Story demonstrates many qualities and mishaps of the middle-aged businessman in America and how they pertain to the qualities and priorities they should have instead. Flight patterns is a story all about the conflicts that an Indian man faces as he tries to figure out who he is, where he’s going in life, and how to take care of his family in the process. In the beginning of the story, William is a man who displays ignorance to appreciation and I feel as if he learns how to value many aspects of his life through the experiences that he undergoes.
In example, when the taxi driver tells about his life story, there is a distinct change in William’s character. He goes from confused, cluttered, and mixed in his emotions about his family and who he is and starts to open his eyes by taking time and realizing that family is everything and I feel like Fekadu teaches him that. Personally, I relate to this in a sense of, before college, I didn’t care about family or anything that didn’t revolve around me. When I hit college and started living on my own and out of my own wallet, I realized that my family was everything.
They were the foundation that helped me build my character up and got me to where I am today. If my life didn’t change, my valuation towards family wouldn’t have either. And I feel as if many people go through this realization. Throughout the story, Williams makes many poor decisions regarding his family, but as sacrifice for his career. I feel this is normal for a middle-aged man who feels as if they need to focus on what society needs from them. I couldn’t help but think of my father himself as I read the part of the story when William’s ignores his wife’s request for him to stay home and not attend his meeting in Chicago.
Once again, middle-aged men have different priorities other than family sometimes; for the most part, they have their mind set on their careers. If I recall, at one point in the taxicab, William’s does mention that he feels a sense of guilt. This resembles a conscience and from there, Fekadu’s story takes place where he tells William’s about his inner battle over his priorities verses his family. Throughout the driver’s story, William finds himself lost in thought and as a result, the story climaxes at the part where he leaves his luggage in the middle of the airport as he rushes to find a phone to contact his wife (Alexie 50).
Although, unclaimed and stranded luggage in the middle of an airport is a very dangerous occurrence, this part of the story shows William’s change of heart and priorities. Further reading, I couldn’t help but notice the author’s fascination with fiction as he makes it seem as if American’s come off as this group of judgmental people. Well, okay, maybe he was right. However, we see this demonstrated through William. William is a very successful man who has a daughter and trophy wife along with a great personality to add to the perfect image the author was trying to portray.
The author also goes into detail about how conceited William’s is when it comes to his self-image. To add to the author’s perfect portrayal of an American, he writes about how William is afraid of flying with any “brown” men because they look like terrorists (stems from 9/11) even though he has been a victim of discrimination, he discriminates, too. I think this has something to do with being a hypocrite. But he does state that the main character feels a sense of guilt for being so discriminative.
I feel that this guilt wouldn’t have been a feeling of William’s if he hadn’t been so impacted by Fekadu. Fekadu’s story was basically about how he fled his home country to start a better life due to situations his country was placing on him. Inevitably, he left behind a wife and his daughter and won’t ever see them again. Fekadu was a pilot back in Ethiopia and this is where the connection between the two men and the title “Flight Patterns” comes from. William cannot believe that a man with such wisdom, despite his skin color, would become a taxi driver.
I think the author wanted Fekadu to be a taxi driver because in that profession, you come across many people with different backgrounds and what better place to share a life changing story than in a car? So I feel like Fekadu plays the role of a taxi driver so he can share his story and change the perspectives of businessmen who live too fast. Fekadu and William are both very similar even though they come from two completely different lives and backgrounds. I think Alexie decided to write this story to show readers that two completely different people can in fact come across similar situations and deal with them the same way.
Also to demonstrate the issue of moving too quickly and blindly and how many of us need to sit down and reevaluate some aspects of our lives before we start feeling a humongous sense of guilt. Although Fekadu was very committed to the family he built in his country, he knew he had to leave. And although William was a father and husband to two beautiful women, he loved his career way more. He was a man, and men are in need of work (Alexie 52). William never realized how much his family meant to him and how much he really did love them. As a result, his family deteriorates and isn’t the same due to the distance William created.
Personally, I relate to this because my father is still the same way William was before meeting Fekadu. My father will place his career before his family any day and that is what my siblings, mother and I have had to grow used to. Very sad, but at least there was hope for William. In the end, we realize that Fekadu and William are two very similar men who meet in a taxicab and become acquaintances through a very heart-felt story in attempts to change a man’s life. We learn that life is short and sometimes people let pride and careers get in the way of what really matters- family.
I think this story was most relatable to me and quite possibly other readers because growing up; I had a father who was always on the go. His career controlled his life so much to where he up and moved to the Bahamas for two years with no warning. It was terrible and a divorce between him and my mom was a result of it. Was it worth it? No idea. But even through it all he is still career driven. Some people realize, others don’t, I guess! Moral of the story: don’t let little things get in the way of the larger scaled things in life!
