The Importance Of Identity In Sherman Alexie's Flight

Flight, a novel by Sherman Alexie, is a novel depicting a young boy, who calls himself Zits, that struggles finding an identity to call his own. He has been an outcast most of his life, moving from one foster home to another. Zits constant change in environment has left him dull and deep down inside yearning for a father, a family, an identity. Sherman Alexie demonstrates Zits’ identity crises by emphasizing the characteristics and qualities of his ideal identity. Zits strongly believes his identity should contain traces of his Native American background as well as the pieces of himself he has left at each foster home.

Although Zits has not grown up with his Native American father, thus without his guidance he has formed judgements about Native

The only thing Zits new was that these two figures were famous to Native Americans because they had helped them against “evil Indian tribal government dudes.”(47) Consequently, Zits’ heroic perspective of them Is shattered when he sees them kill a person while helping the FBI. Zits seemed to have high expectations for these two men, sadly he realizes “they aren't freedom fighters or anything like that. They don't care about protecting the poor and defenseless.” (50) Zits’ is disappointed that the story he thought to be true has a bloodier prequel. This hurts his ideal Native American desire because it complicates his understanding of Native Americans. Zits’ sense of justice also played a significant part of his ideal identity, his understanding becomes even more disarrayed when he sees his Native American father take revenge in the second flight. In this flight Zits is put in the perspective of a young Native American boy who has had his throat slashed by a white soldier. Suddenly, a battle breaks out and Zits find himself surrounded by people taking revenge on the white soldiers for things they did to them. His temporary father calls him up to a hill where he is expected to slash