Kathryn Ann Waller
Jim McManmon
GC1Y Social Problems
03 May 2016
Identification and Authenticity in Flight Identity and authenticity are two important roles played in the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie. Naomi Zack uses these two concepts as focus points in a chapter of her philosophical book Thinking About Race. Flight revolves around a boy, Zits, who is in search for his identity after a life of foster care and abandonment led him to lose his sense of citizenship. In her book, Zack talks about the different ideas of identity and authenticity within people but especially in minorities. We learn that Zits is a minority when he lets the readers know that he is half Irish and half Indian. He chooses not to identify with that and instead …show more content…
Everybody calls me Zits. That’s not my real name, of course. My real name isn’t important.” (1) The first lines of the book immediately portray identity insecurity within the main character. In Thinking about Race Zack explains that “identity is about an individual that he or she reflects on, accepts and develops, in the self. A person’s identity is his or her private ideas about who are what she is.” (75) She elaborates on the idea of identity and explains that each individual person has different ways of accepting their identity, and can be based on family, hobbies, gender or race. Zits has never had any stable family or hobby which immediately sparks an issue with his personal identity and leads him to choose to identify with his lack of beauty. This identity problem is what causes him pain and sadness throughout the novel. Zack also includes that identification relates to how others identify people. Zits chooses to identify people depending on their physical appearances and wealth. He finds himself relating more to the homeless Indians rather than the rich ones but he can’t seem to hate the rich ones because he doesn’t really know them. Throughout the novel, he realizes that each person goes through their own challenges even if they are beautiful and …show more content…
Many multiracial children often struggle with authenticity because they are not full-blooded of one particular race. The concept of multiracial children and their struggle for identity is another concept Zack touches on in this book. This struggle is the same one Zits goes through, but he experiences it worse because he doesn’t have a mother or father to look up to and had no one to teach him how to act or live out with his multiracial blood. This sparked confusion in his life because he truly did not know if he should act differently than people of different races. The belief he carries of his inauthenticity is one many people feel as Zack explained. Everyone has a time in their life where they feel lost and need to search for their identity. It is hard to focus on a true identity when it can be so easy to conform to someone else’s but Flight directly demonstrates that search that each person goes through in a way. Zits begins the novel immediately by identifying himself with his appearances, but throughout the novel, he realizes that every identity has their own way of looking at themselves as inauthentic and the only person who can control their identity is
Jim McManmon
GC1Y Social Problems
03 May 2016
Identification and Authenticity in Flight Identity and authenticity are two important roles played in the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie. Naomi Zack uses these two concepts as focus points in a chapter of her philosophical book Thinking About Race. Flight revolves around a boy, Zits, who is in search for his identity after a life of foster care and abandonment led him to lose his sense of citizenship. In her book, Zack talks about the different ideas of identity and authenticity within people but especially in minorities. We learn that Zits is a minority when he lets the readers know that he is half Irish and half Indian. He chooses not to identify with that and instead …show more content…
Everybody calls me Zits. That’s not my real name, of course. My real name isn’t important.” (1) The first lines of the book immediately portray identity insecurity within the main character. In Thinking about Race Zack explains that “identity is about an individual that he or she reflects on, accepts and develops, in the self. A person’s identity is his or her private ideas about who are what she is.” (75) She elaborates on the idea of identity and explains that each individual person has different ways of accepting their identity, and can be based on family, hobbies, gender or race. Zits has never had any stable family or hobby which immediately sparks an issue with his personal identity and leads him to choose to identify with his lack of beauty. This identity problem is what causes him pain and sadness throughout the novel. Zack also includes that identification relates to how others identify people. Zits chooses to identify people depending on their physical appearances and wealth. He finds himself relating more to the homeless Indians rather than the rich ones but he can’t seem to hate the rich ones because he doesn’t really know them. Throughout the novel, he realizes that each person goes through their own challenges even if they are beautiful and …show more content…
Many multiracial children often struggle with authenticity because they are not full-blooded of one particular race. The concept of multiracial children and their struggle for identity is another concept Zack touches on in this book. This struggle is the same one Zits goes through, but he experiences it worse because he doesn’t have a mother or father to look up to and had no one to teach him how to act or live out with his multiracial blood. This sparked confusion in his life because he truly did not know if he should act differently than people of different races. The belief he carries of his inauthenticity is one many people feel as Zack explained. Everyone has a time in their life where they feel lost and need to search for their identity. It is hard to focus on a true identity when it can be so easy to conform to someone else’s but Flight directly demonstrates that search that each person goes through in a way. Zits begins the novel immediately by identifying himself with his appearances, but throughout the novel, he realizes that every identity has their own way of looking at themselves as inauthentic and the only person who can control their identity is