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Flight Chapters 1-3Why does Zits tell us that his “real name isn’t important” (1)?What sense do you get of Zits as a person? What is he like? What kind of voice does he have in this story?Do you think it’s important that the author makes numerous references to the sky (stellar formations and flying)? If so, why? If not, why not?Who does Zits make friends with in jail? How is this boy described? Is this a “real” friendship—why/why not?Flight Chapters 4-6Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?In this section, people are not what they seem describe one instance of this and discuss the significance of such things. When Zits thinks about Hank, he says he “is one hundred different versions of himself, and only one of them is a killer” (58). What do you think Zits means when he says this? Do you agree with Zits’ perspective?Flight Chapters 7-9Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Zits confronts his own act of violence at the bank by asking: “Did I want revenge? Did I blame those strangers for my loneliness? Did they deserve to do because of my loneliness? Does this little white soldier deserve to die because one of his fellow soldiers slashed by throat? Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?” (77). Explain what he means by this and describe your own perspective on revenge.Who kills Crazy Horse and why is this significant?Flight Chapters 10-12Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Zits has a flashback to something he observed in the Newark airport. What does he observe? Why is this flashback important? What larger message might Alexie be getting at?As Gus, Zits says “I don’t kill anybody. But I ride with killers, so that makes me a killer” (90). Considering what Zits has seen, do you agree with his perspective on this? Explain your answer.What hopeful scene does Gus observe? How does he react to it? Would you have reacted the same way?At the end of Chapter 12, Zits wonders: “Is there a difference between that killing and this killing? Does God approve of some killing and not other killing? If I kill these soldiers so that Small Saint and Bow Boy can escape, does that make me a hero?Flight Chapters 13-15Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Do you think the following description of flying could be a metaphor for something else? Explain. “It is my plane, the clouds, the ocean, and me. All of it is beautiful and interchangeable. All of it is equally important and unimportant. All of it is connected” (107).How does Zits feel about love and trust during his time in Jimmy’s body? Explain a passage or scene in the book to support your point.Abbad tells Jimmy that Americans are arrogant. How does Jimmy react? How would you react?Flight Chapters 16-18Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?When Zits asks Paul what time it is, Paul says “No matter where you go, it’s always now.” Relate this quotation a larger theme or motif within the story.Explain the meaning of Zits’ observation that “anger is never added to anger. It multiplies.” What does he mean by this? Can you point to an example from the book that confirms this?Why does Zit’s father abandon him? Does the reason for this abandonment change your feelings about Zits’ father? Explain.Flight Chapters 19-21Where and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?At the end of the book, Zits realizes that Officer Dave is trying to save him. In response to this, Zits thinks “Maybe I can save him, too” (177). What is Zits talking about? What does he mean?What does Mary do for Zits at the end of the novel? How does Zits react?What is the significance of Zits telling her his real name at the end of the story: “Please, call me Michael” (181). What major message did you see in the story? Explain how this message was conveyed in the story. Comment on whether or not you think this is an important message.Flight: Notes and Discussion QuestionsAbbad: an Ethiopian Muslim trained to fly planes by his best friend Jimmy. Abbad deliberately crash a plane into downtown Chicago along with his wife and child.Art :an FBI agent who works with Hank Storm. Art genuinely cares about Hank, but refuses to allow his partner’s confusion to interfere with their work. Art heartlessly kills Junior, a young Native American.Bow Boy: a five-year-old Indian child who is saved from a U.S. Calvary attack by Small Saint.Crazy Horse: the famous half-Native American, half-Caucasian leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He led tribal forces to victory against the U.S. Calvary at the Battle of Little Bighorn.Detective Eyeglasses: an associate of Officer Dave who interrogates Zits after he is arrested for possessing an unregistered firearm.Edgar: one of Zits’s Native American foster fathers. He was initially welcoming to Zits, but turned away after Zits defeated him in a model airplane race.Elk: a member of the activist group IRON who turned traitor and worked for the FBI. An associate of Horse, Elk helps torture Junior.Zits's father: unnamed Native American who left his wife and child on the day of Zits’s birth to become a homeless alcoholic. He is also Zits's fifth and final transformation.General Mustache: serves with the U.S. Calvary that leads the attack on an Indian camp, under Gus.George Armstrong Custer: the U.S. Calvary commander who famously defied orders to wait for backup and was then defeated by the coalition of Native American tribes at the Battle of Little Bighorn, aka “Custer’s Last Stand.”Gus: an associate of the U.S. Calvary of the 19th century. An Indian tracker, he is also Zits’s third transformation.Hank Storm: a FBI agent from the mid 1970s. He has