Concealing Possession and Perfection “Flight Patterns,” by Sherman Alexie, tells an interesting story of a man named William, who is a Spokane Indian and lives in Washington State with his wife Marie and five-year-old daughter Grace. William struggles with living between the traditionalist American and Indian worlds by appearing confident and assured, but on the inside, he is actually weak, fearful, and has an abundance of obsessions. He loves his job and hates it at the same time, He needs to fly for his job, but flying scares him since the terrorist attacks that happened on September 11th. He seems very indecisive and unassured at times. He stays in the same hotel chain, eats at the same restaurants, and has the same exercise routine while …show more content…
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
Although the theme of flight is seen throughout the book, for some characters it is even more. For many of the characters, including Kirsten and Tyler, flights are vital to explain character development. Tyler, who is the son of Arthur Leander, is interesting, because unlike most of the other flights of the book, his is away from normal “civilized” society and into disorder. In the book, he decides that the life that is agreed upon by almost all, where humanity must rebuild from the disaster that had occurred, was the wrong path- and that the correct one was an ideology where God had chosen the best to survive. Putting aside the many issues with his plans and beliefs, this is a great example of how an antagonist in a story rather than a protagonist
Activity #1 FLIGHT A kid named Zits who lives in Seattle, is only fifteen years old. He’s tall, skinny, ugly, and sometimes mean. He also has forty-seven zits and that’s where he gets his name from. Zits is Irish, Indian and is a foster child.
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
“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
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
We all know how segregated society can get and how heated people can get with this topic, but out of all the segregation of society, there is probably none more emotional than the indians and the whites. This is clearly shown when Zits, a Native American Indian protagonist of the book Flight by Sherman Alexie, talks about how he has a very strong hatred for the people who have done his ancestors wrong in the past. Throughout the first few chapters, we hear how Zit’s plans on getting revenge for his ancestors. He plans on getting justice for his ancestors with killing the white people and he expects that all of these actions and violent ways will be justified. As he travels through time, he slowly starts to learn that no matter what her does, he can’t undo the past. His mind set slowly turns from being “I can change the past by righting the wrong.” but ultimately learns that the past is in the past and that you can’t change what has happened; no matter how badly you want to.
When Amelia meets A.J, she tries to induce him into reading some of the books on the winter list, one being The Year Bombay Became Mumbai, depicting an Indian boy as the main character. However, A.J. is unpleased. “If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that you’re only telling me about it because I’m partially Indian and you think this will be my special interest. Am I right?” (Zevin 15)
Flight by Sherman Alexie follows a narration of a 15-year old Native American boy that named Zits. Zits is an orphan living in abusive foster homes because he lost his parents, and after persuasion by a troubled teen, Zits travels back to witness the important moments in the Native American History. Zits is in the midst of the struggle as he struggles to balance between the cultural past of the American community with that of the present circumstances. Zits transformation and reflections of the past contribute to his loneliness, emptiness, and grief. Flight follows how Zits meets Justice and becomes a self-named teenage philosopher who undergoes difficulties in defining himself as he kills a number of people in the lobby of a bank. In addition,
This action packed book keeps readers on the edge of their seat waiting to see what Alex Rider will do next. The book make the reader feel that they are Alex himself by
In order to compel his audience, Alexis required “Smoke Signals” to abound in implicit symbols suggesting the cultural dilemma between past and present, Native Americans have been enduring since their oppression. This film acquired an ample recognition among Indian population, as well as non-Indians. But Alexie’s work goes beyond his essays and stories. He visits Indian children schools as often as he can. He profoundly believes it is through education Indian children will feel empowered to leave their reservation for a brighter future and abandon this endless circle of poverty and suffering. There seems to be a solution to combine the best of both worlds, being successful, yet remaining faithful to his roots and origins: Alexie symbolizes the living archetype of this
In the novel, “The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Junior is exposed to a number of traumatic events due to his problematic life. So far in the novel, Junior is seen as very frustrated by the continual cycle of poverty and his disabilities, yet he finds a way to contain his sorrow through the things he loves. However, complications still manage to find a way into his life on the reservation.
In the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie, the main character, Zits, shifts through time to lead to the ultimate "rebirth" at the end of the novel by showing Zits he has an identity of his own, one that is tied to his family and his culture's histories. After shooting up a bank, Zits body-hopped into different people in different points of history including a FBI agent named Hank, a little Indian child, Gus, a pilot named Jimmy, and Zit's father. These people show Zits different sides to identity, justice, and family. Zits learns that every family has their own problems and that no family is perfect. As he body hops, he learns about a variety of different family secrets and issues.
Internal conflict is a struggle that most people go through at least once in their lifetime. The characters in A White Heron, The Wife of His Youth, and The Yellow Wall-paper have faced many conflicts that brings them to a choice that makes them question themselves and others around them. In A White Heron, the little girl, Sylvia comes meets conflict when her heart tells her to protect the location of the bird while her mind craves the attention and money from the hunter. Mr. Ryder in The Wife of His Youth is conflicted when his “previous” wife shows up at his doorstep after 25 years of searching. So, he is forced to either accept or deny his blackness for his “wife” while possibly jeopardizing his social status. In The Yellow Wall-paper,
In Sherman Alexie’s narrative, “The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian,” the struggles of race Arnold, the main character, endured lead him to have a sense of clarity on his position in this world, being a Native American. Arnold Junior experiences many a loss and torment of his peers. He also goes through may hardships because of the color of his skin. Hardship clarify someone’s position in this world, leading one to become wiser in their choices and actions. The theme is developed throughout the narrative by Arnold experiencing struggles of racism and poverty which is explained by what he learned and felt.
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie is novel that provokes a perceptive view through a Spokane Indian boy. Arnold Spirit Jr, the main character is on the hunt to better his future despite the tease for his medical conditions and deformities. Arnold lives on a reservation filled with lost hope, it is common to see a drunk, addicts, and abusers. But these are Arnold's least worries when he makes the life-changing decision to leave school on the reservation to attend Rearden. The backlash Arnold receives from his tribe of the reservation is unimaginable. Junior's identity develops through his experiences, interactions, and interests.