Flying Home A Living Story
Ralph Waldo Ellison is perhaps one of the most influential African-American writers of the twentieth century. Ellison is best known for writing about such topics as self-awareness, identity, and the racial repression of African-Americans in the United States. His masterpiece, Invisible Man, chronicles the story of a young man striving to find himself in a world where he is hardly noticed. This novel won him much respect in the eyes of the literary community. Earlier in his career, Ellison also wrote many influential short stories. "Flying Home", is one of Ellison's stories that call the attention of all concerned with the basic essence of human freedom. In "Flying Home", Ellison creates a provocative statement about the Black situation in the south in the 1940's that is rich with symbolism and personal experience. Born on March 1, 1914, in Oklahoma, Ellison was raised in an environment that promoted self-fulfillment. His father, who named his son after Ralph Waldo Emerson and hoped to raise him as a poet, died when Ellison was three. Ellison's mother enlisted blacks into the Socialist Party and was also a domestic worker. In the early 1930s, Ellison won a scholarship to Alabama's Tusk
Essentially becoming white was necessary for a black service man to advance. Later, to earn money for his education (after a mix-up regarding his scholarship), he traveled to New York, where he met Richard Wright and became involved in the Federal Writer's Project. At this early point in the story the reader wonders why Todd, a black man, would show such terrible feelings toward someone of his own race. Ellison became sort of a hobo to get himself to the institute and on his way got tangled in the Scottsboro boys affair. The story begins as the young man, named Todd, crashes his trainer plane into a Southern crop field. He hated himself for this, but still used the fact that he was a pilot to place himself higher than his brothers. The buzzard is a common symbol in black folklore, representing sometimes the black person scrounging for survival, sometimes his predators, and always the precariousness of life in a predatory society. No matter what course is taken in a human life after flying away from what you know, a wise lesson is do not forget your past and leave time for 'flying home'. From this Todd learns that he cannot separate himself from other blacks because, as Jefferson reminds him, "You black son. Ellison, in some fashion, used Todd to represent himself. Ellison displays the prejudice in the military by portraying Todd as over assimilated to the white dominated army.
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Acceptance Essays
