Flight Patterns Loman Analysis

In the story “Flight Patterns” humor is presented in times of uncomfortable, confusion and realization from the main character William Loman. Who is never able to sleep due to his stress over having to pick work over family and personal struggles related to questioning if he really is a good husband and father. Loman uses humor in this story to mask what he really is feeling such as making a joke about being the only Indian in his neighborhood, when the taxi driver asks him his ethnicity, and also when the taxi driver and Loman where exchanging their last words. In the beginning when Loman is headed to Chicago to do business he starts to converse with the taxi man who is responsible to get Loman to the airport, start to discuss about their personal life. Moments before this Loman, tries to keep his mind busy in order to not remember the heart ache of leaving his family for business. He instead remembers how he always jokes about being the first Indian family to move into his neighborhood. Loman states “They were the very first Indian Family to ever move into a neighborhood and bring up the property values!” (Loman 60). Though later into the paragraph the narrator reveals that Lowman makes that joke due to discomfort, which he then states “William always felt uncomfortable, so he

Soon Fekadu asks him about his ethnicity and Loman instantly seems offended and in which the taxi driver apologize. Although the do laughs it off this time the humor that is shown is to conclude that Loman laughs it off because he does not like the attention being brought to him. In the story the narrator explains to the audience that, “William was always being confused for something else. He was ambiguously ethnic, living somewhere in the darker section of the Great American Crayola Box” (Loman 61). Which proves he is not comfortable talking about his