laugh even harder, (Alexie 205). When he finally finds out about how his sister dies, he cannot help but laugh even more. Every Indian dies because of alcohol, and Junior finds it funny
Reflecting on the many western movies of my youth, it can be clearly recalled that the Native Americans were either scalping Euro Americans or getting sloppy drunks so they could not function physically and/or mentally. This abuse of alcohol and, in general, acceptance of drunken behavior beyond recollection of actions or knowledge of one’s environment, was widely accepted as the norm by Euro Americans outside of the Native American world and far from the arid, treeless reservations.
The impact of various kinds of substances to cultural groups has historically been precipitated by the significance of particular substances on different cultural groups (Moore, 2010).This is mainly because the long term usage of these substances leads to the integration of the consumption of the substance into the cultural patterns of the given group. One such group that has been affected by the extensive usage of a particular substance is the Native American community. According to the Associated Press (2014, August 28), as noted on the MSNBC website, out of ten deaths among the Native American population, one is Alcohol related. Additionally, the prevalence of Alcohol consumption among the Native American population relates to the fact that it’s associated with the various cultural events that define the way of life of Native Americans. Therefore, the focus of this paper shall be on the cultural aspects, effects and prevalence of Alcohol among Native Americans. Particularly, the paper shall outline a brief introduction of the Native American culture and the prevalence of Alcohol in this culture; compare the aspects of alcohol abuse between the Native Americans and the African Americans; analyze the particular effects of alcohol in the body; and demonstrate the cultural impact of Alcohol abuse among the Native Americans.
...were forced to assimilate European culture, often through violent means. The trauma caused by the violence and cultural loss have led Native Americans to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. Finally, their genetic predisposition is also a disadvantage, and unfortunately, it has only served to strengthen their addiction to alcohol.
Sherman Alexie’s short story “Flight Patterns” is an intriguing story about many themes, including identity, stereotypes, and the illusions of society. The story is written from an American Indian’s viewpoint and provides and interesting and different perspective on identities and relations in America after the terrorist attack on Spetember 11, 2001. The main character William, a native American man who has a wife and a daughter named Marie and Grace respectively, leaves his family for a business trip. On his way to the airport, he encounters a black taxi driver, named Fekadu, who tells him his story. He is not sure whether or not he should believe it but by the end of their trip together William realizes how much he loves and cares for his
The assimilation of the Native Americans began in the late 18th century, and changed the lives of Native Americans forever. Today, Native American’s make up about 2 percent of our current population (census.org), and chances are if you ask a crowded classroom how many students know of any Natives, less than 10 will raise their hand and the majority will give a stereotypical description of how they have viewed Native American’s in their lifetime. It’s almost as if the assimilation never occurred if this is our lasting memory of the Natives.
Have you ever dreamt of flying? Well these young kids are living the dream, but the only problem is that they are being hunted down by wolves. These two books give three good examples of life lessons that can be learned from the characters throughout the books. The three lessons being, family is a huge part of your life, giving your own time to help someone out even if they are a stranger, and to never give up on a situation.