Flygirl

“‘Stella, look at that boy run,’ he said, seeing Thomas come up all sweaty and scared, ten men and the doctor behind him, ready to pull that tractor off of Daddy. ‘Did you see that?’ Daddy said. ‘Look at old Thomas. He sure can fly.’”

In this scene, the reader learns that Ida’s father died after being crushed by a tractor. Witnessing his father’s death also contributed to Thomas’s decision to become a doctor. Ida’s father taught Ida to fly planes and is especially important to her and Thomas. He always wanted his children to “fly,” which for Ida meant by literally flying planes, and for Thomas, by going to medical school. It also reflects the theme of flying,which is central to the novel.

“‘Still, it seems silly. Thomas has men dying on his stretchers every day, and we sit here hoarding sugar and saving rubber, like that’s gonna make a difference.’”

Although everyone is doing their part to ration and contribute to the war effort, this quote reveals Ida’s sentiments that she wishes she could do more. This moment foreshadows her decision to apply for the WASP program.

“‘If you’re colored, you get the short end of the stick. If you’re a woman, you get the short end of the stuck. So what do we get for being colored and women?’”

Ida faces many difficulties due to both her race and her gender throughout the novel. Before the novel begins, she was rejected from getting her pilot’s license because she is a woman, and she must pass as white to apply for the WASP program. This theme continues throughout the novel.

“What am I first, I wonder, a woman or colored?”

When Ida interviews to become a WASP, the interviewer tells Ida that it’s not easy to be a woman in the army. Secretly, Ida knows that she is already facing challenges by passing as white just to take the interview. This quote reflects Ida’s internal struggles with her own identity, as well as the struggles she will face both due to her race and her gender.

“‘Listen to me, girl. Because you are young and you don’t know, I’m here to tell you: you cross that line, you cannot cross back just as you please.’”

In this scene, Ida’s mother is warning Ida that she will face challenges she hasn’t even anticipated by passing as white. Many moments throughout the novel tie back to this text, as Ida learns what her mother meant by this warning.

“Lily’s the kind of girl I’d be cleaning up after back in New Orleans. But now, she’s giving me a hug for the same kind of work that I usually get paid a dime for. If only Jolene could see me now.”

On Ida’s first day at the army base,she teaches Lily how to make her bed. This moment represents how class differences aren’t important in the army because a different set of skills, such as hard work, are needed. It also represents how Ida is treated as an equal when passing as white and not as a servant, such as when she is working as a housecleaner. It is also the beginning of Ida’s friendship with Lily.

“It takes me a full minute to believe this man has ever flown in his life. Anybody whose feet have ever left this green earth should have something wild about them, something free.”

For Ida, flying makes her feel free and happy. The feeling of freedom that Ida has when she flies is repeated several times throughout the text.

“I’m still here only because I cheated. I’ve already lied about my license and my race. What else will I do before this training is done?”

Ida feels guilty after letting Lily take her swimming test for her. This quote represents the doubt Ida feels about whether she truly belongs in the WASP program.

“But they know Jonesey, and that’s who I really am. For the first time since leaving home, I’ve got friends, and that tells me I belong.”

Ida’s friends Patsy and Lily reassure her that she shouldn’t feel guilty for letting Lily take her swimming test for her, and that they are all part of a team. This represents how important friendship and teamwork become for Ida. It also shows how Ida is confident about who she is, despite the lies she told along the way.

“Melanie is the sixth girl to wash out of our flight, the first in our barracks. I try to remember who she was standing next to that first day, when Deatie Deaton said the girl to either side of each of us would fail. Whoever it was must be breathing a sigh of relief. Or feeling the same chill I’ve got right now.”

When Ida runs into Melanie and discovers that she failed out of training, Ida becomes nervous and is reminded of how hard it is to become a WASP.

“‘Whites Only’ isn’t exactly a sign of quality, I guess. Jolene will get a kick out of that.”

At first, Ida is nervous to enter a ‘Whites Only’ bar for the first time, but she realizes that it's nothing fancy. This moment illustrates how prominent segregation was during this time. It also reveals Ida’s confidence and sense of humor.

“Any story I give them will only be part of the truth, unless I tell them everything. And even then they could never understand what it felt like, being a colored girl in the arms of a white man who could destroy me if he knew what I was.”

While Ida is grateful for her new friends, she knows she could never be truly honest with them about who she is. This moment also reinforces the kind of danger Ida could be in if she is found out, since a black woman could get into a lot of trouble for dancing with a white man.

“Climbing into the Link is a little like going underwater. Shut inside that warm darkness, suddenly I’m drowning in Lake Pontchartrain all over again.”

