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Kim C. Nguyen
Asian American Studies 2b
Alvin Henry
May 31, 2008
Flying like a Bird

Ralph Ellison’s short story, “That I had Wings,” delineates about the evil actions of

racism between 1937 and 1954. Riley is a victim who suffers indirect racial lynching and mental

torment by Aunt Katie. Her nephew, Buster, is Riley’s friend. Riley uncovers negatively recalls

how she insults him from singing for enjoyment of presidency. This causes him to not have a

friendly relationship with her. Riley portrays Foucault’s reasoning that she expects him to be

submissive to her version of White racism in order for her to achieve her reward of retaining

power. Although Riley views Aunt Katie’s policing of his body as a form of white racism, he

acts out of his frustrations by converting the chicks into symbols of his own struggles because he

is unable to directly confront white racism.

Riley shows that Aunt Katie scolds to coerce him by conforming White racists’

denigrations. This causes him to indirectly relate Foucault’s view for policing of his body as a

form of White racism. After the time Riley ridicules about being superior to White authority

through his song, Aunt Katie scolds, “’Yuh better min’, suh befo yuh git everybody into trouble.

What yuh think would happen to you po ma if the white folks wuz to hear she wuz raisn’ up a

black chile go no b eter sense than to talk about bein’ president? (47)” Riley recalls Aunt Katie’s

use of imperative first sentence to control him of fear for his sake. The words “better min’”

forms the idea that she forces Riley to change his mocking attitude through his singing.

Otherwise, he will receive physical or oral torment from White racist individuals. Even though

this quote does not contain Riley’s dialogue, he applies this word command “better” to endorse
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that she prefers Riley to have fear as an African American. This idea reinforces Foucault’s

suggestion about policing of the body because Riley already contains the knowledge of White

people having the power to insult and lynch African Americans for mentioning any hope of

freedom against Whites. He implies Katie is a racist herself for forcing him to obey White’s

superiority because he is expected to act a certain way. Whites do not attack both of them every

single moment. Next, Riley shows the word “wuz” twice to portray Foucault’s claim that Whites

own this superior power through time. Therefore, he claims Aunt Katie disallows him to confess

his own power against Whites because she has been confessing White insults from White people.

They have the privilege to speak in Jim Crow society. Hence, Riley abstracts Katie’s words of

White racism to portray that she polices his body to conform White denigration against African

Americans.

Next, Riley clearly compares Aunt Katie’s policing of his body to the relationship of a

mother and child robins because he cannot directly battle against white racism. Before Riley

starts joking about White people through his singing, Buster and he sees a little robin on the

branch; Riley realizes Aunt Katie desires to discipline him, “But there it was, trying to rise and

fly awkwardly, up to where the mama bird chattered in the tree. Riley sat back ‘Yuh wazn’t

really scared. Yuh jus didn’t want no ole folks messn with yuh. I’m gon get me a bird an’d teach

him how to fly,’ he decided. (46)” The repetition of “yuh” and “fly” shows the resemblance of

Riley’s situation and the situation that mother robin portrays the little robin to unable to fly

because Aunt Katie utilizes forewarning words of White disapproval to restrain Riley from

revolting. Riley applies “yuh’ trice to compare himself with the little robin and Aunt Katie with

the mother robin. The first “yuh” implies that Riley shall fear White people who exercise race

abuse. It also directly correlates with the second and third “yuh” because the little robin is being
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abused of free power similar to Aunt Katie’s abuse of Riley’s free will. The mother robin polices

her son by pushing her son to fly, and Aunt Katie criticizes that Riley shall be silent of singing

mocking songs against Whites. He cannot defy racisms through white racists directly because

Aunt Katie abuses his power. This situation is similar to the robins’ situation because the mother

expects it cannot fly while it actually can. Therefore it abuses the power of the little robin. After

that, the first word “fly” links to the second word “fly: because Aunt Katie denies Riley to use

his strength to be free, and fly symbolizes freedom. But both the robin and he struggles to earn

freedom. Then, Riley places verb phrases and verbs to demonstrate that he has a difficult time

opposing White repression. The verb phrase “trying to rise” is significant because it

demonstrates that he is yet unsuccessful in attempting to reach for his own power by having

freedom against Aunt Katie, who conforms White dissatisfaction against African Americans.

