Flying Home by Ralph Ellison
"Flying Home" by Ralph Ellison is a poignant narrative centered on Todd, a young Black man attending Flight Training School in Alabama during World War II. After a harrowing accident that leaves him with a broken ankle, Todd grapples with feelings of failure and fear that his white superiors will view the incident as proof of Black inadequacy in flying and combat roles. The story unfolds through a blend of present experiences and flashbacks, revealing Todd's deep-seated anxieties about social inferiority and the pressures of racial stereotypes.
As Todd recovers, he is attended to by Jefferson, an older Black farmer, who attempts to distract him from his pain with stories that carry both humor and deeper meaning. Jefferson's anecdotes, including that of a Black angel who lost his wings, resonate with Todd but also provoke a sense of mockery that further complicates Todd's self-perception. Through these interactions, Todd confronts memories from his childhood, including encounters with systemic racism, encapsulated in a chilling electoral moment.
The narrative culminates in a moment of physical confrontation with Dabney Graves, a white authority figure, which transforms Todd’s perspective. This encounter leads Todd to reject his imposed identity and embrace a sense of independence. Ultimately, the story explores themes of racial identity, personal struggle, and the longing for belonging, providing a complex view of the Black experience during a pivotal era in American history.
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Flying Home by Ralph Ellison
First published: 1944
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: World War II
Locale: Macon County, Alabama
Principal Characters:
Todd , a black candidate in the army's Flight Training SchoolJefferson , an old, black tenant farmerTeddy , his young sonDabney Graves , a white man, the owner of the land that Jefferson farms
The Story
Todd, a young black man, a candidate in Flight Training School in Macon County, Alabama, during World War II, is just returning to consciousness after an accident. The narrative soon reveals, in one of several flashbacks, that Todd's "exultation" in flight had carried him away. He had flown "too high and too fast"; the plane had entered a tailspin, and before he could react a buzzard had smashed into his windshield. Panic caused him to lose control. A crash landing has thrown him from the plane and has broken his ankle. Over him stand an old, black farmer, Jefferson, and his son, Teddy. What immediately preoccupies Todd even more than the physical pain in his ankle is the anxiety over his failure as a pilot. His white officers will see the accident as confirmation that blacks are not capable of flying or of aerial combat. Because for Todd, earning his wings and fighting overseas are his escape from social inferiority—and from the stereotypical black traditions that he sees epitomized in Jefferson—the accident is a crisis in his young life. Jefferson instinctively understands much of what Todd is experiencing.
Jefferson sends his son to Dabney Graves, the symbol of white civil authority in the region and the owner of the land that Jefferson works, in order to get help, and then tries to take Todd's mind off the pain. He first tells him a brief anecdote about once finding two buzzards inside the remains of a dead horse and comments that Teddy's name for a buzzard is jimcrow. To Jefferson, this identification is both comical and meaningful. He then tells a more lengthy tale about his past life, when he was in Heaven. Though he was a black angel and required to wear a harness, he violated the rule and showed off his extraordinary powers of flight. His daring, however, became dangerous and offensive to God. As punishment, God took away his wings and sent him to Macon County, Alabama. This myth of origins again prompts Jefferson to laugh hilariously, but Todd, interpreting the two stories according to his own egotistical fears, accuses him of mockery. Todd takes the buzzards and the flying black angel to be satiric representations of himself. Jefferson had no such intentions and can only express his regret and empathy for Todd's painful situation.
Somehow, Jefferson's attempts to distract him, the empathy, and the physical pain succeed in taking Todd outside himself and releasing memories from his childhood. He recalls in detail his early obsession with airplanes and his attempt once, when he was getting a fever, to grab from the sky a real plane, which he mistook for a toy. In his feverous state during the next few days, he dreamed of capturing planes just beyond his grasp and of hearing his grandmother warn him about his arms being "too short/ To box with God." After a brief conversation with Jefferson about the plight of black people in a white society and after Jefferson's warning about the fickleness of Dabney Graves, Todd in painful delirium recalls another childhood moment. He was walking down a street on election day. Black faces peered fearfully from the houses, and one person seemed to be begging for his aid or perhaps warning him of danger. He saw a shower of leaflets descend from a plane high against the sun. When he picked up one of them, his mother took it and read a warning from the Klan: "Niggers Stay Away From The Polls."
Todd awakens from the dream to see three men approaching. Dabney Graves and two hospital attendants put him in a straitjacket, intended for Dabney's crazy cousin Rudolph but placed on Todd by Dabney as a joke. When Todd comes to full consciousness of what is happening, that the men have also laid him on a stretcher and are about to carry him away, he rebels. He steps out of the role of the inferior "nigger" and demands that they not touch him. Incensed by such independence in a black man, Dabney kicks him in the chest. The physical violence suddenly transforms Todd. It causes him to observe the entire situation with objectivity. He now sees his salvation in Jefferson. As Jefferson and Teddy, at Graves's command, carry him off to the "nigguh airfield," he loses his sense of isolation. Jefferson's care and the confrontation with the white bigoted world have transformed his confused and frustrated sense of identity into peace and harmony.
Bibliography
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