Flight: A Novel

Alexie explores how Zits’ frustration with his condition leads him to embrace violence as a viable method to vindicate himself against a world that has hurt him. He has learned from popular American culture that violence is the most effective means of gaining respect and is deemed a legitimate way for men to express themselves. Art demands that Hank establish his loyalty by shooting Junior’s corpse. The elder Native American warrior demands that his ambivalent son kill the young soldier who destroyed his voice. Gus, who initially set out to find an Indian camp with the intent of killing its occupants in revenge for murdering whites, decides to turn against his fellow troops to protect Small Saint and Bow Boy. In this latter instance, Zits’ own sensibility takes over, forcing the body of Augustus Sullivan to correct a pattern of injustice against Zits’ people.

In each of his teleportations, there are violent confrontations. Zits, occupying different bodies throughout time, is forced to make moral choices, which help him realize that he is not as inured to violence as he believed. His formation of a relationship with Justice, whether real or imaginary, was a first attempt at self-love.