What I Researched and Why?
After reading the selection in the course packet, "Language, Resistance and Subjectivity," I started to read "Flight" a little more closely. I wanted to see how the character Zits felt about language and how he used it to protect himself from hurting and also how it gave him an identity. I also wanted to research how other scholars felt about language as a form of resistance. I felt that rebellious youth really are "bad" for a reason, maybe because they never felt that they fit in or found their identity, so I researched rebellious youth to see if the stems of their problems were ever fully determined.
What I found:
I found two particularly helpful websites, http://books.google.com/books?id=sT2ilrNtGkEC&pg=PA179&ots=HPOEMfhwC1&dq=language+and+resistance+in+youth&sig=Nvl1oXX-_nxoStiR7ho350zb6Tc#PPA180,M1 and http://books.google.com/books?id=gOiWLnc-yTsC&pg=PA183&ots=nGSsqtOS7d&dq=psychology+of+rebellious+youth&sig=f3MEsaiDpk6b_D6FPmuGZLlkweM
I feel that these both help in explaining what the character Zits was going through in the story. The first website explains the language-identity equation, stating that, "the lack of language is experienced as having a lack of being; not having a language that adequately, immediately, and fully expresses what one wishes to say about the world and perhaps particularly, about oneself, becomes fully equated with not having a fully realized self" (180). This article also goes on to show how language, culture and socioeconomic status are all intertwined. The second website researches postmodern youth as an alienated culture. "Caught in this conflict of emerging autonomy on one hand and adult control on the other, young people's frustrations and anxieties mounted" (183). This article is helpful in examining how youth may feel a lack of identity due to postmodern movements.
My interpretation/What I think it adds to our discussion:
In the story, Zits is constantly in trouble. He cusses at his parents, he's constantly in fights, is active in substance abuse and pretty much seems to have no motivation whatsoever. This is an all too common occurrence in today's society. I wanted to see why this seems so and what the root of the problem really is.
The first website seems to go along quite well with the selection in the course packet, "Language, Resistance and Subjectivity." After reading this and the first website that I found, it seems that Zits uses offensive language as a way to resist society and to protect himself from being hurt again like he has been too many times before. When the social worker tried to equate herself to him in the beginning of the story and cussed just as he did, he laughed in her face and scoffed at her attempts to understand him. Is it really all that funny, or does he scoff because deep down he realizes that no one can identify with him because he in turn can't even identify with himself? Could he really just being using those words to protect himself from letting someone get to close and actually show him love? "He thinks the curse word will scare me"- page 141, Flight. Even as he is in his own father's body, he still thinks that these certain words are used to shield from becoming too vulnerable. He also repeats the word "whatever" several times and remarks on page 178, " 'Whatever', I say, because it hurts to have hope."
The second website, on the postmodern explanations of rebellious youth researches the growing gap between adults and youth and the expectations that adults have for youth. In class we discussed Postmodern thought as including a lack of individuality and identity. Justice states on page 25, "The individual has always had to work hard to avoid being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high for the privlege of owning yourself." Zits wanders from home to home, he never really met his family, and he's half white, half Indian; he really has no identity. He doesn't even go by his real name. His only identity marker is the acne on his face, further proving the postmodern thought in its superficiality, that looks only matter.
Between the two websites and the thoughts on language as a tool of protection and resistance and rebellious youth as just looking for their own identity, I feel that the character of Zits can be explained. His journey throughout the book, through history and different characters shows that he really is just looking for his identity, and not to be labeled as just a rebellious youth.
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5 comments:
I also think that the heavy use of curse words in Flight plays a large role in Zits' identity. In the very beginning of the story, the use of language was already a very big deal to Zits because it gives him a sense of power. Though Zits is empowered by his use of curse words,he also thinks it is amusing that people are offended by words. He describes the words as different combinations of vowels and consonats, and finds its amusing that they can have such an effect in society. "Don't those wimps realize that each and every word has the power and meaning you assign to it?" (pg 14) Maybe Zits feels empowered by the use of curse words because they are something he can control, unlike the rest of his life. He may not be able to control the environment in which he lives, or the foster parents he despises, but he has the ability to control the words he uses, and the effect that his word choice has on people. Maybe these words give him a sense of self, and are the only things, other than his zits, that define who he really is.
I agree with Samantha, that Zits probably uses curse words (and a lot of them!) because they are something he can control. But I think they also present a persona to the world around him. Curse words let people know that he doesn't care what they think and that he is mature enough to use them. They also show that he's a "bad seed" and is uncontrollable. I think he uses this as a defense mechanism to keep people from becoming too close to him and then hurting him or leaving.
I agree with Samantha and Kate that Zits uses curse words because it is something he can control. I also believe that he is using these words as a way of acting out. Since he is being passed from foster home to foster home, he uses his words to try and get attention from the current foster home. Instead of giving him a type of positive attention, or even some from of punishment that Zits may want, the parents just yell at him. This then causes him to hit the mother and run away. I believe that if the parents just gave him the attention that he wanted, it would allow him to stop using the curse words.
I do agree that Zits uses curse words so often because he feels it is something he can control in an uncontrollable life. I also feel as though he uses curse words because he is in such an adult world, he is always surrounded by adults and he is trying to make himself seem more mature. When kids hit a certain age it seems as thought they have this belief that curse words = big kid. It is likely that Zits uses curse words because he feels as though they make him seem more adult.
I agree that Zits feels empowered by using his curse words while he also does so to protect himself. He is a fairly intelligent person and I believe knows that when he curses he distances himself from people. He has been abused in the past and does not want to be hurt again by caring too much, so using abusive language that he knows people are not fond of will guarentee that. Zits knows the meaning behind the words and knows that by using them he can keep people at a safe distance to protect himself. It gives him a sort of control over adults when he uses this language that allows him to keep them at a safe distance.
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