Flight Patterns

Nick Rydal Jensen Professor Asc belli HUM 102-002 12 February 2009 Flight Patterns Sherman Alexie’s ”Flight Patterns” is a story intimately the feeling of be torn amongst your true heritage and identity, and the modern sort of life history that strays away from your ancestor’s beliefs and behaviour. As we advert in the story, William is Spokane Indian and he tries to stick to the norms and customs of his legacy, hardly at the same time he lives in the States and is the “owner of a twenty- scratch-century Ameri clear approximation” (p. 37; all told page references be to the class text, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Portable ed.). He is influenced consciously and so far sub-consciously by the American way of life, in such(prenominal) a way that he represents both his Spokane Indian tradition, and the position of cosmos an American at the same time. nevertheless in the opening scene of t he story we see examples of the contradictions between William universe Spokane Indian and beingness American. As we meet William for the first time, he is awakened by the tunes of an American artist, Donna Fargo, who is singing about being the happiest girl in the USA.

William remembers the lady’s authoritative name, he memorizes all of Elizabeth Taylor’s nine husbands and he even knows the settlement of Independence by heart. He has a twenty-first-century American hear and he seems to know “all of the great puffy and footling little American details” (p. 37). One of the characteristics of an American mind could be the desire of always wanting more than wha t you have. William can’t seem to choo! se between his ancestors and being a true American, so he wants it all; “ thirst was his criminal offense” (p. 37). An interesting scene in the story is when William and his wife are about to have sex, because it gives us an example of the cave in in William’s mind. William has to leave the house or else he will be late for his flight that he needs to get on...If you want to get a full essay, posit it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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