"Flight" by John Steinbeck

My Reflections on “Flight” by John Steinbeck

 

             “Flight” was written by John Steinbeck. It is a story of a young black boy named Pepe who is nineteen years old. Pepe lives with his mother and two younger siblings. Becoming a man is a theme explored in this story. It also foreshadows a knife in the story. 

            Pepe’s father is deceased so he is the man of the family. His mother depends on him for many things. The day he killed a man he was sent to the store by his mother to fetch medicine for the family. She had no one to make these trips since she had to take care of the other children. With Pepe being nineteen, she needed him to become more of a man instead of being so lazy like it mentions in the story.

            Pepe spend a lot of time being lazy to his mother’s disgust. She finds him playing around with a knife like a toy. He seems to take delight in playing with the knife and how well he could kill something with it. It was mentioned in the story in a way that one must think it will be used again. Pepe’s mother was angry by his actions that day and asked him to stop being lazy and go into town on his father’s horse and help her.

            Pepe didn’t seem to like all the responsibilities of being the oldest male at his house. He wanted to be a man though. When he returned after his trip to town his mother told him in a sad way that he was a man now. Even though he was now considered to be a “man,” he was still a boy that needed to be told what to do by his mother. His mother seemed very worried about Pepe and tried to help him know what to do now that he was in so much trouble.