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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Plane
The plane symbolizes escape and equality. In literature and art, the sky is often associated with power, freedom, joy, tranquility, and even godliness. In “Flying Home,” Todd perceives flying planes as a way to transcend; he wants to be treated with just as much respect as his white counterparts at flight school, with equal opportunities for joy and achievement.
The prospect of pure, unadulterated joy excites Todd so much that he loses control and crashes. By destroying the plane, Todd potentially jeopardizes his chances at freedom from racism and abuse. Additionally, Todd worries that, because of his error, white people will continue to view Black people as inferior, thus preventing any of them from flying. Metaphorically, Todd is the “pilot” not only for himself but also for his entire race. After his plane crashes, Todd must figure out how to pilot his own identity without the freedom and protection the plane offers.
The Straitjacket
The straitjacket symbolizes enslavement and humiliation. Straitjackets, invented in the 18th century, were used for centuries to restrain patients with mental illness. Their purpose was to restrict arm movement in case patients were violent or dangerous. In this way, the straitjacket is punitive rather than therapeutic. Similar to how police officers put handcuffs on suspects, Dabney Graves essentially punishes Todd for his own amusement. In this case, Todd’s supposed transgression is that he dared to fly a plane, despite being Black and, in Graves’s eyes, inferior.
Cruel and archaic by today’s standards, a straitjacket also made a spectacle out of the person wearing it. In “Flying Home,” the straitjacket’s symbolism goes far beyond entrapment. It also represents the racist contention that Black people are lesser than white people, that they are subhuman and deserve to be humiliated. The garment also symbolizes Graves’s belief that Todd is “crazy” for believing that he could fly a plane. Ironically, Graves should be concerned about his cousin who is actually unwell and likely to endanger someone; this suggests that white people like Graves should attend to their own psychological and moral issues rather than projecting them onto Black people.
Buzzards
Buzzards appear throughout “Flying Home,” and as a folkloric reference, they symbolize enslaved Black people trying to free themselves. The legend of the Flying Africans, believed to have originated during slavery, tells of Africans escaping the Atlantic slave trade via a magical passage back over the ocean.
In many versions, the Africans shapeshift into turkey buzzards. When Todd loses control of the plane, a buzzard flies toward him, and the collision shatters the windshield. A buzzard, a symbol of the Black person striving for survival, is what causes the crash; additionally, the image of the dead buzzard suggests that Todd’s failure has shattered other Black people’s chances at freedom and joy. The buzzards are also black, and Teddy calls them “jimcrows,” symbolizing the racism that is constantly present.
Shortly after Todd meets Jefferson and Teddy, Jefferson comments that “white folks round here don’t like to see you boys up there in the sky” before launching into the tale about two buzzards that are found in the belly of a dead horse (161). Todd becomes upset and defensive. He cries, “Can I help it if they won’t let us actually fly? Maybe we are a bunch of buzzards feeding on a dead horse, but we can hope to be eagles, can’t we?” (161). The buzzards here represent the mundane life and humiliations that Todd and other Black people have to endure in order to live. His desire to become an eagle, a powerful predator and the symbol of America, suggests that he is no longer satisfied with the cast-offs of white society. Instead, he wants to seize his own destiny and live his own dream.
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