Summary Of Flight Patterns By Sherman Alexie

Sherman’s Alexie’s “Flight Patterns” main character is William. William is described as a very “paranoid” character who loves his family, job, wife, and daughter. He travels a lot for which he hates because that means he has to leave his family. He had a very close bond with his family who loved him very much. He blames his health issues on the amount of sleep he gets. Which is little to none. “He always slept poorly and wondered again if his insomnia was a physical or a mental condition” As told in the beginning of the story, he is scared to take sleeping pills. This short story takes place shortly after September 11, 2001. Flight Patterns tries to communicate how racial profiling is still going on nowadays. Not just by one specific type of race, but every race has stereotypes. William himself is a victim of this. “William himself was a little brown guy, so the other travelers were always sniffing around him, but he smelled only of Dove soap, Mennen deodorant, and sarcasm” This quote took place the airport. This story shows us that racial profiling still occurs today, also that it can happen anywhere and everywhere no matter what part
The mother panics that her daughter may turn out to be a “slut.” She tells her “not to squat while playing marbles, not to sing any Antiguan folk songs in Sunday school, and to always walk like a lady.” Throughout the story, the mother gives tries to teach her daughter how to properly grow up and be responsible. That involves how to run a house hold and most importantly to respect herself, because that is the only way she receive respect from others around her. She teacher her daughter that it is important to know how to do simple chores, such as laundry, sewing, ironing, cooking, setting the table, and sweeping. The mother may seem like she’s going overboard, but she only does this for her daughter because she loves and cares about her