Flight: A Novel

The motif of blond hair and blue eyes recurs throughout the novel. It is a common phenotypical trait among Northern Europeans and an idealized beauty standard in the United States. Zits, both in his body and those of several others idealizes these traits. Like many people of color, Zits internalized the racist belief that these traits can guarantee respect and a feeling of belonging—two modes of experience that he’s never known in his own life. His lack of these traits exacerbates his feeling of alienation, as when he looks around the table at the other foster children at the beginning of the novel and sees “a riot of cold blue eyes” (18). The coldness and the violence Zits perceives is related to his understanding of how Native Americans have been treated by white people throughout history for failing to assimilate. The sight of their eyes makes him feel like both an anomaly and an unwanted member of this new family, which spurs him to run away yet again.

When Zits enters Hank’s body and meets his wife, she and their children have blue eyes. Hank, Zits notices, has blond hair and blue eyes, as well. The murdered mother and daughter on the frontier are blond and blue-eyed. Finally, the mother and son in the bank who capture Zits’ empathy and envy are blond and blue-eyed. The motif persists throughout the novel to underscore Zits’ sense of feeling like an outsider within the country and culture from which he was bred, but has always excluded people like him.

Acne, an embarassing and sometimes painful problem of puberty, is 15-year old Zits’ armor against a world that he believes will never accept him. Before he will allow anyone else to call him ugly or undesirable, Zits announces himself as such. He fixates on his pimples, counting each one, and makes the bolder move of nicknaming himself because of his acne. This claim of pride in his ugliness is false. His desire for clear skin is projected during his encounter with Justice—who has perfect skin—and when he teleports into the body of Hank, a handsome white man with clear skin. Zits also seems to notice clear skin on white people—a subtle commentary on how advertisers perpetuate the idea that perfect skin primarily exists on white individuals.

When Mary offers Zits an opportunity to improve his complexion—both by adhering to a better diet and using an acne kit—it is an acknowledgement that ugliness isn’t a condition that Zits needs to internalize. He realizes that it is possible for him to be loved and accepted.