killed at least one person, and works with Art against IRON. He is Zits’s first transformation.Helga: Jimmy’s mistress.Horse: a member of the activist group IRON who turned traitor and worked for the FBI. An associate of Elk, Horse helps torture Junior.Indian boy: unnamed boy who is a mute child of a warrior at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He is Zits’s second transformation.Jimmy: adulterous pilot, Jimmy cheats on his wife Linda, with Helga. He is Zits's fourth transformation, and plagued by the betrayal of Abbad.Justice: a seventeen-year-old boy whom Zits meets in jail. He convinces Zits to commit murder.Linda: Jimmy’s angry wife. She throws him out of the house after she catches him with another woman.Little Big Man: the Oglala Lakota leader at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He may have been involved in the murder of Crazy Horse.Mary: Robert's wife, and Zits's final foster mother.Zits's mother: unnamed Irish American woman who died of breast cancer when Zits was six. Officer Dave: a kind police officer who is sympathetic to Zits’s plight. He later finds Zits a home with his brother, Robert.Pam: a kind stranger who tries to help Zits’s father while Zits embodies him. Paul is her boyfriend.Paul: a kind stranger who tries to help Zits’s father while Zits embodies him. Pam is his girlfriend.Robert: a firefighter married to Mary, and Zits's final foster father. He is also Officer Dave's brother.Sitting Bull: the prophetic and legendary leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, and a leader at the Battle of Little Bighorn.Small Saint: a sixteen-year-old U.S. Calvary solider who saves Bow Boy instead of following orders during Zits's third transformation.Zits: the fifteen-year-old orphan protagonist of the novel. He is half-Native American, half-Irish, but identifies with neither culture. After committing a heinous act of violence, Zits is mysteriously transported back in time. He inhabits the bodies of five other men at various points in history, and learns of his own shortcomings through their trial and errors.Zooey: Zits’s aunt, who temporarily raised him after his mother died. Zooey’s unnamed boyfriend sexually abused Zits as a child.Newest foster mother: the foster mother with whom Zits lives at the beginning of the novel is described as white, fat, and like an evil step-mother from a fairytale.Newest foster father: the foster father with whom Zits lives at the beginning of the novel is described as a detached power-tripperJunior- a young Indian who is tortured and killed by Horse, Elk and Art.Hank's family: Hank's wife and three children enter Hank Storm's hospital room while Zits is in the man's body.Indian boy's father: the father of the mute Indian boy whom Zits becomes in his second transformation initially pleases Zits, but then upsets him when he demands the boy attack a soldier.Zits's grandfather: a bully who convinced Zits's father that he was not "worth shit."Aunt Zooey's boyfriend: unnamed boyfriend of Zits's first foster-mother (his only living relative), this man sexually molested Zits until the boy tried to set him on fire, after which he left Zooey.Flight?was written by?Sherman Alexie?and published in 2007. A magical realist novel, it tells the story of a troubled Native American teen who has reached his breaking point after years of abuse at the hands of adults.?Zits, the main character, feels excluded from society, but when he is convinced by a charismatic boy named?Justice?to open fire in a bank, he is killed and brought on a mystical journey that changes his outlook on life. Ultimately, the novel is about managing violence and disappointment in a post-09/11 world.?Flight?is written in a conversational, first person narrative by the main character. The perspective forces the reader to empathize with and examine the impulse towards violence. Alexie, who often writes about Native American youths in the United States, focuses on both the psychological and the sociological repercussions of marginalization as Zits struggles to balance his cultural past with his present circumstances.______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 1-3Flight?opens when Zits wakes up in a new foster home, his twenty-first. The year is 2007. The author introduces Zits as a half-Native American, half-Irish teen with self-esteem issues and a history of past delinquencies. In a juvenile holding cell, Zits meets Justice, a self-named teenage philosopher, and the two boys strike up a friendship. Justice teaches Zits how to shoot guns, and convinces Zits to open fire in the lobby of a bank. There are many stellar references: Zits says “I’m a blank sky, a human solar eclipse” (5) when he describes his heritage. Or: “come on, fuzz boys, you can’t catch me. I’m an orphan meteor” (17). “Officer Dave has said more than once, ‘We’re like the sun and the moon, kid. Different bodies, but we’re orbiting the same sky” (18). However, he also uses stellar imagery to describe his acne.There are also many references to flying: airplane race vs Edgar: Zits not allowed to win (9). “Yes, that’s my life, a series of cruel bastards and airplane crashes. Twenty little airplane crashes. I am a flaming jet, crashing into each new foster family” (11).Zits is unrooted: he lived in 20 different foster homes; attended 22 different schools (7).Zits has been neglected and he’s in need of attention: “The rich and educated Indians don’t give a shit about me. They pretend I don’t exist. They say, The drunken Indian is just a racist cartoon . . . I wish I could learn how to hate those rich Indians. I wish I could ignore them. But I want them to pay attention to me. I want everyone to pay attention