Summary Of Alexie Sherman's Flight

Alexie Sherman’s Flight begins in modern day Seattle with Zits, half Native-American orphan. Having to deal with the grief of his mother’s death and father's abandonment, he develops a pessimistic outlook on his future.

Awaking in his new foster home, conflict with his foster parents starts immediately. Causing Zits to get arrested by Officer Dave, an officer who knows Zits from previous offenses yet acts sympathetic. While in jail, Zits meets Justice, an intelligent boy whom he shares similar views regarding the lack of Native-American rights. Connecting to Justice, Zits feels as if he is a part of the family that Zits never had. “I’m not afraid of myself for hugging him. I’m a fatherless kid who wants another teenager to be my father” (Alexie

Because of this, Zits is required to shoot a Native American man. “ Justice made killing make sense. But it doesn’t make sense does it?” (53). He thinks as he shoots.

Awaking at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876), he is inside the body of a mute Native American boy whose throat was slit by a white soldier. Infuriated by this, the boy’s father tells him to kill an innocent white soldier as revenge. Reminded of how he wanted to kill innocent people in the bank as revenge. Zits asked himself, “Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?”(77). Closing his eyes, Zits awakes in the body of Gus, an Indian tracker from the 19th century who is furious from how Native Americans brutally killed his people. Wanting to get revenge, Gus leads his group of blood-thirsty white soldiers to a Native American camp to open fire. Having no control over Gus’s rage, Zits watches in horror as people are killed. However, in all the destruction, a small saint saves a young Native American. Allying with the small saint, they flee. However, due to his old age, Gus is not able to go on any longer, telling them to go on without him, he says, “‘Save the kid!’”