Kowalski 1 Julianne Kowalski Mr.

Newman English 101: Rhetoric 5 November 2013 Cruelty of Communication We Americans now live in a world that is has great hostility towards foreigners. Living in a post 9/11 world, there is now a feeling of anxiety that certain people create while being around others. The events of September 11th, 2001 undoubtedly represented a turning-point in history. In the short story, Flight Patterns by Sherman Alexie, he bases the story around the different struggles two middle aged men have with racial profiling. The story proves that communication is key in relationships; communication eases the tension between people. If more people would converse their problems to each other, then less issues would become volatile. Alexie brings us into the mind of a man named William who himself is a little brown man. William fears flying, but not because of the terrorist attack. He believes that the hijacking of an airplane is no longer useful to terrorists anymore. William always scanned the airports and airplanes for little brown guys who reeked of fundamentalism (52). Considering that William is a brown man, he seems to be judged as well as judging himself. Meaning, he is equally afraid of them, as people are of him. If there was communication between others, there would be no need to be afraid. Its hard to not come up with ones own opinion but if people werent so quick to judge one another, less tension would portrayed.

Kowalski 2 Every trip that William has taken since 9/11, he felt very uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable because he was afraid of the worst, but because he frequently had people watching him. William figured hed been pulled over for pat-down searches about 75 percent of the time. Random, my ass (54). Wanting people to know that he was not the enemy, he was not able to explain that to people without irritating them. He wanted his fellow travelers to know exactly who and what he was: I am a Native American and therefore have ten thousand more reasons to terrorize the U.S. than any of those Taliban jerk-offs, but I have chosen instead to become a civic American citizen (54). Yet, this is another example of an opportunity for communication not taken. It is not that citizens dont take the time to interconnect, but they choose not to. Being nervous from the start, William gets picked up in a cab from a darker skinned man. He's quick to critique. Williams' observant eyes noticed a thick scar that ran from the drivers ear down his neck. A black man with a violent history; William thought and immediately reprimands himself for racially profiling the driver: Excuse me, sir, but I pulled you over because your scar doesn't belong in the neighborhood (55). As a conversation begins, the driver asked William what he was. The driver said You are not white, your skin, it is dark like mine (56). Here we see the men actually getting to know one another, before the judgments are taken too far. Because they were so often Muslim, taxi drivers all over the world had often asked William if he was Jewish (56). His ethnicity was Indian. Not jewel-on-the-forehead Indian, but bowsand-arrows-Indian (56). William was frequently being confused for something he wasnt. The color of ones skin, will always determine the opportunities that they are open to. As the trip moves along, the cab driver has the nerve to speak up and say Forgive me for saying this, but you do not look like the Red Indians I have seen before (57). On the other hand,

Kowalski 3 the chauffeur explains to William that he is frequently misjudged as black. They dont see me as a terrorist, only as a crack head addict on welfare. So I am a victim of only one misguided idea about who I am (57). But isnt America supposed to be land built by and for inspired immigrants? To be American, whether born or adapted, is to represent a scale of different perspectives, in a world of limitless possibilities. Unfortunately because of the color of ones skin, many opportunities are taken away in fear of undesirable crimes. William and the cab driver originally had preexisting judgments toward each other just because of their skin color. They were both equally afraid of each other as they were of other brown men. In the beginning of the story there was a point of stereotypes but they finally got through with communication. While reading, I was able to feel the release of anxiety in the cab by the messages being passed between them. One is not supposed to judge a book by the cover but sometimes we wonder, nonetheless, we have to be realistic. Every single one of us have a background of where we come from which determines who and what we believe in. Whether it is what our parents raised us to believe in or what we taught ourselves, we are all trapped by other peoples ideas (57).

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Work Cited Alexie, Sherman. "Flight Patterns." 2003. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2005. 49-61. Print.