Flight Essay

Flight Essay

Sherman Alexei's flight shows us that living the life of someone else can help you find yourself. Zits, a time traveling boy, is sent back in time to live through problems and lessons that relate to his life through the bodies of others. In the beginning Zits struggles with more problems than the average 15 year old would. Bouncing around from house to house in foster care without finding a “home”, built a shell of anger and frustration, that Zits couldn't seem to brake out of.

Zits first time warp, brought him into the body of Hank, an FBI agent that had involvement in the Indian act. When his partner shoots a young Indian boy in the face after failed interrogation, he then insists on Hank shooting him too “I want us to be in this one together”. We see the same kind of manipulative behavior in reality when Justice, his acquaintance from jail, tricks Zits into going to the bank with the guns, which is where the time traveling started.

The second body Zits temporarily invades, is one of a small mute Indian boy. The father of the little boy is the closest thing Zits has ever had to a father and he is overcome with happiness. When the boys father gives Zits a chance to get revenge and slit a white soldiers throat, just as another had done to the boy, he hesitates. He starts to understand that this young man hadn't done anything to him; it wasn't his fault that a barbaric fellow soldier had taken away the boys voice, if he did this he would be just as villainous. The bank is a prime example of pointless revenge, in Zits life. Zits begins to accept the fact that all of his problems and pain wasn't the fault of the people in the bank he had the guns pointed at, and that shooting them wouldn't offer any satisfaction. An old white soldier named Gus, is Zits next new body. When leading the other soldiers to the Indian camp, Zits tries to divert from the path and lead them elsewhere, but is stopped by Gus who still has a small amount of control over his body “I cant completely control Gus. I can move his arms and legs. I can talk with his voice. And think my own thoughts. But Gus is stronger than I am.” Gus symbolizes the internal conflict Zits has with himself everyday, he wants to change but is constantly fighting the defensive habits he's developed. In his attempt to save the little Indian boy, there is a strong urge to turn back, but Zits is now strong enough to push through and overcome Gus.

Zits thinks back to his first foster home. He was happy and well behaved there, his family treated him with respect and cared for him. Until his foster father took him out to fly toy air planes and lashed out on Zits, crashing both of there air planes into trees. This flashback ties into the next time traveling experience Zits has as Jimmy the pilot. Abbad led Jimmy to believe he was trustworthy, a friend, but ended up turning on him just like Zits foster father had done to Zits. Jimmy is so hurt and confused from this betrayal that he ends up cheating on his wife and committing suicide. Zits sees through the eyes of Jimmy that if he doesn’t move on from the past, he could risk hurting not only himself but others as well. Another character that had trouble moving on from the past was Zits father. When Zits transformed into his drunken homeless father he flashes back to his unfortunate childhood. Growing up with a terrible father lead Zits father to believe he wasn’t good enough to raise Zits. He didn’t want to make the same mistakes his father had, so decided it would be best to leave both Zits and his mother. Before transforming into his father Zits had always thought of his father as a dead beat that left his mother as she was giving birth, but after seeing what he had gone through he understands why he had to leave.

Zits learns many important lessons as he lives his problems through the eyes of others. He realizes he’s not the only one that struggles in life, and sees how his actions can affect others. As Zits lives though each new body he learns more and more about himself. With a new understanding of his father, and himself his actions are no longer driven by anger and fear. Zits became proud of who he is and realized it's okay to be Michael.