Flight By Sherman Alexie Analysis

Many people get betrayed every day, whether it's a person next door, a loved one, or someone you met on the street. In the book Flight by Sherman Alexie the main character Zits is betrayed several times throughout the book. Zits has endured an unfair childhood until one day he shoots people in a bank and wakes up in the body of a new person. Zits jumps through time and places witnessing events and talking to different people. From these experiences, the author Shurman Alexie sends a message about how your perception of things, people, and yourself change.

Zit changes after being betrayed by people he idolized. At the beginning of the book, Zits describes himself as “Irish and Indian” and how he thinks it is “the coolest blend in the world” (5). When he is transported to Little Big Horn he witnesses the Indians “desecrating the bodies of dead white soldiers” (73) after they won the battle. From this Zits questions if it was self-defense, “wasn't it self defense”(73). Zits identifies himself with his race thinking the Indians were good people who were wronged. However, In Little Bighorn, his vision of his kin is destroyed by what he witnesses. This is a betrayal from the picture he has in his head of them, and after he cannot justify their actions. This betrayal changes his outlook on whom he thinks he is and associates himself with.

Zit’s unmasked truth is when he finds out about who he is as a person. At the start of the book he directs the reader by telling them,” Call me Zits” and stating that.”(his) real name is not important” (1) However at the end of the book, accompanied by a new foster family he says, "My name is Micheal, please call me Michael.” (181). This shows that after witnessing actions he stops betraying himself by finding out who he is. Zits unveils whom he is by not categorizing himself by race or appearance. After this betrayal to himself was discovered he found who he was as a person.