Similarly, Riley mentions the verb “messn” because adults such as Aunt Katie and the mother

Robin both believe they can degrade their children in order to prevent them from their everyday

life abilities, including defy. Therefore, Riley also loses his power because he does not have the

same pride that Aunt Katie has with her old generation Jim Crow experience during her slavery.

In this situation, Foucault will explain that White authorities practice their power to denigrate

Riley in order to retain power with pleasure because they have knowledge to control African

Americans, through Aunt Katie. Therefore, Riley resembles the little robin. All of white

oppressive power policed through Aunt Katie causes hardship for Riley to deteriorate white

racism.

Riley certainly reveals to readers, through his thoughts, his frustrations towards Aunt

Katie’s policing of his body by treating him with White racism. At the beginning of the story, he

starts singing about freedom and becoming the President, and she immediately attempts to
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mediate of what he can sing. She insults him by saying that he cannot be president because of

White people will disapprove, but he ponders, “It was always got or the White folks. She always

made him feel guilty, as though he had done something wrong, he could never remember, for

which he would never be forgotten( 48).” Riley repeats adverb “always” to complain that Aunt

Katie uses long periods of time to criticize him for disrespecting white racists. According to

OED, “always” means “at all time on all occasions” ; he blames Aunt Katie that she puts these

people as superior people “at all times.” According to Foucault, someone mostly finds pleasure

through one’s or someone else’s pain. Therefore, Riley portrays this concept to suggest that

Katie thinks she will earn a reward for agreeing with White inferior views towards blacks. Next,

Riley displays the adverb “never” twice to blame Katie for not recognizing his disgust towards

white racism. Again, his anger towards Katie’s racism causes him to forget the specific times

that she offends him with her biased White conforming reasoning. Yet, he will always remember

her through his anger that she will persist in torturing him for attempting to mock white racist

policies through his songs. He also shows his disapproval of his Aunt’s racist actions through his

accusing tome with two words “something wrong.” Because he is accustomed to liberating

himself from white oppressive, he feels does no harm to her. So, he views her controlling

paranoia as a distraction because he never really directly receives offensive racist slurs towards

African Americans; the criticism has always been through her. Hence, Aunt Katie’s attempted

prevention from Riley to find freedom from White racism causes him to view her representation

of White racism as a nuisance.

Riley relates himself to a bird by drawing connections between kite and birds to continue

despising Aunt Katie for replicating White racism. After Aunt Katie criticizes him on how to

behave towards White people, he realizes that he can help chicks fly, as a symbol of defiance
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against her usage of White racism. This antagonist act compels him to reveal his thinking,

“Yesterday he had watched the twine snap with a kite sailing high above the roof tops, and the

kite had gone jerking and swooping crazily out of sight, and he had felt that same strange

tightness he knows watching the birds fly south in the fall. (58)” First the verb “snap” means he

relates flight of birds with a kite as an attempt for freedom. People commonly use “snap” as a

negative word because it involves liberation with a racket sound. In contrast to birds, he cannot

quietly free himself in order to receive the words and acts of racism from White people and

escape them. Aunt Katie causes the loud racket of White racism that he never completely

escapes from. Therefore, he reveals irritation due to having the desire to free him from Aunt

Katie’s racism, in order to mock at White people for their racism. According to Foucault,

resistance is a portion of power relationship. Yet, he attempts and struggle to establish his power

relationship by retorting against the socially constructed negative expectations of African

Americans, from White people because he has to initially resist against Aunt Katie. Therefore,

he views his mental battle against White relationship as crazy due to he has to concern about it

through Aunt Katie. Because he feels this “tightness” or restrain from freedom that birds do not

usually feel, he suggests Aunt Katie remains as an obstacle against establishment of his own

power to escape White racism. Again, he portrays annoyance towards Aunt Katie because she

prevents him from “fly(-ing) south” or liberating him from her imitation of White oppression.

