Sherman Alexie's Flight Essay Topics

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.
Zit's first body switch was to an FBI agent named

Hank Storm. He soon realizes he has time traveled back to the 1975 Indigenous Rights Now movement in Idaho. As Hank, Zits learns that Hank and Art have been partners for twelve years. Hank is an insider and has a family that loves him, something that Zits does not have. He learns Hank's family does not know he kills people at his job. Elk and Horse bring a boy named Junior, a member of the Indigenous Rights Now movement for Hank and Art to interrogate. When Junior refuses to speak Art shoots and kills him and Zits, as Hank, is mortified. Elk and Horse find this odd, and tell him that they know what he's done and this should not be a problem for him, and they force Hank to shoot the already dead man. “Art looks hard at me. “Shoot Junior,” he says.” Alexie, Sherman
Zit's second body hop is to a little Indian child. The time period of this switch right before Custer's Last Stand at Little Bighorn. The Indian child has a father who loves him, something Zits feels he never had. Zits is very happy to be shown love and affection so he goes to scream "daddy!" Soon after no sound comes out he realizes he cannot speak. “I reach up, touch my throat, and feel a huge fleshy knot. It’s on my voice box. I don’t know if I was attacked by a person or by a disease, but my voice has been taken away.” Alexie, Sherman. He is horrified when he watches an attack that the Indians cause for the white men for revenge. He is forced to cut out a white boys vocal chords to get even because that's what they did to him.
Zits third transformation is to an old man named Gus who was in the army.

He is an Indian tracker, a person who hunts down Indians for other people to kill. There was a massacre of the Indian Village and there he spots a soldier saving an Indian child. Gus would have turned them over but Zits as Gus helps them. He understands that the soldier joined the army to help people and that's exactly what he was doing. “These are not my thoughts. This is not my sadness. This all belongs to Gus, and his grief and rage are huge, so my grief and rage are huge, too, and I scream as I lead one hundred soldiers down the hill into the Indian camp.” Alexie,

Sherman
In the forth change, Zits becomes a pilot named Jimmy. As Zits was sitting in the plane for the first time he thinks of a picture of his mother sitting in a jet that his father took. He becomes sad thinking of how cancer took his mother and he is hoping the plane is leading to Heaven to go see her again. Jimmy also has family problems, he cheats on his wife Linda of twenty years with a woman named Helga. Linda throws Jimmy out of the house after she catches him with another woman. Jimmy's best friends name is Abbad, who taught Jimmy how to fly. Abbad wonders why Jimmy spends more time with his plane than with his own wife. “Jimmy, you are a fool,” Abbad says. “You have a beautiful wife at home and you spend all your time with your airplane.” Alexie, Sherman. Abbad took over a plane a purposely crashed it with his wife and kid in it. After Linda sees Jimmy with Helda, he takes his plane and crashes it.
The fifth and final transformation is heartwarming to say the least.

Zits becomes his father and understands that he does love him. He learns that his father had as bad of a life as Zits, maybe even worse. His father was a homeless Indian who lived on the streets. Zit's father's father was horrible to him, therefore he was nervous he'd be a bad father when Zits was born. He was so terrified of that thought that he walked out of Zits' life right after his birth. He does love Zits though because at all times he carries a picture of Zits with him. “I stare at the photograph. It is me, the five-year-old me. The five-year-old Zits. The real me.” Alexie,

Sherman
Towards the end of the novel we learn that Zits was abused by his aunt's boyfriend. He tells his aunt that he is being sexually abused and his aunt hits him. The boyfriend continuously tells Zits that no one will ever love him. He tells him this until Zits actually believes it. As Zits travels from foster home to home he keeps that thought of no one loving him in mind, so he doesn't let anyone love him. I think Zits thinks that if you don't let someone into your life then they can't hurt you. Overall, Zits learns that every family has their issues and that if he doesn't let people into his life, then no one will come in. He learns to embrace his inner beauty and be a better person. He most importantly realizes that he controls his own life.