In Sherman Alexie’s Flight, the main character Zits goes through similar struggles to that of the main character Riley from the movie Inside Out. In Flight, Zits travels through multiple bodies and time period; each period teaching him something about himself. In Inside Out, after moving to San Francisco, Riley struggles to acclimate herself and copes with this by withdrawing from her surroundings. We witness Riley’s emotions, led by the emotion Joy, try to keep her happy; but ultimately fail to do so until they allow Riley to feel sadness. During these hard periods both Riley and Zits start the question their life. Each struggles with finding a meaning or purpose in their life. As they both question themselves, they each fall into a period of not caring about themselves or the people surrounding them. At the end of the novel both Riley and Zits overcome this and find happiness within their lives. By not neglecting their self worth and the self worth of others, Zits and Riley were able to develop and mature into better individuals.
In Inside Out, Riley stopped talking to her parents about her days at school and hockey, her favorite sport. This happened at dinner after Riley had lost her personality. Riley’s mom told her about a hockey league she found in San Francisco and Riley responded in a sarcastic disappointed tone “Oh yeah. That sounds fantastic,” (Inside Out, 27:30). As time went on Riley continued to try to withdraw because the characters controlling her emotions continued to act like everything was fine. This type of withdrawal continued until Riley decided she wanted to run away from home. In Flight, Zits learned to withdraw at a young age because of his mother’s boyfriend’s abuse. “I learned how to stop crying. I learned how to hide inside of myself. I learned how to be somebody else. I learned how to be cold and numb,” (Alexie, 234). In both of these situations Riley and Zits could have avoided pain if they were able to submit to nihilism and reject their negative emotions towards moving and abuse. The long-term effects of submitting to nihilism; however, would have caused for Riley and Zits to be incapable of enjoying life and appreciating their families. Because Riley and Zits later found happiness, the inability to submit to nihilism allowed them both to feel joy later in life.
In the beginning of Flight, Zits is an orphan and does not have anyone to protect him. These circumstances cause Zits to question the meaning of his life and believe that he is a burden. When Zits is about to shoot inside the bank a man look at him and says, “You’re not real,” (Alexie, 59). This strikes Zits and causes him to consider his beliefs on absurdism. This reoccurs throughout the text and through his time travel Zits realizes that every life has meaning, including his. Though Zits considers absurdism more that Riley, Riley similarly comes to the conclusion that her life also has meaning. Unlike Flight, where Zits finds his meaning through seeing his self worth to other people, Riley finds this meaning within herself. In Inside Out when Sadness removes the light bulb from the control board, she also changes Riley’s mind (Inside Out, 1:19:50). This becomes a defining moment when Riley’s emotions realize that Riley cannot be herself without all of her feelings. This realizations lead Riley to return home where she see how much she means to her parents. After realizing her parents searched for her all afternoon, Riley realizes how much she means to them. Her parent’s love causes Riley to see that she matters and has meaning. Both of these instances are proof that Riley and Zits both do not believe in absurdism and know that their lives have meaning.
Inside Out focuses largely on Riley’s emotional development and explores the importance of each human emotion. Because of this, unlike Flight Inside Out does not examine existentialism. At the end of Flight, Zits comes to the realization that he determines his actions and how outside forces affect his life. The moment where Zits realizes that, not only is he responsible for his actions and ways of life, but also that he needs to seek outside help to fix them is a turning point in Zits’s life. After confessing all of his childhood hardships Zits says, “But I am tired of hurting people. I am tired of being hurt. I need help,” (Alexie, 235). This realization that he needs to take responsibility for helping himself and bettering his life causes Zits to go the police and hand in his guns. After Zits turns in his guns readers witness that Zits is truly a good child and never intended to cause any harm. While the police question Zits about the bank security tape Zits is asked about a mother and her son and refers them as “beautiful,” (Alexie, 242). This shows that underneath all of the hardship and abuse Zits had gone through he was a good, moral, person; and, after taking responsibility for himself Zits is able to see this as well. Without Zits’s realization that he was responsible for himself, Zits would have been unable to build a life for himself and gain a family.
In our life, the majority of us struggle to find a purpose in our life. In trying to do so we often turn to ideologies like absurdism and nihilism; however, these ideologies can often lead to neglecting your own well being. For this reason it is important to find a purpose in life, as well as, finding something invokes happiness. The majority of human growth comes while questioning our own meaning and purpose, and similarly, to Flight and Inside Out this questioning can often drag people into deep sadness or feelings of numbness. Beyond all of this questioning, it is vital to human existence and well being to remain optimistic and hopeful. Without this optimism both Zits and Riley would have been unable to grow into better individuals.
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