She prevents him from society of race criticisms from White people. Hence, certainly uncovers

his frustration for not successfully attack denigration from White racists due to Aunt Katie’s

symbolic act of White racism by comparing himself to a kite and contrasting himself with birds.

Due to his frustration with Aunt Katie’s White oppression to control his life, Riley

performs significant act of defiance with chicks. He attempts to teach a chick how to fly in order
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to begin the steps of pleasing himself, and he replies to Buster’s questions of fear for safety of

the chick as “Aunt Kate was nowhere to be seen. ‘It won’t hurt ‘em man. They’ll like it. All

birds like to fly man, even the chickens. (57)” The display of “Aunt Katie” in Riley’s thoughts

reminds readers that Aunt Katie’s presence acts as White racism to downgrade African

Americans such as him. This display is important because it shows readers that his frustration

convinces him to start battling White racism through her. The white racists choose to oppress

him indirectly, so his first steps of indirect defiance with the chicks build his confidence to avoid

this authoritative figure, in order to directly mock these racist slurs. Next the first “like”

connects with the second “like” because through his frustration, he compares himself as the

chick that cannot fly but is eager to liberate itself from obeying what authorities consider what

shall be not dangerous to live by. This means his frustrations cause him to build pleasure from

constantly struggling to defy against White oppression and defy the white oppressions Katie does

not want him to defy. Then, he displays the chick as an African American minority. Therefore,

both desire to stand against and away from any form of race oppression. Hence, Riley’s anger of

not being able to confront White racism directly causes him to lead an important step toward

defying Aunt Katie, even though she lacks presence when he performs it.

Because he partially succeeds to compel white racism from Whites to approach him in a

straightforward way, by using the chicks as support, his success urges him to stand up to Aunt

Katie for policing his body and increasing his hindrance. After Aunt Katie scolds and blames

him for killing the chick, he thinks and replies, “If only he hadn’t looked when she called, he

might have caught the lil chicks. Suddenly the wails rushed out, scolding: ‘I hate yuh,’ he

screamed. ‘I wish yuh had did back in the slavery times. (61)” Ellison includes the past

participle “hadn’t” to portray that Riley thinks that he still unable to control himself to not allow
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white racism to force him to be submissive to it. Then, Riley does show that he thinks he

succeeds in revolting against white racism after the chick’s death by attacking Aunt Katie with

verbs “hate” and “wish.” He blames Aunt Katie for the chick’s death instead of himself because

he shares similar connections with it for struggling against power; both the inability for a chick

fly and permanently stopping white racism in mid twentieth century is indisputable. He lacks

realization that attempting to perform a task that impairs him causes death, but he persists in his

anger because he works so hard in his efforts to liberate himself through the chick. Also he may

cause pleasure to himself though his struggles or during this time where he does successfully

show his anger against Aunt Katie, for his own power, according to Foucault. Hence, Riley

succeeds in revealing resentment against Aunt Katie for applying White racism on him. But, he

still is fatigued for not being able to demolish direct racial slurs from White individuals.

Thus, Riley shows his frustrations towards Aunt Riley for being a substitute of White

racism. He successfully implies she utilizes Foucault’s idea that she attempts to police his body

to surrender to White’s farcical criticisms of African Americans by scolding him about it and

confessing she has pride to follow it. Because he despises her method of protection from actual

White torture, he tries to defy what Aunt Katie does not expect him to do. Therefore, the chick’s

life of disability to fly compares with his oppressive life, and he defies her by teaching it how to

fly. This significant liberation frees him to stand up against her because she protects him from

his own pleasure to struggle to free himself from true racism from Whites people. How will he

view Aunt Katie’s policing of his body differently if he does face racism from actual White

people?
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Citation

1. Ellison, Ralph. “That I had Wings.” Flying Home and other stories. Random House, 1996.