to me. So I shoplift . . .” (7).The importance of words and naming is significant in the story: “I think it’s strange how curse words frighten and disgust some people. Yes, there are people afraid of certain combinations of vowels and consonants. Isn’t that hilarious? Don’t those wimps realize that each and every word only had the power and meaning you assign to it?” (14).Question of nurture vs. nature: to what extent are we programmed by genetic force beyond our control (nature) and to what extent are we shaped by our environment (nurture)? There is also the question of free will and independent action. Early in the book, Zits indicates that nature and nurture both determine who he is and how he acts. He is angry at the world because of his abuse at the hands of foster parents; he also seems to believe that he is genetically programmed to act a certain way: “I’m fighting and kicking because that’s what I do. It’s how I’m wired. It’s my programming. I read once that if a kid has enough bad things happen to him before he turns five, he’s screwed for the rest of his life.Zits has the ability to empathize: “I don’t like cops, okay? I just have respect for them. A tiny bit of respect. I think a lot of them had drunk, shitty, or missing fathers, just like I did . . . Good cops are lifeguards on the shores of Lake Fucked” (18).Has internalized gender norms: (in jail with other kids) “There’s no reason to talk after that. Why would we talk? We’re boys. Boys aren’t supposed to talk” (20).Acne as a signifier of poverty: “These days you see a kid with bad acne, and you know he’s poor.” (21).Justice tells Zits: “‘It’s wrong to burn good things. If you want to set fires, you must burn down bad things. Remember, revolution is not about spontaneous combustion. The true revolutionary must set himself aflame’” (25).When Zits is sent to a halfway house after jail, Justice breaks him out. They live together for two weeks in an abandoned factory in downtown Seattle, planning the attack that Zits will carry out.Zits tells Justice about the Ghost Dance “if the Indians danced this dance long enough, all the dead Indians would return and the white people would disappear” (31).Zits confesses “I want to tell Justice that the only Indian I want to bring back is my father and the only white people I want to disappear are my evil foster families. I guess Justice doesn’t realize that a successful Ghost Dance would make him disappear, too. Zits ponders the way in which people might become numb to violence: “If I killed enough people for real, would it begin to feel like practice?’” (35).The final scene: Zits admits to Justice that he believes the Ghost Dance is real. He goes into a bank and “pull[s] the triggers” of the real and fake guns.Questions for discussionSHOW OF HANDS—WHO TOOK NOTES OR UNDERLINED WHILE READING? (stress active reading practices)Where and when does this story take place?Seattle, 2007.Why does Zits tell us that his “real name isn’t important” (1)?For many people, names are tied to identity. Because Zits feels as if he is caught between worlds (an orphan of mixed race, a kid without a family and the accompanying cultural heritage) he feels as if his real name, which could represent his true identity, is not important. His mother, the only person who Zits felt a deep connection to, is gone. Zits feels as if she was the only one who cared about him, the only one who knew his name. In The Language Police, Diane Ravitch discusses the way in which the literature in textbooks and on standardized tests has been censored and sanitized to avoid any depiction of bias or stereotyping. Alexie’s book has racist, homophobic, and misogynistic characters. Do you think this book should be censored? Or, is it important the people read these types of works so that they understand what it means to be discriminated against? Explain your answer.“Those?who?cannot remember?the past?are?condemned?to repeat?it." (George Santayana)What does Zits mean when he tells us that “everything in the world is about blood, sweat, and tears” (2)?Blood symbolizes pain, but it also symbolizes deep-rooted familial connections: “blood is thicker than water.” Sweat symbolizes the work that must be done, and tears is obviously the pain that one experiences. All three of these things speak, to some extent, of suffering. These three things point to the view that all of life is suffering (Buddhist); our world is imperfect and filled with violence and evil (Christian). What sense do you get of Zits as a person? What is he like? What kind of voice does he have in this story?Zits seems angry and lost, but not evil. He acts out (during the first scene with his foster parents) because he is hurt. He attaches himself to Justice because he is desperate for a guiding father figure. His desperation and pain makes him open to coercion. Zits is looking for a release for his anger, a thing to direct his pain at, therefore he is open to following Justice’s plan for vengeance.Do you think it’s important that the author makes numerous references to the sky (stellar formations and flying)? If so, why? If not, why not?Sky: Native American astronomy was very important in a number of respects. The stars provided a method of navigation to those traveling at night. Natives also used the stars (and moon) to tell time and predict the future. However, from studies of the drawings and interpretations of historians, it may be inferred that the natives thought of stars as the spirits of their ancestors and they honored each with a name and symbol.Flying: symbol of freedom or escapism.Zits tells us that “everything [he] ever learned about Native Americans he learned from television” (12). Why is this