In-Depth Study and Comparison: Sherman Alexie’s Flight Pattern and Breaking and Entering

Although Apess holds somewhat of a grudge against the white man, his autobiography serves as an honest look into the life of a typical Native American in the

On the eve of the narrator and his family 's departure for the United States after twelve years of residence in Paris, the narrator is being chided by his wife and visiting sister about his nightmares. He is worried about his return to the racist United States after such a long absence and what effect it will have on his multiracial family and his career.

Throughout the book “Flight” by Sherman Alexie the main character Zits is in search of where he belongs and why people have mistreated him throughout his life. In the midst of the action in the novel, Zits begins to experience character jumps, where he is trapped in the body of different characters. Each character jump that Zits has contributes to his growth into becoming more mature by allowing him to expand his perspectives and reflect on his own ideology. The most significant jumps are into the bodies of the little Indian boy, Jimmy the pilot, and his father. These jumps force Zits to develop his present ideas about revenge, violence, and forgiveness.

They are also Sherman's way to express the strong frustrations and many issues he experienced growing up as an American Indian in the school system. In the eighth grade chapter, for example, he suddenly jumps from his rather funny remark to the anorexic school girl to give him her lunch because she "is just going to throw it up anyway" to the grim reality his family is facing at home in their limited choices of food and concludes the chapter with "There is more than one way to starve." Other remarks are quite glum such as the one at the end of the sixth grade chapter where his lesson learned is that in the white world it is better to "always throw the first punch." I do not feel Alexie is speaking literally but uses more of a hyperbole styled text to get his points across. One of his main points of the story I interpreted was that he just wanted to inform people of what he went through, along with also showing his family and friends on the reservation what he did to be successful to encourage them to do the

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

In the story “Four Stations in His Circle”, Austin Clarke reveals the negative influences that immigration can have on people through characterization of the main character, symbols such as the house that Jefferson dreams to buy and the time and place where the story takes place. The author demonstrates how immigration can transform someone to the point that they abandon their old culture, family and friends and remain only with their loneliness and selfishness.

Alexie wants to show how he is affected by racism in his time and how even though there have been laws passed not to discriminate against people. Whenever police brutality is a main issue in today's era, then that means that racism has not been resolved. Alexie is proving the issue and proving that it has permanently scarred people to where they can’t fall asleep knowing they will be okay in the morning. Whereas the people that are causing this to people of colored decent, sleep as if nothing had happened to them and they are not even realizing how much hurt they are causing other people.

Avey’s next revelation appears in the course of the night she spends in the Grenadian hotel. Her dead husband’s figure emerges in her dream as the second wakeup call Avey needs to understand that the perspective she and Jay adopted over the last decades of their marriage disconnected them from “the most vivid [and] most valuable part of themselves” (Marshall, 1983: 139). But these pieces that simply have gone missing was in fact an attempt on their side to gain social parity with America’s white society.

Sherman Alexie writes in his story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem about a homeless Salish Indian named Jackson Jackson. Alexie takes readers on Jackson’s journey to acquire enough money to purchase back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia. Throughout the story, Jackson’s relationships with other charters ultimately define his own character. Alexie, a well know Native American author tells an all too common tale of poverty and substance abuse in the Native American community through his character Jackson. The major character flaw of Jackson is his kindness, which ultimately becomes his greatest asset when fate allows him to purchase back his grandmother’s powwow regalia from a pawn broker for only five dollars.

Sherman Alexie is an accomplished author and winner of multiple awards for his works. In his short story “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” the author tells a story of a homeless Native American who is trying to win back his grandmother's outfit. To bring back happiness and love into his life. The character in this story, Jackson Jackson, lives mainly alone on the streets. He has several friends, but they all end up leaving him and most likely dieing “I wanted to share the good news with Junior. I walked back to him, but he was gone”( Alexie 1441). Jackson Jackson also has no family; he is far away from his childhood home, and all his family has died leaving him alone and uncared for.

Profiling people can cause a brick wall to be built between one another; a wall that cannot easily be knocked down. The person that is doing the profiling has to take the bricks down one-by-one as if each brick reveals information, beyond physical appearance. Once the wall is down a transparent window forms with a beautiful view. There is more to a person than their exterior and class, just like there is more to room then walls. When profiling someone, people do not look past the brick wall; they build it higher and higher. When someone takes the time to get to know someone else the wall comes downs; at that time, people get a clear view of who people are, which could be beautiful. Profiling causes people to become engulfed by other people 's perceptions of who they are and becomes a conflict between racial heritage and human nature. Through the characters, setting, and tone of “Flight Patterns,” Sherman Alexie shows that profiling can lead to the misinterpretation of who someone is.

As she takes the window seat, suddenly, a mom and daughter arrive at their seats in shock. The black lady could see the daughter and mom freaking out about her presence by the window seat. Even the black lady was capable of, financially flying was shocking to them. The mom did not want her daughter sitting next to the black woman. Instead of the mom setting an example to her daughter of being kind to everyone, she hesitantly offers to sit in the middle” (12).

Owens’ also argues that Alexie’s use of dark humor portrays the Native Americans in his stories as so called “savages” which brings the thought of, why does Sherman Alexie use dark humor? Alexie uses humor to address uncomfortable or confrontational subjects and in no way trying to hurt or discriminate anyone while doing so. Humor is often the only way to address such topics. Humor also, releases tension for characters and the person reading the story. When things start to get too intense or overwhelming, throwing in a little humor could release the tension.

Alexie Sherman authors a short story intitled “Flight Patterns” which at first glance has the appearance of being nothing more than a family man taking a taxi-cab ride to the airport. The main character, William, is presented as a Native American living in Seattle, Washington with his wife and young daughter. “Flight Patterns” takes place after the devastating and tragic events of September 11th, 2001 and dives into the experiences William faced since that historic day. However, the story is more than meets the eye as William experiences a perspective change on life and family. William evolves from being a father and husband wondering “what if” to leaving his bags behind in a sprint towards a telephone.

Life is just like an unopen book where nobody knows what one can find in there. The feeling of been helped by someone you don’t await is very special. Sherman Alexis story is very is very powerfully written and in terms of cultural trauma, they are really reflecting on the experience of modern Native American characters. Even though the story is not necessarily just about life on the reservation it in term of the story those events are still hunting the removal to the reservation. This kind of lasting and unresolved cultural trauma is there on the background. The story “This is what it means To Say Phoenix, Arizona" is a very amazing story that tell us story of two young sentiments. They were both