Flights of Fancy

Literary Tools

These ideas are inspired by How To Read Literature Like A Professor.
I am going to try and cover a different tool each day.

9. Flights of Fancy

   1. Flight means freedom

   2. Characters in flight mean: superhero, crazy, fictional (within the reality of the story) or an angel

A great example of this is in A Wrinkle In Time, when Meg flies she is being freed from her earthly constraints. She is free to let go of all the fears and stereotypes that have been holding her back. Sometimes flight is literal, like Superman, sometimes it is a metaphor, like Meg, and sometimes it is so obvious we over look it.

Characters on planes are in flight for a reason much deeper than getting from point A to point B. Authors choose modes of transportation to gives us insight into the character or hints about something the character is supposed to be learning. Characters that fly, are usually freer or are freeing themselves, from something the rest of the characters still need to deal with. Many times it isn't until after the flight the characters even realize they are working on freeing themselves. Flight has much more to do with the heart than the head. My favorite movie that uses flight symbolically is Always.