significant?Television is not the same as first-hand or authentic experience. In this novel, the search for and existence of authenticity is a major motif. Zits questions the authenticity of most of the people he meets. He also questions the authenticity of his own heritage. The question then arises: How can he have an authentic identity if he has not had an authentic experience within his culture?Who does Zits make friends with in jail? How is this boy described? Is this a “real” friendship—why/why not?Justice befriends Zits. When they first meet, Zits says “He stares at me with kindness. Real kindness. I just met this guy and I feel like he cares about my skin and me. His complexion is so clear that it’s translucent. I can see the blue veins running through his skin like rivers. I have to admit, he’s a good-looking guy. In fact, he’s pretty like a girl” (21). “Suddenly, the pretty white boy is my best friend. Maybe the only real friend of my life . . . I fall in love with him. Not romantically; it’s not about sex or anything physical like that. No this kid is some kind of Jesus” (25).Imagine you’re having a conversation with Zits. How would you respond to his statement: “I hate my country. There are so many rich people who don’t share their shit. They’re like spoiled little ten-year old bullies on the playground.” (26).Justice asks Zits: “‘What if this Ghost Dance is real? What if you can bring your parents back [by killing]?’” (32). Put yourself in Zits shoes and think about what you might do if you were in his situation.______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 4-6Zits wakes to find himself mysteriously transported back in time to 1975. There (in Red River, Idaho), he inhabits the body of?Hank Storm, an FBI agent who works to counter the Native American civil rights group IRON (Horse & Elk—main guys who turn out to be traitors who are working with the FBI; torture Junior). As Hank, Zits witnesses the murder of a young Native American man by his FBI partner,?Art (Hank’s best friend and partner of 12 years). Zits is pressured into shooting the young man's corpse, and thereby confronted with the guilt of his own crime at the bank.We are experiencing this world for the first time alongside Zits. His observations are stream-of-consciousness and often revisionist. “I open my eyes. I’m lying in a hospital bed. No I’m in a motel-room bed, a small and cheap and filthy motel room” (36).Zits begins to question what he did: “I once read that twenty or thirty people jump off Seattle’s Aurora Avenue bridge every year. And I’m sure that all of them probably changed their minds about suicide the moment after they jumped. Let me tell you, I feel like one of those jumpers” (37).He also asks: “What kind of bastard am I? I’m just another zit-faced freak with a gun. Man, I had no idea I was this evil. And then it makes me wonder. Do evil people know they’re evil? Or do they just think that they’re doing the right thing?” I think about Justice. I think he fooled me. I think he brainwashed me. If he was so righteous, why wasn’t he in the bank with me? (38). Art: “I didn’t know any Indians until they sent me to work here. And then I met Indians. And trust me, none of them is worth much. Well, maybe some of the kids. Some of the kids are still okay. But they’re going to go bad, too. Just you watch. There’s something bad inside these Indians. They can’t help themselves” (44).After watching Horse and Elk hurt Junior, Zits realizes that his partner Art also likes to do the same thing. This is an essential motif of the book—the idea that the world is not as simple as “good” vs. “evil.” Zits says, “I look at Elk and Horse. They’re smiling. I realize they aren’t freedom fighters or anything like that. They don’t care about protecting the poor and defenseless. No, man, these guys just like to hurt people. And I look at the weird light in Art’s eyes. He isn’t a lawman. He doesn’t protect our country. He just likes to hurt people, too” (51).When Hank wakes up at the hospital, Art is by his side. When Zits (as Hank) tries to talk about the violence of the previous night, Art says “Just shut up about it . . . We don’t need to talk about it anymore. We’re at war. We’re soldiers . . . In order to fight evil, sometimes we have to do evil things” (56). Zits observes “Art and Justice fight on opposite sides of the war, but they sound exactly like each other. How can you tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys when they say the same things?”Zits is surprised when he wakes up to find that he (Hank) has a family: a beautiful wife and three boys. Zits thinks “I wonder if she knows that Hank kills people” (58). He also thinks: Hank “is one hundred different versions of himself, and only one of them is a killer.”Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Red River—Idaho, 1975. Zits inhabits the body of Hank Storm a short, but muscular FBI agent in his mid-thirties.In this section, people are not what they seem describe one instance of this and discuss the significance of such things. In this section, Hank is really Zits. Zits wonders what his racist partner Art would think if he learned that Hank was “a half-breed Indian” (44). In this section, the so called Indian heroes, Horse and Elk, are, in reality, traitors to their people.When Zits thinks about Hank, he says he “is one hundred different versions of himself, and only one of them is a killer” (58). What do you think Zits means when he says this? Do you agree with Zits’ perspective?We are all a swirling mix of good and evil. Heroes have flaws; villains have redeeming qualities. