In the short stories "Flight", “A Drug Called Tradition”, as well as the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie, there are some ideas that can be seen in all three of the sources. Hiding is a main idea, whether it be from reality, identity or other things. “Flight” is the story of a young kid named John-John, John-John has spared $600 for his future, in spite of the fact that he doesn't know what he wants to do with it yet. His oldest sibling, Joseph, who is a military pilot was caught in war and has not been heard from since. John-John remembers Joseph's inspirational state of mind and delightful singing and moving. He wanders off in a fantasy land about every which way Joseph might get back home. The most awful of these fantasies is the one in which …show more content…
John-John recalls when Joseph would tease him about his double name, and together would come up with stories about why their mother named him that. One day, their mom tries to clean and disinfect the house yet John-John wouldn't go outside, even just for a couple of hours. He keeps on looking out the window daydreaming of Joseph and getting away from the reservation. Joseph holds that very positive place in John-John's heart; he was funny, danced and sang. This shows how much John-John is in denial and hiding from reality because he is essentially waiting for something that will never happen. There is nothing saying that Joseph is returning or... or is alive for that matter. From reading both the novel Flight as well as this short story; the title of "Flight" has a two sided connotation. It alludes to Joseph's employment as a pilot, as well as to John-John's longing to escape the reservation. On page 231, Alexie emphasizes how above everything else, all John-John needs to do is …show more content…
Thomas had thrown a party with the money he gets from allowing an electric company to have poles on his land, he ends up leaving the party, and is seen walking on the side of the rode by his boy Victor, and Victor’s friend Junior who had snuck out the party to take magic mushrooms at Benjamin Lake, and Thomas joins them. Thomas sees Victor taking a horse. This is followed by an interlude, described in the first person, in which the storyteller portrays taking a horse from an encampment that belongs to "The Others". Junior takes the mushrooms while driving, and describes Thomas as dancing naked. This is trailed by yet another intermission in which the Junior depicts Thomas is dancing out of sadness after his whole tribe has been exposed to and therefore killed by smallpox. The dancing has magical powers and sends all the white people back to Europe. At the end, Victor takes the mushrooms and sees Junior is singing. In a parallel history in which Native Americans have seized control over the United States. Alexie explores what it implies for his characters to be "real Indians" (20). The characters in this piece have a weird association with their way of life. Victor, Thomas, Junior feel profound ties to their Spokane custom, but the way they live life and the encounters they have are different from that
bystanders and blow craters in the sidewalk. Just when the two are about to be
Theme of Flight in Song of Solomon Clearly, the significant silences and the stunning absences throughout Morrison's texts become profoundly political as well as stylistically crucial. Morrison describes her own work as containing "holes and spaces so the reader can come into it" (Tate 125), testament to her rejection of theories that privilege the author over the reader. Morrison disdains such hierarchies in which the reader as participant in the text is ignored: "My writing expects, demands participatory reading, and I think that is what literature is supposed to do.
Twenty One Pilots is a band originating in Columbus, Ohio, formed by two people, Tyler Joseph, singer, songwriter, and ukulele player, and Josh Dun, drummer. Although the band only has two people in it, they have hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world, selling out their most recent tour, Blurryface Tour, out in seconds. When blindly looking at Macbeth and Twenty One Pilots, one may not be able notice any similar traits considering the first is a play written in 1606, and the other is a band that originated in 2009; both are completely different in form and are from contrasting eras. Despite these differences, the well-known Shakespearean play, Macbeth, and the band, Twenty One Pilots, share similar messages involving manipulation, the need for power, and suicide.
Flight is a major theme in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. “Flight echoes throughout the story as a reward, as a hoped-for skill, as an escape, and as proof of intrinsic worth; however, by the end this is not so clear a proposition”(Lubiano 96). Song of Solomon ends with ‘flight’ but in such a way that the act allows for multiple interpretations: suicide; "real" flight and then a wheeling attack on his "brother"; or "real" flight and then some kind of encounter with the (possibly) killing arms of his brother.
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
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.
In the book Flight #116 is Down Caroline B. Cooney, Heidi saw a plane crash in her yard. She was shocked to see what happen. Heidi knew she had to help all the people in the plane so She ran inside to call 911. First, Heidi helped by Letting all the hurt passengers to stay in her house and keep warm. Heidi was brave enough to lend her house to save them. Next, Heidi Was giving coats to all the hurt people that the hero's Couldn't help. Heidi gave coats to the people with not so severe injuries because they needed to stay warm because they were gonna be down there the longest. Lastly, Heidi helped a toddler that was in the cold and could die but Heidi had helped the toddler get in the house and stay alive. Finally, Heidi had helped people
Alexie uses characters throughout the stories to present the theme of assimilation. In the story “A Drug Called Tradition”, Victor, Thomas, and Junior leave the party in Junior’s Camaro. “The car looked mean. Mostly we just parked in front of the Trading Post and tried to look like horsepowered warriors” (Alexie pg 13). Junior and his friends try to fit in and act “cool” like the white people by using a nice looking car. In addition to this fact, in the story “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock”, Victor describes a photo of his father, saying that “my father is dressed in bell-bottoms and flowered shirt, his hair in braids, with red peace symbols splashed across his face like war paint” (Alexie pg 24-25). Victor’s father is dressed like a hippie. During this time, hippies were mainly white people, so Victor’s father is trying to assimilate himself with the white people. On the other hand, Revard ...
