Sherman Alexie's Flight Patterns

795 Words2 Pages

Tianna Thibou (Angl)
Warren Burdine
16/FA-HMS-101A-50
9/28/16
FLIGHT PATTERNS
In Sherman Alexie's short story, "Flight Patterns", the story's setting is in Seattle, Washington a year after the 9/11 attacks. The main character is William, is a middle class paranoid workaholic Spokane Indian. His sales job consist of him flying on planes for the majority of his life. He has a wife and daughter who loves him unbearably. The next supporting character in the short story is a taxi driver named Fekadu who is from Ethiopia. Alexie has used this short story to portray the bigger picture about how after 9/11, many people have started racially profiling and labeling others and/or themselves out of force of habit. He does this through the use of …show more content…

Earlier in the conversation Fekadu has already asked William "What are you?" (114 Alexie) Fekadu has not forgot William's answer he refers to him as American by his lifestyle or way of living. Without meaning to, Fekadu's "American" also refers to Wlliam's experience when flying. He "always scanned the airports and airplanes for little brown guys who reeked of fundamentalism." (Alexie 107) William can't help but racially profile the men because of the attacks on 9/11. This is why it's ironic to call William, "William …show more content…

Fekadu also refutes these stereotypes through his life stories. Most African American are stereotyped as poor, uneducated, violent people. Even William assumed Fekadu was "a black man with a violent." (Alexie 114) until proven wrong. Fekadu has claimed he studied physics and the "art of flight" (Alexie 120) at Oxford. Although he did kill his own people in Ethiopia, he did it under orders of Selassie, a ruler. Realizing he couldn't be a killer to his own people, this cause him to move away leaving his family

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