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 7-9Zits’s next transformation leads him into the body of a young?Indian boy?at the Battle of Little Bighorn, in 1876. The boy had been rendered speechless by a previous bayonet injury. Zits is overwhelmed by the historical significance of the moment, and overjoyed to find that the boy has an Indian father whom Zits can love. However, he is also appalled by the brutality of the battle and its aftermath. When his father tells him to kill a white solider, Zits reflects on the inherent brutality of revenge, and chooses not to strike. To the reader, Zits alludes to his past experiences in the foster system, and the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of one of his foster fathers.Zits refers to the Indians as “real, old-time Indians.” These are the types of Native Americans that are often romanticized. Alexie could be playing with this stereotype by presenting a more realistic portrait—particularly regarding the smell of the campsite. “Justice never said anything about the smell of old-time Indians. I never read anything about this smell. I never saw a television show that mentioned it” (61).Zits finds himself daydreaming about a teacher, Sue, whom he had a crush on. He describes her as smelling like Campbell’s vegetable soup, which is a smell that might be associated with a good and stable home. The fact that he describes this teacher this way signifies that the loneliness he feels might be due, in part, to his lack of a proper home.Zits describes the Indian boy’s father at the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Indian warriors. For the first time, Zits is happy: “I have a family. A real family. A true family. I am happy for the first time in my life” (65). “As my new father leads me through the camp, I realize this cannot be Heaven.” All these old-time Indians are doomed. They’re going to die of disease. And they’ll be slaughtered by US Calvary soldiers. They’ll be packed into train cars and shipped off to reservations” (67).Zits is surprised when he sees Crazy Horse—small in stature and light skinned. “[T]he greatest warrior in Sioux history is a half-breed mystery. I think this legendary killer of white men is half white, like me” (68).Zits also explain an alternate version of history—with Custer starring as “one of the top two or three dumb asses in American history” (69).When Zits sees the Indians desecrating the bodies of the white soldiers, he is upset: “I feel sick in my stomach and brain and fell sick in my soul . . . But this is war. The Indians were protecting themselves from the soldiers . . . I understand why the soldiers had to be killed, but I don’t understand what is happening to the soldiers now. To their bodies. All around me, Indian men, women, and children are desecrating the bodies of the dead white soldiers” (72-73).Motif of vengeance: Zits recalls the rich, white father who molested him. He wonders what he would do if he saw him again, would he take revenge?Chapter 9 ends when the Indian boy’s father tells his child (Zits) to take revenge on the soldier and slash his throat. The chapter ends when Zits closes his eyes.Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Eastern Montana, 1876 (Battle of Little Bighorn, aka “Custer’s Last Stand”). Zits inhabits the body of an “old-time Indian kid, maybe 12 or 13 years old” (63). The kid cannot speak. There is scar tissue from a wound on his throat.Zits confronts his own act of violence at the bank by asking: “Did I want revenge? Did I blame those strangers for my loneliness? Did they deserve to do because of my loneliness? Does this little white soldier deserve to die because one of his fellow soldiers slashed by throat? Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?” (77). Explain what he means by this and describe your own perspective on revenge.Alexie seems to be saying that revenge is a cycle that we cannot break; we continue to spiral through this world of violence and retribution.Who kills Crazy Horse and why is this significant?Crazy Horse is killed by another Native American (77). This is significant because, again, Alexie is trying to complicate the easy division of good and evil. There are both good and evil people in every race. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 10-12For his third transformation, Zits inhabits the body of?Gus, a 19th century Indian tracker with the U.S. Calvary. Gus leads an attack on a camp of Indians, but Zits forces the body to help save a young boy whom he names?Bow Boy. He is overcome with admiration for a solider (whom he calls?Small Saint) who also helps the boy from duty. Gus’s elderly body suffers from the escape, and Zits eventually sends Small Saint onwards as he waits to fire on the approaching Calvary.Zits musings on the theodicy problem: “Then I remember that God is really, really old. So maybe God has God arthritis. And maybe that’s why the world sucks. Maybe God’s hands and finger don’t work as well as they used to” (81).Begins to take responsibility for his actions: “I am ashamed of myself . . . I deserve whatever punishment comes my way” (81).Indication of the universality of human experience: “This feels like a nomadic high school in the middle of the Old West. These guys are soldiers, sure, and they might be good soldiers. But they’re still just kids, cruel and impulsive” (82).Gus is described as a hero by General Mustache. He has located the Indians who attacked a group of white settlers in Kansas, near the Colorado River. His task is to lead a group of 100 white soldiers to the camp.Zits tries to get Gus lost because he doesn’t want the soldiers to hurt the Indians, but he cannot control Gus's body.As Gus, he has a new experience: he now has access to Gus’s memories: he sees the atrocities