Sherman Alexie's Flight Patterns

The story "Flight Patterns" by Sherman Alexie begins as the main character, William, wakes up to the sound of his alarm and prepares for his day of travels. It is in the first few paragraphs of this short story that I initially question why this literary work is entitled "Flight Patterns". As I turned the page, my question is later answered. Although, it was not answered before reading seemingly pointless information about Williams life, such as: his taste in music, his weekly exercise regimen, he is a Spokane Indian, or that he religiously practices chiropractic exercises every morning. It became apparent to me that William is a sort of white-collar worker whose job requires him to frequently fly around the United States. Although, I did not understand why William often brings up his ethnicity, and that of others, when describing the world around him. I was slightly confused as to why it was so important to acknowledge so many characters solely by their ethnicity. After Learning that the story takes place about a year after the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks, I began to see a correlation as to why the appearances of the people in the airport may be important to the story.
Before William leaves for the airport, I was introduced to his wife and his daughter, Marie and Grace. Aside from his wife also being Spokane Indian, Marie appears to be wildly opposite in every way from William. A direct example of their dissimilar personalities is in page. 55, when the author explains that William is "obsessive about his mane", while Marie's hair is "unkempt, wild, and renegade". Perhaps their hair could be a symbol for the kinds of people they are. William-a perfectionist, while Marie-a free-spirit. In page 56 Marie pleads for him to miss his flight and to join her in bed. Of course, William being a sensible and rational thinker, he denies his wife and proceeds to say goodbye to his daughter. As a line in page 57 states, " Already quite sure he was only an adequate husband, he wondered, as often as he did, if he was a bad father." This makes me question if the impact of his job is healthy for anyone in his family. It also makes me wonder why he would continue with this career if he is aware his family is suffering emotionally.
As William meets Fekadu, the taxi driver taking him to the airport, there is a great discussion between the two characters.
Much of their conversation is based on race and the views of others. They discuss that after the September 11th attacks that they feel they are more commonly identified by their skin tones. In this discussion Fekadu said something that stood out to me. He said, " we are all trapped by other people's ideas, aren't we?" (cite) . I feel that single line stands for the entire narrative. Throughout the story William identifies every person by their skin tone. It made me see a possible theme: that you are unable to control what others think of you, nor how you are identified in their eyes. Since the 9/11 attacks, how others label William and Fekadu has changed. After completing the short narrative, I feel that the authors purpose was to address an issue that may be overlooked in today's
society.