Flight

By

Doris

Lessing

In the short story "Flight" by Alice Lessing, it's the story of an old man who raises homing
pigeons for a hobby and who constantly worries about his last granddaughter, Alice, leaving and
getting married to the postmaster's son, Steven. The old man is very overprotective and also
possessive of his daughter. In a way, the grandfather is also jealous of Alice's fianc, Steven. The
Old man argues with Alice about her behaviour when Steven is with her and he complains to his
daughter, Alice's mother, Lucy. In this story, Lessing wanted to show that part of growing up is
leaving "the nest" and becoming more independent. Another part of growing up is letting go and
moving on with ones life. Lessing uses a lot of techniques and devices in this short story like
setting,
point
of
view
and
symbolism.
The setting of this story plays an important role in learning where the story takes place in, when
the story takes places and what the social environment was in the story. Lessing didn't actually
mention directly the setting of "Flight" but Lessing did leave a couple of clues to figure out the
setting. Many of the details in the story could mislead us into thinking that the story took place
somewhere English. For example; serving tea and Lucy's sewing. Actually the story takes in
places in South Africa. The clue which tells the true setting of story is frangipani tree which is
repeatedly mentioned throughout the story. The time of the story was harder to figure out since
there weren't a lot of details mentioning this but the vocabulary used in the story was one clue.
Words like postmaster and dovecote were some of the words use in the story. The social
environment of "Flight" could also tell the time of the story like for instance the grandfathers
attitude
is
more
traditional.
"Flight" is written in the third person but is it told through out the entire from the old man's point
of view. At the beginning of the story, the grandfather was obviously very happy with his homing
pigeons. His mood changes when he sees his last granddaughter swinging on the gate, waiting
for his soon-to-be husband, Steven. We clearly see this sentiment when he takes his favourite
pigeon and he prepares to let it go and he suddenly catches the pigeon before it was about to
take...
The short story Flight is written by Doris Lessing about a old man learning of
letting go of his granddaughter as she grows into an adult and is about to get
married.
The story is told in an omniscient third person point of view and this enables
us to see into the minds of all characters, which inturn help us to understand
their feelings and attitudes. When story are told in an omniscient way, the
readers will have a better understanding of what is going on in the story. This
story not only described what the old man is feeling, but also other characters.
The old man feels that his youngest grandaughter is still much too young to be

married and is not willing to let go of her. He 's attitude seems grumpy but
deep down inside it hurt him very much to see his grandaughter growing up and
with her boyfriend Steve. From the describtion we had for this old man, we can
understand much better what he feels. Then, this story have focused a bit closer
to the grandaughter's mother and her point of view on her daughter's marrige,
which she is happy with. The omniscient positions readers to a god-like position
which will let us have a better understanding of what the character feels, and
also
all
the
`conflict'
the
character
is
experiencing
and
feeling.
The characters's point of view are important in revealing the main theme of this
story which is learning to let go. By understanding the characters's point of
view,
we
are
able
to
decide
what
main
theme
is
about.
Firstly, the story have taken us a `tour' in the old man's position which
enabled us to understands what he is feeling. Even seeing that his granddaughter is no longer the cute little girl anymore, he still couldn't accpet the
fact that she has grown up and is starting a family of her own. He feels alone,
and hopeless. He believe that after she gets married, nothing will ever be the
same again. She won't keep him as company anymore and he will only have his
pigeons. But the young girl's mother have a totally different point of view as
she believes that her daughter have found a good home and she is old enough to
get married. As for the young girl herself, she feels nothing will ever change
even if she got married. She will always love her grand father. As all of the
character's point of view are revealed, we have a more clarified view of the
theme
of
this
story.
In this story, the author has used the old man's pigeons as a symbolism of his
grand
daughter.
In the story, the old man treats his favourite pigeon like his grand daughter.
He would pretend to let loose of the pigeon and when it is about to fly, he
would grabbed it back quickly and put it back into the cage and saying`now u
stay there'. This sort of symbolises the old man is not letting go of his grand
daughter and as his grand daughter is trying to `fly away' from her home. At the
end of the story, when the old man fanily agrees to let go of his grand daughter,
he took out his favourite pigeon from the cage and let it fly away. This
symbolised that he had learned to let go of his beloved grand daughter and is
letting the young to take its first flight into the real world.
Doris Lessings "Flight" is a short story revolving around an old man and his learning of
accepting in life. The author, however, does not let her readers know much about the old man,

especially in the sphere of physical appearance. Even his name is not known to the readers.
Doris Lessing, alternatively, aims to steer her readers to centre on the old mans inner feelings,
i.e. his weird mood and his consequent eccentric behaviors. A close and careful analysis is
essential for us to somehow get a reasonable explanation about his eccentricities.
The old man keeps pigeons and considers the dovecote his refuge. These little birds are
seemingly his only pleasure in life, for all of his three grand daughters have gone with their
husbands, leaving him with his daughter Lucy and the young Alice. Because Alice is the last
grand daughter to stay with him, and because she is going to get married, he feels possessive
towards her. Never does he want her to leave as do her sisters. He always wants to keep her, to
have control on her, and to never let her leave, for fear that she will never come back to him,
like the way he prevents his favorite pigeon from flying back to the sky. He keeps on
considering Alice as still a child and on objecting her courtship with Steven the postmasters
son. This possessive and somewhat selfish attitude has led to his unconventional behaviors.
Miserably and angrily he shouts at her, asking her old-fashioned phrases stating his objection
to her future marriage, and eventually threatening to tell her mother when she disobeys him.
How childish it is for such an old man, not to mention his being her grandfather, to behave like
this! Moreover, how can a grandfather be jealous of his grand daughters boyfriend? Jealousy,
possessiveness
and
selfishness
have
blinded
him!
The old man seems to isolate himself from everyone with his own way of thinking, which is
considerably different from that of his daughter Lucy and of course, that of the young Alice.
He expects Lucy, his daughter, to be on the same side with him, yet to his grief, the mother
shows no objection to her daughters forthcoming marriage. He feels lost, and weeps
eventually. Those are tears of anger, sadness and even of the fear of loneliness, for Lucy is
his only hope to stand to his side. Tears shed on him again, though implicitly depicted, when
he watches the young couple tumbling like puppies on the grass, after Steven has given him
a bird as a gift. These, however, are tears of tolerance and acceptance, as he realizes the fact
that Alice needs to fly and have her own life. He cannot keep her beside him forever. Then he
comes to a tough decision: releasing his favorite. Though having clenched in the pain of
loss,
he
manages
to
let
the
bird
soar.
Flight is written in third person, but most of the time it is told through the old mans point of
view. Doris makes it this way deliberately for the readers to get the clearest view of the old
mans mood, which keeps shifting from the beginning to the very end of the story. It makes us
know how his mood has changed from being very happy with his favorite when the story
begins to being extremely angry and resentful when seeing his granddaughter waiting for her
husband-to-be. It also helps us know how he feels hurt and how his pride is wounded when
everyone is against him. With this skillful technique and her great talent in utilizing
symbolism, Doris Lessing has made the story a successful one, which leads readers to explore
the world of inside heart feelings.