Ida is a talented pilot, but she can’t swim and is afraid of drowning. While open skies represent freedom and happiness, being underwater represents oppression and fear for Ida.

“Watching my mother play the role of servant, I feel a sour taste in my throat. I never meant for my own role-playing to bring her such humiliation.”

When Ida’s mother visits her on Christmas, she must pretend her mother is her maid so that no one finds out she is passing as white. This moment is incredibly difficult for Ida, and she feels embarrassed and ashamed. This moment represents a challenge Ida must face due to her decision to pass as white that she couldn’t have anticipated and represents how her choice actually has an effect on her whole family.

“All I could think of was wanting to fly. The war was just an opportunity. It wasn’t real. But it’s real now. It means my brother is missing. It means my mother has lost her husband and now maybe her son. And she came all this way, letting me treat her worse than a dog, just to tell me.”

The stakes are raised for Ida now that her brother has gone missing. Suddenly, the war feels more real. Ida is able to use her identity as a white woman to reach out to the army and try to locate Thomas, but it comes at the cost of treating her mother disrespectfully. This moment really causes Ida to struggle with her decision to pass as white.

“Being colored, female, or both—none of that’s going to help me fly this plane safely to California.”

Ida has faced many setbacks due to her race and her gender.As she prepares for her first cross-country solo flight, she remembers that she can’t let those things prevent her from being a great pilot. In this moment, Ida is reminded of her ultimate goal and is able to focus solely on flying.

“Like Cinderella after midnight, I go back to being colored. And that Ida Mae Jones, the real Ida Mae Jones, could never go to Lily’s wedding as anything other than a serving maid. I’ll never have another dance with Walt Jenkins. I’ll never know what it’s like to be more than just his trainee. I won’t even be able to tell people back home I was in the WASP. Or I could make the other choice and stay white. No home, no family. Simple as that.”

When Lily invites Patsy and Ida to be her bridesmaids, Ida is reminded that she will have to make a choice once the war is over, whether to continue to pass as white or return to her old life. Ida struggles with this choice throughout her time in the WASP.

“Somehow we are able to make it through the sit-down dinner at five thirty, and through the rest of the night, and through watching our best friend lowered six feet into the ground the next afternoon, when the only place she ever wanted to be was in the sky.”

Patsy’s death is incredibly difficult for Ida. This quote represents the bond Ida and Patsy shared; Ida knows that Patsy loved to fly as much as she does. For Ida, nothing could be worse than never being able to fly again.

“‘You’re a fool, Ida Mae. At least when a girl passes for white down here, it’s to have a better life. Not to end up dead.’”

When Ida returns home, her family, as well as her best friend Jolene, express concern for her decision to pass as white and become a WASP. Jolene understands the desire to pass as white in order to have a better life, but she doesn’t understand why Ida would make that choice and put herself in danger. This quote leads to the fight that causes Ida and Jolene to not speak for the remainder of the novel.

“‘They’ve been using the WASP to do dirty work since the program started. Testing planes that aren’t fit to fly. 'If a girl can do it, so can a man.'That should be the army’s new motto.’”

After Ida and Lily realize how dangerous it was for them to fly the B-29 bomber, and after they learn that they were only asked to do so because some people didn’t believe a woman could do it, they are reminded of how little the army cares about their safety. This is just another example of how poorly Ida, Lily, and the other WASP are treated because of their gender.

“Lily’s just finding out what I’ve been living with my whole life. She’s never known what it was like to be hobbled by somebody else’s rules.”

Ida compares the feeling of being mistreated because she is a woman to the countless times she has been mistreated for being black. Even though Ida and Lily are best friends, this moment reminds Ida of how different their backgrounds really are. This moment also reiterates the struggles Ida faces on a daily basis due to both her race and her gender.

“‘Really? Did the army ask for you? Did President Roosevelt send you a letter requesting your help?’”

Audrey Hill, a woman who trained to become a WASP with Ida, says this to Ida when Ida tells her that she joined the WASP program because her country needed her. Throughout the novel, Ida uses the excuse that her country needed her in order to justify her decision to become a WASP. At the end of the novel, Ida is forced to confront the fact that the WASP never asked for her specifically, she simply did it because she wanted to.

“Life isn’t black and white. It’s black or white. Anything else is just a mess.”

Ida knows that she will have to decide after the war whether to return home and live as a black woman or continue to pass as white. This line connects thematically to Ida’s mother’s warning earlier in the novel, that color isn’t a line that Ida can cross over as she pleases. By the end of the war, Ida finally understands her mother’s warning and must make the choice.