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Racism And Discrimination In Sherman Alexie's Flight Patterns

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Sherman Alexie presents the contradiction between heritage and nature as the main idea in this short story since it is related to people from a diverse background and race. Regardless of their own origin, it takes time for people to realize who they are and how they would like to live their own lives. William integrated his life by living through the way of Caucasian culture. Overall, the main idea of this story is that there is an underlying trend going on about how racism is more prominent in the coming years even if people don’t realize it. A certain inconsistency which results in people basing others of different backgrounds upon stereotypes and general knowledge without taking the time to consider who they are. Sherman Alexie details this by focusing on the life of minorities after the 9/11 Terrorist attacks and the increase in racism and discrimination. Flight patterns places the importance on the conflicts which face a Native American man who is staying informed within modern times. William is a man who tries to balance family, identity, and career over everything else. A …show more content…

The generalizations become apparent in this point to where Fekadu thought William was rich based upon this appearance, while on the other hand William looked at the scar on the back of his neck and considered him to have a violent past. William did not believe Fekadu when talking about his degree to Oxford and his past. Even though they are both from different places, they experience the same type of discrimination. But he becomes interested in his life when Fekadu gets deeper into his life story. “William didn’t know how this ceremony was supposed to end. He felt small and powerless against this collected history” (66). After this moment, William finally seen the true example of a man without a family. He realized he was going to ensure he wasn’t going to lose his family no matter

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