25 pages • 50 minutes read
Ralph EllisonFlying Home
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: Black Soldiers in World War II
“Flying Home” takes place during World War II, during which more than one million African American men and women served in the military. They battled not only fascism overseas but also racism within the United States and its military. The US Army, Navy, and Marine Corps all segregated Black Americans into separate units because of the belief that they were not as capable as white service members.
The military believed that Black soldiers were unsuited to be officers, so most Black servicemembers were assigned to labor-intensive service positions instead of active combat roles; for example, they worked as cooks and mechanics, built roads, and unloaded supplies from airplanes and trucks. On the Alaska Highway project, the military took steps to position African American troops away from towns and cities to appease locals. (White locals routinely harassed the Black soldiers.)
In the rare occasion that Black soldiers were officers, they were only permitted to lead other Black men. Segregation was rampant in almost every facet of military life—there were separate hospitals, barracks, blood banks, and more for Black and white soldiers. This segregation remained until 1948, when President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, officially desegregating the military. Various accounts relate how German prisoners of war could enter facilities reserved for white Americans that Black servicemen could not patronize.
“Flying Home” dramatizes the racial tensions of the time by having Todd panic that his accident will reflect poorly on all Black people in the minds of his white superiors.
Philosophical Context: Black Existentialism
Ralph Ellison’s work explores Black existentialism, a school of thought that focuses on the social constructs of race and how one’s racial background affects one’s struggles in life. The Black existentialism movement emerged in the mid-20th century as a philosophical and literary response to the experiences of Black Americans within a predominantly white society. Influenced by existentialist thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, Black existentialism sought to explore the existential dilemmas and struggles of Black individuals in the face of racism, oppression, and existential absurdity. Figures like Frantz Fanon and Richard Wright played pivotal roles in articulating the existential anguish of the Black experience, emphasizing themes of alienation, freedom, and authenticity. This intellectual movement provided a framework for understanding and confronting the existential challenges inherent in navigating racial identity and social injustice in America.
One of the most famous Black existentialists was W. E. B. Du Bois, a sociologist and civil rights activist who was the first African American to earn a PhD at Harvard. DuBois coined the term “double consciousness” to describe African Americans’ internal conflict of “always looking at oneself through the eyes of a racist white society, […] measuring oneself by the means of a nation that looked back in contempt” (Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. A.C. McClurg & Co., 1909, p. 4).
In “Flying Home,” Todd simultaneously identifies with two conflicting cultural or social identities. In the context of Black America, his emotional journey throughout the narrative reflects the tension between his individual identity and his identity as a member of a racially marginalized group in a predominantly white society. This dual awareness results in his feelings of alienation and, significantly, his desire to distance himself from those who embody Black stereotypes, like Jefferson and Teddy.
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