committed by the Indians—the murdering of innocent children, a little blond girl, in particular. When thinking of this girl, Zits says, “These are not my thoughts. This is not my sadness. This all belongs to Gus, and his grief and rage are huge, so my grief and rage are huge, too, and I scream as I lead one hundred soldiers down the hill into the Indian camp” (87).The soldiers are met by only 25 Indians with arrows. It isn’t a fair fight, as the soldiers have repeating rifles.As Gus, Zits observes “Bow Boy” who is a Indian child soldier (about five years old). He witness a young white soldier “small saint” who betrays his white comrades and tries to save Bow Boy. “In the midst of all this madness and murder, one soldier has refused to participate. He has chosen the opposite of revenge. Somehow that one white boy, that small saint, has held on to a good and kind heart” (93). Gus decides to help small saint.Mustache realizes Gus and Small Saint are helping Bow Boy and he sends the white troop after them.As Zits gains control of his emotional reactions (moving from revenge to compassion) he is also gaining control of Gus’s body: “. . . I reach out a hand, Small Saint grabs it, and I haul him and the boy on the horse, all of this at full gallop. With his ancient broken body, Gus could never have done that. I own this body now” (95).They escape into the woods on a pony. When they stop, Zits realize just how old and frail Gus is. Small Saint warns him that the soldiers are coming after them. Gus tells Small Saint and Bow Boy to leave without him.When Gus asks Small Saint why he saved Bow Boy, Small Saint replies “‘I joined the military to defend people . . . And that is what I’m doing” (103).At the end of chapter 12, Zits finds himself unable to kill the people who are trying to kill him (106).Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Kansas near the Colorado River (85), during the 19th century. Zits inhabits the body of Gus, and old man, who is an Indian tracker and a bugle player. (Gus has an Irish accent.) Zits has a flashback to something he observed in the Newark airport. What does he observe? Why is this flashback important? What larger message might Alexie be getting at?The flashback (83) is of soldiers acting like children and bullies. One nerd soldier with zits is picked on. This is significant because it demonstrates the immaturity of these soldiers. Alexie does a good job complicating the idea of older people or people who have more responsibility as being more mature. (Early in the novel Zits calls wealthy and successful Americans “They’re like spoiled little ten-year old bullies on the playground.”)As Gus, Zits says “I don’t kill anybody. But I ride with killers, so that makes me a killer” (90). Considering what Zits has seen, do you agree with his perspective on this? Explain your answer.Are people who witness atrocities as guilty as those who commit them?What hopeful scene does Gus observe? How does he react to it? Would you have reacted the same way?Gus observes Small Saint (white soldier) saving Bow Boy (Indian). He is compelled to act and help small saint. This seems to signify an important change in Zits: instead of using revenge and violence to make things better, he is now using compassion, which works much better for him.At the end of Chapter 12, Zits wonders: “Is there a difference between that killing and this killing? Does God approve of some killing and not other killing? If I kill these soldiers so that Small Saint and Bow Boy can escape, does that make me a hero?______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 13-15Zits’ forth transformation finds him as?Jimmy, an adulterous pilot who mourns the loss of his best friend,?Abbad. Jimmy taught Abbad how to fly, and Abbad proved to be a terrorist, killing many people by flying a plane into downtown Chicago. It is assumed that this transformation occurs after 09/11. Zits has less control over Jimmy’s body than he had in previous transformations, and so simply watches as Jimmy’s wife?Linda?finds him with his mistress. After Linda kicks him out of the house, Jimmy commits suicide by crashing his plane into ocean. Right before the crash, Zits thinks of his mother and father, wishing he could see them before he dies.In Chapter 13, Zits awakens as a pilot in a plane. His experience is ecstatic: He describes it as heaven. He says, “The last time my mother was happy she was on an airplane. So maybe this is my last place to be happy. Maybe I’ll be happy as my mother. Maybe I am flying to meet her” (109).As Jimmy, the pilot, Zits remembers his friend Abbad, who betrays him by lying (as a terrorist he learns to fly).Abbad and Jimmy talk about women. Jimmy says that women “wear the pants,” an expression (and sentiment) that Abbad does not understand. It is interesting that, even though Abbad can’t understand the cliché, he does eventually reach the same conclusion. (“King of milk” pg 115) Helda, the curvy redhead who Jimmy has an affair with, comes to hangar for a picnic. At the same time, Jimmy’s wife (Linda) arrives. Zits is disgusted by Jimmy’s duplicity and believes it to be his retribution: “My Indian father was a dirty liar and a cheat. So I guess this is another kind of justice. I’ve been dropped into the body of a man just like my father” (118).Jimmy remembers when Lindy kicked him out, how she threw all of his model and remote control airplanes onto the ground. “They crash onto the lawn. They crash into the apple tree in the front yard. They crash onto the driveway. They glide and crash into the street. