Flight (novel)

The story follows Zits, a Native American trying to cope with his various past abusive adoptive parents with random acts of violence, calling himself the "time travelling mass murderer".

Sherman Alexie's take on being a homeless American Indian teenager...takes a science fiction twist, as he possesses the bodies of other men throughout time. In many ways, it was because he viewed Indian Killer as an Old Shame.


 * Abusive Foster Parents
 * Boomerang Bigot: Justice, assuming it's not a Fight Club-style split personality.
 * The Cassandra: Justified in one case, as he's mute.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Averted: The Mexican kid's just as cruel as the others.
 * Did Not Do the Research: A partial one: Most Ethiopians are Christian, and their last name isn't X. A more direct one, the "Crazy Horse's father was white" story is apocryphal.
 * Eyes of Gold: Crazy Horse
 * Fail O'Suckyname: Zits? Zits? Also, Helda, lampshaded by Zits
 * Four Is Death: Zits' fourth leap is...into the body of a pilot who unwittingly helps an Islamic terrorist learn how to crash planes. And he's cheating on his wife.
 * Fun with Acronyms: IRON and HAMMER. HAMMER doesn't actually mean anything, but IRON means Indigenous Rights Now!
 * Gainax Ending: In-universe with the Ghost Dance. The ending itself has one as well.
 * Going Commando: "Okay, I now know Indian boys didn't wear anything under their loincloths."
 * Grand Theft Me: How Zits time travels.
 * Healing Shiv: Not quite, Justice has a paint gun and an actual gun.
 * Hypocrite: Abbad, a Muslim who drinks with his friend.
 * Ironic Hell: Living as an FBI agent involved in making AIM IRON activists disappear. Yeah.
 * Les Collaborateurs: Horse and Elk. Ironically, they were remembered as heroes, but like anyone would believe how Zits knows.
 * Loin Cloth: Standard clothing for all Sioux and Cheyenne males.
 * Luke, I Am My Father
 * Malcolm Xerox: Justice
 * Meaningful Name: Possessed by righteous indignation and a desire for vengaence? What is Zits' real name?
 * Naked on Arrival: An old Indian killer likes to sleep naked, so when he wakes up, yeah.
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: The story of IRON and HAMMER is reminiscent of the story of Pine Ridge in The Seventies.
 * Punch Clock Villain: The FBI agents, the Cavalry soldiers.
 * Shotacon: Zits got molested by several of his foster dads. This is the only homosexual example in Alexie's work, and the only time the boy hasn't been eager.
 * Shout-Out: The Nannapush Reservation is a reference to Louise Erdrich's character Lulu Nanapush.
 * Steven Ulysses Perhero: Justice.
 * Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The whole Ethiopian Islamic terrorist story makes the man Zits possesses one.