81 pages • 2 hours read
Flight: A Novel
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
Chapters 1-3
Reading Check
1. Where does Zits wake up in the opening scene of the novel?
2. What is the name of the police officer that Zits knows?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What was Zits’s mother’s favorite band, and why does Zits also like them?
2. What is the Ghost Dance, and how does Justice respond to Zits’s explanation?
Paired Resource
“What Really Happened at Wounded Knee, the Site of a Historic Massacre”
- This article from National Geographic explains the origins of the Ghost Dance and how it led to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.
- This resource connects to the themes of Violence, Revenge, and Justice and Ancestry and Identity.
- The Ghost Dance is referenced several times in Flight. Why was the Ghost Dance seen as a threat to America’s policies concerning Native Americans? Why did Alexie choose to include the Ghost Dance in his novel?
Chapters 4-6
Reading Check
1. Who does Zits embody during his first time travel experience in Chapter 4?
2. Who are Elk and Horse?
3. Who visits Zits-as-Hank in the hospital in Chapter 6?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Where is Zits-as-Hank located, and why is this location familiar?
2. Who has Elk and Horse captured and tortured, and what happens to him?
Chapters 7-9
Reading Check
1. Where does Zits time travel to in Chapter 7?
2. How does Zits define the Battle of the Little Bighorn at the beginning of Chapter 8?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does the Native warrior react to Zits’s presence, and how does this make Zits feel?
2. Which two historical Native figures does Zits encounter at the Native camp, and what does this make him realize?
Paired Resource
“The Radical History of the Red Power Movement’s Fight for Native American Sovereignty”
- This page from the National Geographic describes the Red Power and American Indian Movements.
- This resource connects to the themes of Violence, Revenge, and Justice and Ancestry and Identity.
- In Flight, Zits experiences the FBI’s role in fighting against the Red Power Movement and resisting Native activists. What was the Red Power Movement, and why did it provoke such a brutal response from the United States government?
Chapters 10-12
Reading Check
1. Why do the other soldiers laugh at Zits when he leaves his tent in Chapter 10?
2. What is the name of the soldier whose body Zits inhabits in Chapter 10?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Zits-as-Gus try to do to prevent the white soldiers from arriving at the Native camp, and what is the result of his efforts?
2. What does the white soldier do when he reaches Bow Boy, and what is Zits’s reaction?
3. What does Zits do to save Small Saint and Bow Boy, and how does Small Saint respond?
Chapters 13-15
Reading Check
1. What vehicle is Zits operating in Chapter 13?
2. Who does Zits compare Jimmy to?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who does Zits-as-Jimmy think Helda is, and what is the reality of their relationship?
2. What emotional burden does Jimmy carry concerning Abbad, and why?
Paired Resource
“Story of the Battle - Little Bighorn Battle National Monument”
- This page from the National Park Service explains the early stages of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the battle itself, and the aftermath.
- This resource connects to the theme of Violence, Revenge, and Justice.
- Why is the Battle of the Little Bighorn so significant in the history of settler colonialism and Native communities? Why do you think Alexie chose this moment in history for Zits to experience?
Chapters 16-18
Reading Check
1. What Native historical figure is featured on Zits’s shirt in Chapter 16?
2. What does Zits realize when he pulls the photograph out of his pocket?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does the white man ask Zits, and what does Zits tell him?
2. What memory does Zits’s father recall about his own childhood, and how does this memory help give insight into Zits’s relationship with his father?
Chapters 19-21
Reading Check
1. Where does Zits find himself at the beginning of Chapter 19?
2. What strange moment is captured on the bank security footage?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who does Zits go to for help instead of shooting up the bank, and what does he tell this person?
2. What does Mary give to Zits, and how does Zits respond?
Paired Resource
“The Powwow at the End of the World”
- This poem by Sherman Alexie explores the intersection of forgiveness and restitution and the role each plays in healing from historical and cultural trauma.
- This resource connects to the theme of Ancestry and Identity.
- What does this poem say about the role of forgiveness and restitution for individual and cultural healing? In what ways is Alexie grappling with similar tensions in his novel? Is there forgiveness and healing at the conclusion of Flight?
Recommended Next Reads
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969 and follows the character Billy Pilgrim as he experiences time travel in World War II. Inspired by Vonnegut’s novel, Alexie uses a quote from Slaughterhouse-Five as an epigraph in Flight.
