Flying Home

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953

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Themes

Fear of Judgment

Todd’s goals throughout the story are to prove that skin color and race are not indicative of one’s capabilities and that no race is superior to another. He nevertheless finds himself irritated and even repulsed by Jefferson and Teddy. He views them as inferior; when he thinks that Jefferson is mocking him, he is even more hurt and angry than if a white man were to do it because Jefferson lacks power and prestige. His descriptions of Jefferson are harsh: For example, he compares Jefferson to a clown. When Jefferson asks Todd what he likes about flying, Todd thinks, “[I]t makes me less like you” (153).

Todd’s fear of judgment and internalized racism exhibit the bind of double consciousness. It is not that Todd is ashamed of being Black, but he does not want to be a Black person that proves racist stereotypes to be true. He wants to distance himself from the negative stereotypes the white officers tend to associate with Black people. As a Black sharecropper working on a white man’s land, Jefferson embodies the position in which many formerly enslaved Black people found themselves after emancipation. This makes Jefferson seem, in Todd’s eyes, uneducated and unfree.

In the 1940s, Jefferson’s ties to agriculture also make him seem backward in Todd’s eyes. As a pilot-in-training, Todd aligns himself with the technological progress that define the United States at the time. He wants to be associated with the future, not the past Jefferson represents. Jefferson’s location in Alabama is also significant. The deep South, comprising states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, is associated with entrenched racism due to its history of slavery, segregation, and systemic discrimination. The Ku Klux Klan, civil rights struggles, and acts of violence reflect the racial inequalities and prejudices of the region during the Jim Crow era. Todd does not want to be subject to that kind of treatment and resents Jefferson for remaining in such a discriminatory location.

Todd ultimately realizes that scrutinizing others is futile; regardless of factors such as ambitions, capabilities, or intelligence, all Black people in the US experience racism that seeks to rob them of their humanity. When Todd lets go of the racist white lens through which he sees himself and other Black people, he resolves his double consciousness and finds true freedom.

In the end, Todd’s emotional journey is one of growth and empowerment. Despite the challenges he faces, he emerges as a symbol of resilience and determination, challenging the racial status quo and asserting his own sense of worth despite the danger that entails. Through Todd’s story, Ellison offers a poignant exploration of the complexities of race and identity in America, highlighting the enduring struggle for equality and dignity in the face of adversity.

Opportunities and the American Dream

A major theme in “Flying Home” is the American dream: the idea that any American, regardless of race or socioeconomic background, can achieve greatness and prosperity. The story is brutally realistic in its descriptions of the Black experience and questions whether there really is such a thing as the American dream.

The American dream, a concept rooted in the nation’s founding ideals of liberty, equality, and opportunity, initially emerged as a vision of upward mobility and prosperity for all citizens. While the American dream traditionally embodies the pursuit of happiness and success through hard work and determination, centuries of systemic racism, slavery, segregation, and institutional barriers have made upward mobility difficult for people from marginalized backgrounds, including African Americans.

Despite the rampancy of racism and Jim Crow segregation, however, the 1940s saw significant progress in areas such as education, employment, and housing for Black Americans. The political, military, and civilian needs of World War II provided career opportunities for many African Americans, and Washington, DC, became an epicenter of Black prosperity during the Great Migration, the large-scale exodus of African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest, and West in search of new opportunities.

In “Flying Home,” Todd attending flight school and flying the plane suggest the possibility of upward mobility for Black people. However, this progress results in the plane’s destruction and his own existential crisis. It is significant that Todd’s eagerness to prove himself to white people is partly what motivates the reckless behavior that causes his crash. However, Todd is also young and excitable. His own personality and decision to ignore safety warnings, like Icarus, also play a role in his crash. Here, Ellison positions Todd as emblematic of all Black people who seek success in order to prove their worth in white America’s eyes rather than believing in their own worth. They must contend with both internal and external challenges, some of which are common to everyone (such as exercising good judgment and self-control) and some of which are specific to the Black experience. The story’s ending symbolizes that Black people must help each other rather than be divided by white society in order to achieve success. Todd may not accomplish the traditional American dream, but he has found a sense of community, which is real and tangible rather than an ideal.

Black Identity and Stereotypes

Black identity and stereotypes occupy Todd’s mind for most of the story. After his crash, he struggles with creating a new identity for himself after his old one is shattered. His image of himself as an aspiring pilot, equal to his white classmates and ready to aid the war effort, metaphorically falls to pieces with his plane crash. From the moment he wakes up after the crash, he sees himself as a failure at his main goal: to prove that he, and therefore all Black people, are equal to any white person.

Part of Todd’s identity struggle is that, as a Black man in America, his identity is both individual and collective. He knows that his crash will have negative consequences for any other Black person who wants to learn to fly a plane. This internalized collective identity is the result of institutionalized racism, which casts Black people as a monolith embodying a set of stereotypes rather than individuals with diverse skill sets and interests.

Todd also occupies a liminal space of identity: He is a student rather than a full-fledged pilot. As such, he has to pass actual tests to demonstrate his skills and worthiness to fly in battle. Because of this, the stakes are higher for Todd than for any other character in the story. Jefferson and Teddy are more resigned to the fact that white officers are unlikely to let Black people fly planes for long (Jefferson and Todd discuss this shortly after meeting), and Dabney Graves has an unwavering belief in the most ignorant and harmful anti-Black stereotypes. Only Todd believes that it is possible to change people’s minds and lift some of the burden of stereotypes off his fellow Black Americans.

The story ends without revealing what punishment, if any, Todd will receive when he returns to the airbase and what ramifications regarding Black identity and stereotypes his plane crash will have. The reference to Icarus hints that Todd could have an overinflated sense of his importance.

Icarus’ main flaw was hubris. In Greek mythology, hubris is a symbol of human arrogance and overreach, often leading to a character’s downfall. Characters who exhibit hubris demonstrate excessive pride and defiance against divine or moral laws, believing themselves invincible or above reproach. This fatal flaw triggers a chain of events that ultimately culminates in their undoing, serving as a cautionary tale.

In Jefferson’s story, the image of Icarus is transformed into a Black angel who was cast out of heaven for shining too brightly. This changes the story’s connotation from Greek to biblical myth: Lucifer is the fallen angel whose name means “Light Bringer.” He was cast out of heaven after a failed rebellion against God. His punishment is to spend eternity in hell, which indicates how Jefferson sees his own position.

The dual resonance of this myth in “Flying Home” emphasizes that each Black character is the protagonist of their own story. Jefferson is living out his own mythos, just as Todd is living out his. In this way, Todd is not as unique as he believes himself to be: His individual and collective identities mirror Jefferson’s in a way that Todd does not yet understand.