Sherman Alexie Flight Patterns Summary

Sherman Alexie the author of the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" was born and raised on a Spokane Indian Reservation. Growing up, his family did not have a lot of money, yet today Alexie is known as one of the most prominent Native American writers. Alexie reminisces on his childhood when he first taught himself how to read. In the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" Sherman Alexie suggests, that for Native Americans reading is the key to education and education is the key to prosperity in life.

Despite mistaking fear with stereotyping, his skin color does come into play when deciding the factors that would cause one to avoid him or run away, but he does have to realize that the place and time of the event does matter just as much. Most drivers who lock their car doors at the sight of him are more paranoid at the risk of having a stranger attempt to break in and harm them; he did also mention that it didn’t matter whether that person was black and white, man and woman (Staples 369). After all, I would have avoided

Authors write for many reasons; most often because they want to tell a story. This is definitely the case with Sherman Alexie, “a poet, fiction writer, and filmmaker known for witty and frank explorations of the lives of contemporary Native Americans.” He grew up on the Spokane and Coeur D’Alene Indian Reservations, and has devoted much of his adult life to telling stories of his life there. Alexie expertly uses language and rhetorical devices to convey the intensity and value of his experiences.

Many tragic events happen in this short story that allows the reader to create an assumption for an underlying theme of racism. John Baldwin has a way of telling the story of Sonny’s drug problem as a tragic reality of the African American experience. The reader has to depict textual evidence to prove how the lifestyle and Harlem has affected almost everything. The narrator describes Harlem as “... some place I didn’t want to go. I certainly didn’t want to know how it felt. It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality” (Baldwin 60). Another key part in this story is when the narrator and Sonny’s mother is telling the story of a deceased uncle. The mother explains how dad’s brother was drunk crossing the road and got hit by a car full of drunk white men. Baldwin specifically puts emphasis on the word “white” to describe the men for a comparison to the culture of dad and his brother.

A lack of self-awareness tended the narrator’s life to seem frustrating and compelling to the reader. This lack often led him to offer generalizations about ““colored” people” without seeing them as human beings. He would often forget his own “colored” roots when doing so. He vacillated between intelligence and naivete, weak and strong will, identification with other African-Americans and a complete disavowal of them. He had a very difficult time making a decision for his life without hesitating and wondering if it would be the right one.

“Flight Patterns” by Sherman Alexie is a story about a man and his ride to the airport. The man is named William and he takes a taxi to the airport. His taxi driver starts making conversation and by the end of the story William has a lot to think about. “Flight Patterns” focuses heavily upon race and identity with the two main characters being people of color. Throughout the short story William and Fekadu reflect on societies preconceptions based on the skin color. Fekadu and William often found themselves trapped by other people’s ideas.

"Flight Patterns" brings together two Americans of different ethnic backgrounds but dark sides, One a Native American businessman who is afraid of flying and the other a short, thin black man from Ethiopia who is a cab driver. They realize they find a bond that brings them together like never before.

The essay that I am writing stems from the short story by Sherman Alexie titled “Flight Patterns”. In this story it gives us some insight on even though people are subjected to discrimination, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.

Sherman Alexie the author of the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" was born and raised on a Spokane Indian Reservation. Growing up his family did not have a lot of money, yet today Alexie is known as one of the most prominent Native American writers. Alexie reminisces on his childhood when he first taught himself how to read. In the essay "The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me" Sherman Alexie suggests, that for Native Americans reading is the key to education and education is the key to prosperity in life.

The key theme of the novel is the cruelty faced by humans due to a persons skin color and being held against their will in

Racism is something that is surrounding William yet he frowns upon it. This is very contradictory because, although he is so quick to clarify that he is Native American brown, not dangerous brown. William is self conscious about himself and does not want his color to define him, yet at the same time he claims he takes pride is his color. In “flight patterns” the story is told in the narrator’s point of view. This is important

He is very conflicted within himself because of his mind, this is a year after the horrendous events of 9/11; therefore, security everywhere is at an all-time peak so that another event such as 9/11 will not occur again; because post 9/11 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created to increase security not only in airports but also on airplanes by “locking cockpits and only pilot from inside the cockpit is allowed to unlock doors” (Garofalo). However, William being weak is also his strength because he does not let the racial profiling inflict who he is as a person. William strives on others misfortune as he explained how he laughed at all the white men who were “randomly” searched at the airports because of the new security also when he describes the incident on the street “I was walking out of my gym downtown, and this big phallic pickup pulled up in front of me in the crosswalk. Yeah, this big truck with big phallic tires and a big phallic flagpole and a big phallic flag flying, and the big phallic symbol inside leaned out of his window and yelled at me, ‘Go back to your own country!’” (Alexie 62), William did not see this as a hate crime but a crime of irony because in history the Native Americans were in America first and foreigners invaded their

Alexie shows a vivid picture of William, who is the main character of the story, he is a loving father, husband, and businessman who cares about his appearance; which means he cares about what people think of him, and he knows people profile him. His wife is a loving, carefree women; which is entirely opposite of William. She does not care what people think of her. In addition, William is Native Indian; he has dark skin and his long hair that he keeps in a lovely braid, which is a symbol of his

Langston Hughes also uses characterization in this poem. The poem is a narrative on a specific character. Hughes describes in detail the background and interests. As soon as he leaves the classroom he starts thinking about his assignment and what he is going to write. This speaks to the characters drive and strive for his education. His race is also his struggle that allowed him to move to the north. Hughes shares what he loves to do, what he is passionate about, his knowledge, and his choice of music. His identity is clear and never questioned. Hughes knows who he is and what he is capable of accomplishing.

I am trying to save our lives.” Sherman Alexie was a hero for some, however, for others he was just a man trying to convince Indian children they are more than what they have been told their whole lives. He once was a small Indian child that lived on the reservation and was also expected to fail. Alexie told himself he was going to do great things and that he was smart enough to do it. He knew what it was like to be thrown under the bus and told he couldn't do it.