- Shared themes include Violence, Revenge, and Justice and Family: The Desire for Love and Stability.
- Shared topics include trauma and PTSD, time travel, and a search for meaning, purpose, and connection with others.
- Slaughterhouse-Five on SuperSummary
Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Published in 1987, this novel tells the story of Sethe, a runaway enslaved woman who kills her own daughter to prevent her capture and enslavement. Years later, the spirit of that daughter, named Beloved, returns to Sethe and her remaining daughter, Denver. The novel explores how the trauma of slavery impacts identity and relationships and considers the connection between memory and healing.
- Shared themes include Violence, Revenge, and Justice; Family: The Desire for Love and Stability; and Ancestry and Identity.
- Shared topics include the convergence of reality and the mystical, violence and revenge, and the impact of cultural trauma on identity and relationships.
- Beloved on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
Chapters 1-3
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. His mother’s favorite band was Blood, Sweat & Tears. Zits likes them because “they’re ugly and because they rock hard,” and Zits feels a kinship with them because he also feels ugly. (Chapter 1)
2. Zits explains that the Ghost Dance was a ceremony created by a Native man in the 1870s. He says if the Ghost Dance was performed long enough, all the dead Native people would return and the white people would disappear. Justice responds by saying that Zits is strong enough to Ghost Dance by himself. (Chapter 3)
Chapters 4-6
Reading Check
1. An FBI agent named Hank (Chapter 4)
2. They are Native men who have become FBI informants. (Chapter 5)
3. His wife and three sons (Chapter 6)
Short Answer
1. He is in Red River, Idaho. Zits realizes this is familiar because Red River is on the Nannapush Indian Reservation. (Chapter 5)
2. They have captured a Native man named Junior. Art kills him because Junior won’t talk about the activist group IRON. (Chapter 5)
Chapters 7-9
Reading Check
1. An “old-time” Native American camp (Chapter 7)
2. He refers to it as the last real battle of the Indian Wars. (Chapter 9)
Short Answer
1. Zits is surprised that the warrior embraces him and realizes he must be the man’s son. Upon realizing that Zits has a Native family in this time period, Zits says he is “happy for the first time in his life.” (Chapter 7)
2. Zits encounters Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and realizes that they are on the cusp of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (Chapter 8)
Chapters 10-12
Reading Check
1. He is naked. (Chapter 10)
2. Augustus, or Gus (Chapter 10)
Short Answer
1. He tries to get lost and lead the soldiers away from the camp, but the part of Gus that still exists inside Zits propels him toward the camp anyway. (Chapter 10)
2. The soldier, rather than killing the boy, picks him up and carries him to safety. This shocks Zits and fills him with admiration for the soldier, and he decides to try to help. (Chapter 11)
3. Zits tells Small Saint and Bow Boy to continue on without him and that he will stay behind and hold the soldiers off. Small Saint doesn’t want to leave Zits behind and is reluctant to go, although he eventually does in order to save the boy. (Chapter 12)
Chapters 13-15
Reading Check
1. A plane (Chapter 13)
2. His father (Chapter 14)
Short Answer
1. He thinks Helda is his wife, but it turns out that they are having an affair. (Chapter 13)
2. Jimmy feels guilty because he taught Abbad how to fly a plane, and Abbad used his ability as a pilot to commit an act of terrorism. (Chapter 15)
Chapters 16-18
Reading Check
1. Geronimo (Chapter 16)
2. That he is existing as his own father (Chapter 17)
Short Answer
1. The man asks Zits how he can show Zits respect. Zits replies by asking him to tell a personal story. (Chapter 17)
2. His father recalls being emotionally abused by his own father, which provides insight into why Zits’s father wasn’t able to give Zits the love and support he needed. (Chapter 18)
Chapters 19-21
Reading Check
1. He is back in the bank in Seattle, with the pistols in his pocket. (Chapter 19)
2. Zits disappears from the tape before suddenly returning. (Chapter 20)
Short Answer
2. Zits goes to Officer Dave and tells him that he is carrying two pistols, one of which is real, and he asks Dave to take them from him. (Chapter 19)
3. Mary buys Zits several skincare products and teaches him how to use them. This act of kindness causes Zits to break down in tears. (Chapter 21)
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