In the story “Fly Away Home,” by Eve Bunting. Andrew, the main character learns that there are a lot of obstacles and challenges that make you stronger. Some obstacles or challenges are, they don’t have a home, they don’t want to get caught and they are positive that they will get out of the airport.
Victor knew he was a Native American that lived on the reservation. However, as he has grown up, it seems he has forgotten the tribal ties of the Native Americans. The people of that culture consider everyone in the tribe to be family and they are not ashamed of who they are and where they come from. Towards the end of the fictional narrative it is said, “Victor was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community? The only real thing he shared with anybody was a bottle and broken dreams. He owed Thomas something, anything” (519). At the end of the story, Victor has finally realize that he is acting self absorbed. He realizes that this is not who he wants to be and he should not be ashamed to talk to Thomas Builds-a-Fire. Remembering his tribal ties, Victor gives half of his father 's ashes to Thomas. By doing that, Victor is thanking Thomas in his own way. Victor said, “listen, and handed Thomas the cardboard box which contained half of his father. “I want you to have this” (519). Individuals on the reservation thought Thomas was just a madman with weird stories. But in reality he was always true to his tribal identity and has even taught Victor how to get back to that. For example Thomas says, “I’m going to travel to Spokane Falls one last time and toss these ashes into the water. And your father will rise like a salmon, leap over the bridge, over me, and find his way
Sherman Alexie’s short story “Flight Patterns” is an intriguing story about many themes, including identity, stereotypes, and the illusions of society. The story is written from an American Indian’s viewpoint and provides and interesting and different perspective on identities and relations in America after the terrorist attack on Spetember 11, 2001. The main character William, a native American man who has a wife and a daughter named Marie and Grace respectively, leaves his family for a business trip. On his way to the airport, he encounters a black taxi driver, named Fekadu, who tells him his story. He is not sure whether or not he should believe it but by the end of their trip together William realizes how much he loves and cares for his
Howard Hughes appears to be the world’s most brilliant and eccentric aviator and movie director in the film The Aviator (Mann & Scorsese, 2004). He is admired, wealthy and powerful. However, throughout the course of the film, his eccentricities lead to significant impairment. Paranoia, impulsivity and fears of contamination plague his thoughts and behaviors. He becomes unable to cope with being in public and he cannot maintain personal or professional relationships. As a result, Howard is left isolated, losing his social support and success. It is evident that he has symptoms that are characteristic of both obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar I disorder. His behaviors become so impairing and distressing that they impact every sphere of
On August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines (Delta) flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Los Angeles, California, with an enroute stop at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Texas (DFW Airport). Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 airplane, departed Fort Lauderdale on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan with 152 passengers and a crew of 11 on board at 1510 eastern daylight time. The DFW Airport terminal weather forecast contained in the flight crew’s dispatch document package stated, in part, that there was a possibility of widely scattered rain showers and thunderstorms, becoming isolated after 2000 central daylight time. The dispatch package also contained company Metro Alert No. T87, valid to 2100, which stated that “an area of isolated thunderstorms is expected over Oklahoma and northern and northeastern Texas, a few isolated tops to above
It’s been one week since Sean, the father of Spencer, Sam, and Rachel, went to war. Sam feels torn apart about his father deployment. He feels like since he’s the oldest, he has to be a father figure for Spencer and Rachel. Sam misses his father very much and starts not acting like himself. Spencer has always been very focused on his school work and football and barely even notices that his dad isn’t home. Rachel is very sad that her father had to leave and is very scared that he could be in danger.
On the 14th of September in the year 1607 the Earl of Tyrone Hugh O’Neill and the Earl of Tyrconnel Rory O’Donnell fled Ireland alongside officials, their families and numerous Gaelic chieftains. They left Ireland from Rathmullen in County Donegal. This flee was to become known as the flight of the Earls. They arrived in the Spanish Netherlands and then eventually made their way to Rome. The Flight of the Earls led to the most drastic form of the British government’s policy of plantation in Ireland. The Flight of the Earls has remained as one of the most memorable events in the history of Ireland. But what exactly were the reasons for the Flight of the Earls? The causes have been debated by historians with different interpretations as to why they fled but it is clear that the influence of the Earls in Ireland have been diminished greatly in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls. This essay seeks to clarify the reasons for the decline in power of the Earls in Ireland through exploration of the solidification of British rule in Ireland, along with key events in the years prior to the Flight of the Earls such as Hugh O’Neill’s campaign and onto the nine years war and the Battle of Kinsale and the Treaty of Mellifont after the Battle of Kinsale.