Flight Sherman Alexiie Sparknotes

Flight by Sherman Alexie follows a half-Native teenage orphan
named Zits as he discovers himself and his history in an unconventional way. Throughout the book, Zits travels through time, changing bodies as he goes. Through this, he learns to find peace with himself, his mistakes, and his past. Three of the bodies he inhabits include: an FBI agent in the seventies, a young Indian boy in the 1800s, and even his own father. All three of these help Zits come to terms with his life, and how his past affects him, both directly and indirectly.
The first body he inhabits is of a man named Hank Storm, an FBI
agent on an Indian Reservation in the seventies. Zits is able to understand a part of modern Native American history through him. Hank is white, with blonde hair and blue eyes, which Zits attributes as a sign of beauty. Through being Hank, he understands that these do not strengthen one’s character, for Hank and his partner are murderers. After meeting Hank’s wife and kids as Hank, Zits learns to see Hank as something other than a murderer. In the book he says: “I wonder if she knows that Hank kills people. I wonder if she knows that Hank helped kill a man a few nights

ago. I wonder if she would still love Hank if she knew. I suspect she might. I suspect she sees Hank as her protector, as her children’s protector. Hank makes the world safe. He is a good and loving husband and father. He is one hundred different versions of himself, and only one of them is a killer.” (Alexie, pg.50)
The second body he inhabits is of a young Indian boy during the Battle of Little Bighorn. Through the boy, Zits experiences an authentic Native American life. He knows from experience how Indian life is today, and through the boy he gets to see his history, the good and the bad parts of it. Also, through the boy he experiences what it’s like to have a father. Zits says “ Well, okay, he’s the father of the kid whose body I’m inside at the moment. But as long as I’m this kid, this man is my father. And since I never knew my real Indian Father, I feel like I’m going to explode. I want to hug this guy forever and ever.” (Alexie, pg.54) This is the first time we see Zits show affection for another person.
One of the final bodies Zits inhabits is his father’s.

He is a homeless alcoholic, and after asking a concerned woman what his appearance is, Zits realizes he is an Indian in his fifties. He doesn’t realize he is in his father’s body until he opens up his wallet and finds a picture of himself when he was a child. Zit’s father represents what he will become if he keeps going down a destructive, hateful path. To empathize with and forgive his father are his final obstacles. In the book he says, ”And what should I do now that I am looking into the mirror at the face of a man who betrayed and abandoned my mother and me? If I had a sword, I might slide it into my belly and pull upward until I fell dead, but I have no weapon. And what satisfaction is there in killing a man who wants to die?” (Alexie,

pg.121)
Zits goes through these bodies to find peace within himself. Though Hank he sees that just because society finds you beautiful, doesn’t mean you are. Though the young boy, Zits sees what Native American life was like, and what it is like to have a father. And through his own father, Zits learns to be empathetic to and forgive his father. All of these and more are ways in which Zits learns to forgive himself, his mistakes, and his past. And how he evolves from the beginning of the book to the end.