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty little plane crashes” (121-22). This description may point to some universality of tragic experience. Recall the interesting description “crash” was used early in the novel, when Zits described himself crashing into foster homes. Also, there were the model plane crashes with his Native American foster father who ended up being an asshole. (Notice also that the same recurring smell: beer and onions is also used here (when Linda describes the smell of Jimmy’s lies pg 110).When Linda pulls a gun on Jimmy, Zits realizes that Jimmy wants to die. Linda pulls the trigger, but nothing happens because the gun is not loaded (she wanted “just wanted to see [him] shit [his] pants” pg 125).Chapter 15 ends with Jimmy morning his betrayal by Abbad, who Jimmy considered to be his best friend (130).Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?It’s unclear where Jimmy and Abbad are living. (Abbad does crash the plane in Chicago, so they might be somewhere around there). This part of the story takes place after 9/11. Zits inhabits the body of Jimmy who is a blond and handsome pilot.Do you think the following description of flying could be a metaphor for something else? Explain. “It is my plane, the clouds, the ocean, and me. All of it is beautiful and interchangeable. All of it is equally important and unimportant. All of it is connected” (107).This passage might be a metaphor for the interconnectedness of different people.How does Zits feel about love and trust during his time in Jimmy’s body? Explain a passage or scene in the book to support your point.“I [Zits] just know I never want to be as much in love with anybody as these women are in love with Jimmy. You can’t trust people with your love. People will use your love. They’ll take advantage of you. They’ll lie to you. They’ll cheat you . . . He [Jimmy] thinks of how many wives and husbands are cheating on each other. He thinks of how many fathers are abandoning their children. He thinks of how many people are going to war against other people. We’re all betraying one another all the time” (120).Abbad tells Jimmy that Americans are arrogant. How does Jimmy react? How would you react?Jimmy reacts by telling Abbad that the US can’t be that bad if Abbad has been here for fifteen years. Abbad starts crying and tells Jimmy that his “real home had been destroyed” and he has “been sad and lonely for [his] real home on every one of [his] days” (121).______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 16-18Zits’s final transformation is into the body of his father, a homeless Indian man near Seattle in 2007. He initially only knows that the man is a mean alcoholic who refuses the help of two white tourists. When he realizes that the body is his father's, he accesses the man's memories to realize that his father too suffered from a lifetime of pain and disappointment.Zits wakes up in the body of his father, a homeless drunk living in Tacoma.Paul & Pam: “Pretty white people. Camera around their necks, genuine concern in their eyes. Gorgeous tourists” (133)The shirt that Zits father is wearing has a “black-and-white photograph of the Apache warrior Geronimo and the ironed-on caption: FIGHTING TERRORISM SINCE 1492” (133). Again the motif of the damages wrought by vengeance and terrorism is highlight. Terrorists in this novel are depicted as people who suffer, caught in the cycle of violence and bad decisions.Zits’ father feels anger at Pam and Paul: “I hate their alliteration almost as much as I hate their reflexive compassion” (136). To them, he says “Fuck you. And fuck your whiteness.”Zits says that Pam is tough because even after Zits’ father insults her (saying she wants to sleep with him, not Paul), she reacts with compassion: “Leave him alone. He doesn’t know what he’s saying” (137).Zits’ father continues to insult Pam, and Paul finally punches him.Irony: Zits father says “I’ll steal some clothes . . . In good clothes, I can be a good man” (140).Zits’ father is bloody and dirty. When a man (gray hair, cheap suit, better shoes, Bluetooth) almost bumps into him, Zits’ father says “I want some respect” (141). The man, at first is condescending, calling Zits’ father “Chief.” Zits realizes that “respect” isn’t quite the right word. He’s not sure what he wants, so he tells the businessman to “tell [Zits] a story” (143). The business man tells “a bird story.” How his daughter’s bird fell off his shoulder when he was cooking, landing in a pot of boiling water. How when seeing the bird (named “Harry Potter”) hooked up to a tiny oxygen machine, this man laughed. How his family (wife and daughter—Jill) have yet to forgive him. “She was ashamed of me. My little girl was ashamed of me. I turned her love and pain into a big fucking laugh” (148).In the pocket of his fathers, Zits finds a picture of himself. “I know who I am. I am my father” (150).“It was father love and father shame and father rage that killed Hamlet. Imagine a new act. Imagine that Hamlet, after being poisoned by his own sword, wakes in the body of his father. Or, worse, inside the body of his incestuous Uncle Claudius” (151). Hamlet stabs his Uncle Claudius for murdering Hamlet’s father (very violent and twisted play).Zits confronts his father, asking why he abandoned his child; why he still carries a picture of that same child.Zits is able to relive the memory that his father had of his birth, feel the fear that his father felt. The cycle of violence is at the root of that fear: Zits’ grandfather was an abusive drunk who made his son feel worthless. His father was afraid that he too would become abusive. At his core, he was still emotionally damaged. He still believed what his father told him all those years ago: “You ain’t worth shit now. And you ain’t ever gonna be worth shit” (155).Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?Tacoma, Washington 1997. Zits inhabits the body of his Native American father who is drunk and homeless.When Zits asks Paul what time it is, Paul says “No matter where you go, it’s always now.” Relate this quotation a larger theme or motif within the story.Because violence (and history) both seem to be cyclical, this novel seems to point to a less linear conception of time.Explain the meaning of Zits’ observation that “anger is never added to anger. It multiplies.” What does he mean by this? Can you point to an example from the book that confirms this?The idea is that anger has a great capacity to spread between people. If two people are together, their anger will combine and grow to be something bigger than the sum of what they started out with. This observation becomes tangible when Zits inhabits the body of Gus. The anger that Gus felt as seeing the white child killed, is multiplied into an anger that causes a whole tribe of Indians to be attacked.Why does Zit’s father abandon him? Does the reason for this abandonment change your feelings about Zits’ father? Explain.Zits’ father abandons his son because he feels emotionally unfit to be a good father. This act could be seen as heroic or cowardly—or a little bit of both.______________________________________________________________________________________________________Chapters 19-21After his revelation about his father’s past, Zits finds himself back in his own body, in the lobby of the bank before he opened fire. Reflecting on the lessons he has learned, he leaves the bank and turns himself in. After months of counseling, Officer Dave finds Zits a new foster home with his brother?Robert?and sister-in-law?Mary. Zits is reluctant to trust his new foster family, but they soon win him over, and his hope for the future is restored. The novel ends with the suggestion of a new beginning when Zits reveals to Mary that his real name is Michael.“I have returned to my body. And my ugly face. And my anger. And my loneliness” (158).In the bank, Zits sees a blonde child, who is five years old, the same age as Bow Boy. His mother sees Zits watching them and she smiles. “She wants me to know how much she loves her son . . . I hate him for being loved so well. I want to be him. I close my eyes and try to step inside his body. But it doesn’t work. I cannot be him. I open my eyes. I think all the people in this bank are better than I am. They have better lives than I do. Or maybe they don’t. Maybe we’re all lonely. Maybe some of them also hurtle through time and see war, war, war. Maybe we’re all in this together” (158).Zits talks about his past—his difficulty in kindergarten; the death of his mother; the way in which his aunt, Aunt Zooey, did not believe him; the way in which her boyfriend, the man who smelled like onions and beer, molested him when he was six years old (160).Zits tells us:“I learned how to stop crying.I learned how to hide inside myself.I learned how to be somebody else.I learned how to be cold and numb” (161).“I am tired of hurting people. I am tired of being hurt. I need help” (161-62). Zits goes to Officer Dave and gives up his guns. He feels as if he’s learned a lesson: “Maybe you’re not supposed to kill. No matter who tells you to do it. No matter how good or bad the reason. Maybe you’re supposed to believe that all life is sacred” (162-63). He tells Officer Dave about Justice and his plan.When Zits is in the holding cell, Officer Dave tells him about one of his own horrible memories. Busting into a crack house and finding the babies dead in a bathtub.Dave knows that Zits is going to die if he stays in the system. So he finds a home for Zits with his brother, Robert, (a firefighter) and sister-in-law, Mary (a nurse).He wakes up to the Blood, Sweat, and Tears song “I Love You More Than You Will Ever Know” (175) Questions for discussionWhere and when does this part of the story take place? Whose body does Zits inhabit?The final part of the book takes place back in Seattle. The novel has gone full circle and Zits is now back in his own body, in the bank where he was about to commit the mass murder.At the end of the book, Zits realizes that Officer Dave is trying to save him. In response to this, Zits thinks “Maybe I can save him, too” (177). What is Zits talking about? What does he mean?By rescuing Zits from the system, Dave has a chance to do some good. To spread positivity in a world filled with violence. He may not be able to save the babies, but he can still help Zits.What does Mary do for Zits at the end of the novel? How does Zits react?She gives him acne cream and Zits begins to see that she really does care about him as a person; he realizes that he has finally found the home that he has been without for so long.What is the significance of Zits telling her his real name at the end of the story: “Please, call me Michael” (181). He now knows who he is. He has moved past his own shame and become the person that he is supposed to be.What major message did you see in the story? Explain how this message was conveyed in the story. Comment on whether or not you think this is an important message.______________________________________________________________________________________________________Major MessagesEach one of us contains seeds of good and evil. Each time Zits slips into a new person he seems to be accessing a piece of himself—be it heroic and helpful or villainous and violent.We need to texts that will remind us of our violent and bloody past. It’s important that everyone understand the violence and discrimination that certain groups of people faced. ................
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