Flying Home
I really enjoyed reading Flying Home the best out of all the other books we have gone through this semester. I know in class we talked briefly about the theme of flying that was present in all the stories of Flying Home, but I wanted to explore that a little bit further in terms of the last story we read. I was wondering about the part in the story where Todd is called an eagle. As much as he wants to prove to everyone that he is equally as capable at flying, I’m not sure he wants to be an eagle (what I took as representative of white people) because when he is asked “Son, how come you want to fly way up there in the air?” Todd wants to reply, “because it makes me less like you” (a white man). Thus at the end of the story it makes sense that it is a dark bird gliding into the sun and not an eagle- perhaps representing Todd
I took it as that Jefferson did desire to become an eagle. He has always been told that he cannot live up to what the white men achieve. When he is called an eagle it is meant to insult him, it reinforces the fact that he can never be the successful pilot that he wants to be because of his race. The best he can be is buzzard, a bird that is looked down on but flies higher the other birds.