Flight: A Novel
Sherman Alexie
 

Michael, also known as Zits, is a troubled teen with violent fantasies who contemplates applying "justice" with firearms to commit a bank robbery and a mass shooting. He receives divine intervention, however, in the form of a flight through time and across different personalities, which helps him better understand himself and his circumstances.

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During the flight, Michael has an opportunity to reflect on his violent thoughts as he travels to the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Ghost Dances, and 9/11. At one point, he finds himself inhabiting a white FBI agent in the 1970s, interacting with collaborators on a reservation. Michael concludes that if he were to shoot random bystanders during his bank robbery, then he would be no better than this agent. At another point, Michael is reincarnated as an Indian boy at the impending Battle of the Little Big Horn, rendered voiceless by a wound inflicted by a white soldier. He contemplates revenge, but then finds himself in the body of a 19th-century Irish soldier, who deserts to save an Indian boy from an army massacre. This soldier, possibly an ancestor from his mother’s Irish-American side, realizes that the real traitors are those who betraying humanity by perpetrate the slaughter. The deserter stands for true justice and, while he may be martyred anonymously, preserves his humanity. 

 

Michael’s father is a mystery to him, having disappeared soon after he was born. Michael’s mother cherished him until she passed away at a young age. His white relatives neglected, abused, and abandoned him, and Michael wound up in foster care. The father he never knew embodies the complexity of Michael’s background, and the journey through time enables Michael to transcend his circumstances, leading him to conclude that resorting to violence would be treason against his own sense of humanity.

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During the flight, Michael steps into his father’s shoes and comes to understand why he abandoned his family. This insight helps Michael begin to move past his anger, resentment, confusion, and insecurity, and to embrace life with his supportive and positive “almost real family,” the adoptive family into which he is eventually placed.