Literary Analysis Essay on Flight by Sherman Alexi

Introduction

In the novel Flight, a different view of a person is presented by the author. The most evident technique that is used in this novel is time travel which is geared at leading the protagonist to a better life. In this novel, the idea is to try and fix problems or relationships that had already been broken. The protagonist in the novel is Zits (Alexie 1). Zits real name is Michael. He is 15 years old. Unfortunately, his mother passed on when he was six years old, and since then he has been taken up into about twenty foster homes. The issue of time travel applies to Zits. He ends up passing through a transition in time, which is believed to have resulted from the rough and tough past that he had experienced. This essay will address how the time travel that Zits experienced changed his perception of war, racism, and identity.

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Since the time that Zits lost his mum, he has been involved in many unlawful practices resulting from his drug addiction problem, stealing and disagreements with many of his foster parents. Since Zits was brought up in many foster homes, he feels that he is lost and does not have an identity. Zits real father was a native American while his birth mother was Irish. However, he did not have anything that was able to connect him to them. Zits went to the extent of trying to spend more time with other native people so that he could develop an identity but all in vain. Zits had racist thoughts initially. This is seen where he said he preferred spending time with the Indians who were learned and rich and not any other race (Alexie 7). It is with only this group of people where he felt like he was accepted.

In the novel, as Zits travels through time in form of flashbacks, he takes the form of various different individuals. One of them portrays Zits as an angry and troubled fifteen-year-old. An example of such is when Zits made a decision to enter a bank and kill every person in the bank. At the back of his mind, he thinks that by killing the whites, then both his parents will be brought to life and back to him. Contrary to this belief, when Zits undergoes transformations he starts to appreciate the true value of life and looks and human beings from a different view. Through reading the novel, one is able to observe the changes that occurred in Zit's attitude towards other people especially those from different races (Coulombe 131). The next character that Zits becomes is Hank Storm. As Hank Storm, he serves as an FBI agent, and his partner compels him to shoot an already dead boy. Initially, Zits refuses to shoot the dead boy terming the act as disrespect to the dead boy. However, after being convinced by his partner, he finally gives in to the orders and shoots the young boy. Thereafter, Zits collapses. Before he became Hank Storm, Zits had a different perspective with regard to the murder of an individual. Due to the suffering that he had undergone throughout his life, he felt that it was right to murder a person. Initially, he used to think that thru the act of killing others, he could be able to make things better. Later on, he seems to be so much against murder to the point that he views the shooting of someone who is dead as lack of respect for that person.

In another occurrence, when Zits was a young Indian boy, a white soldier slashed his throat making him lose his voice. Due to this, as a young Indian boy, in order to seek revenge, Zits slashes the throat of a white soldier during the battle between the Indians and the United States. Soldiers (Alexie 74). However, as Zits transforms, he begins to wonder if revenge is really a good human act. In his mind, he remembers the past where he was headed to the bank to kill all the white people in the bank. However, as he observes how violently the Indians were acting and how very many dead bodies were laying on the grass field, he feels sad and irritated. He simply felt pity for those soldiers who were killed. Another character that Zits changes into is Augustus Sullivan, who is a United States Indian Tracker, commonly referred to as Gus. The Indians had been responsible for the death of many of the white families (Coulombe 141). This made Gus organize and plan on how to lead his army into the Indian camp. In the course of leading his soldiers to the camp to attack the Indians, a certain event happens. One soldier decides to aid an Indian boy. In a turn of events, Gus decides to put his own life in jeopardy in order to save the Indian boy and the American soldier. Due to the fact that Zits tries to aid the white soldier, it means that his view towards the white soldiers had changed as compared to the past. This idea is further reinforced by the fact that the soldier had done nothing for Zits yet he had decided, out of his own will, to help the white soldier.

As Zits travels through time, life experiences also teach him about identity. This is evidenced when he views himself as Jimmy. Jimmy is an adulterous pilot who is caught by his wife in the act. In his mind, Zits is mesmerized as to why people decide to hurt others either physically or through the use of words. He feels sad for the two women who had been left by the pilot. Zits thinks about betrayal and he evens says "I am a betrayer" (Coulombe 142). He views himself as a betrayer since the people in the bank where he went to commit murder viewed and trusted him as a normal young boy and not a serial murderer. Jimmy is also disappointed for trusting his friend Abbad and offering him flying lessons. This is so because Abbad used the knowledge that he had accrued from Jimmy to go and hijack a plane and in the end crashing it hence resulting in the death of several people. Zits sympathizes with Jimmy and all that he had gone through and remembers about the instances he had betrayed people in his life especially those who did not come from his tribe. Zits realized that most of the people he betrayed were not from his race hence he realized that truly he belonged to that race.

Another character that Zits assumes is that of his father. The novel at this point portrays Zits father as a drunk man who overlooked his responsibility of being a father. Zit's father had been treated harshly by Zit's grandfather. It is in that moment that Zit realized that the major reason as to why his father abandoned them was because he was afraid and ashamed of becoming an abusive wife and father just like his father. Zit's father disliked the white people since he believed that all the problems that the Indians were experiencing were because of the whites. At this point, Zits realized like actually, he shared the same principles before just like his father thus meaning he shared an identity with his father. However, his transformation ad led him to change his views regarding such ideas and he no longer blamed the whites.

After wandering in various times and characters, Zits finally returns to his usual self and finds himself standing in the bank and everyone else in the bank is safe. At this point, Zits simply offers himself to the police and confesses what his motive was. Zits flashes back through all that he had experienced and concludes that he is tired of being hurt and consequently hurting other people. It is after all this experience that Zits realizes that the loneliness he was undergoing was his own fault. Zits found out that he had lived most of his life shutting people out of his life and it was very difficult for him to allow anybody into his life due to what he had undergone throughout his life. After submission to the police officers, Zits undergoes a lot of counseling sessions and eventually he is sent to live with a friend of one of the police officers whom he knew quite well (Alexie 181). In that new home, he is treated in a loving and caring manner as compared to any other foster home in which he had lived.

Conclusion

Throughout this novel by Sherman Alexi, it is evident that Zits, Michael, has undergone transformations and has learned something from them. Zits views regarding war, racism, and identity are changed in the novel from negative views to positive views (Berglund & Jan 4). This novel portrays the reality in life. To change and become good and fruitful people, we ought to view at life from different perspectives so as to see the greater good in other people.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman: Flight. Groove Atlantic: New York, 2007.

Berglund, Jeff, and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie: A collection of critical essays. University of Utah Press, 2011.

Coulombe, Joseph L. "The Efficacy of Humor in Sherman Alexie's Flight: Violence, Vulnerability, and the Post-9/11 World." Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 39.1 (2013): 130-148.