Two Stories About Flying Summary and Analysis: 2022

The prose- Two Stories About Flying contains two stories. One is His First Flight, and the second is Black Aeroplane. The first story is about a bird overcoming its fear and taking the first flight. The second is about a young pilot who has a narrow escape from death using a mysterious black airplane.

Two Stories About Flying Summary

The first story, His First Flight, is written by Liam O’Flaherty and talks about a young seagull who has fears regarding his first flight because he was afraid that his wings would not support him during flying. His siblings took the plunge to fearlessly fly even when they had relatively shorter wings. However, the young bird did not find the courage to take the plunge because he could not trust his wings. As he tried to come forward to the blind of the ledge and try to fly, he got scared and went back. His parents berated and threatened him that unless he learned how to fly away, he would have to stave alone on the ledge, but all their attempts were futile. The young seagull would constantly watch his parents teach his siblings how to skim the waves and dive for fish.

One day, the entire family flew to an extensive plateau and mocked the young seagull for his cowardice. As the sun rays shined on the ledge, he could feel the warmth emanating and was starving since the previous night. The young bird begged his mother to bring him some food. He joyfully screamed when his mother picked a piece of fish and flew to him. He leaned out and jumped at the fish as he was exasperated by hunger. Suddenly, he fell into the open space, and a massive terror filled in him as he could feel that he was falling. He felt his wings spread the next moment, and he took his first flight fearlessly. Eventually, the young seagull took his first flight and soared high and skimmed through the waves, and dived with his siblings.

The mysterious story written by Black Aeroplane talks about a pilot who wished to be with his family and enjoy a wholesome breakfast with them in England. He has to travel from France to England for that. As he crossed Paris, he witnessed storm clouds that looked an awful lot like black mountains. However, as he flew through the clouds, he saw that everything around him had turned black. He could not see anything outside the aeroplane, and he lost control of it.

He noticed another airplane with no lights on its wing. The pilot of that airplane made gestures and asked him to follow. The narrator blindly followed the other pilot because his radio signals were not reachable, and he was low on fuel. He passed through the clouds soon and made a safe landing on the runway. When he inquired about the identity of the other pilot because he wanted to thank him, he was informed that there was no other airplane in the night sky other than his aeroplane.

Two Stories About Flying Analysis

His First Flight is a story about a young seagull who is afraid of flying. His family lived on a ledge. He is alone and scared of flying and needs ample motivation. His family left him alone on the ledge and flew away to punish him. They scolded and taunted him for being a coward and threatened to let him starve. He was hungry for an entire day and was unable to let go of his fear of flight. He cried and begged his mother to bring him food. His mother picked up a piece of fish and flew to him. He dived at the fish and felt himself falling into the water. His wings instinctively spread and flapped as he soared upwards. His fear was gone, and it was a joyous moment for his family.

The Black Aeroplane is about a pilot. He was flying back to England to join his family for breakfast. He suddenly noticed the black storm clouds approaching the plane and could jot fly over them. He did not have enough fuel and thought of flying back to Paris, but his urge to meet his family led him into the storm. It became dark, the plane was twisting and jumping, no instruments were working, and he could not contact the ground staff. Suddenly, he noticed a strange black airplane and its pilot gestured to him to follow. The black aeroplane guided him to an airport. He checked with the ground staff about the black aircraft to thank the pilot. However, there was no other plane flying that night.

Two Stories About Flying Theme

His First Flight is about a scared seagull and contains his hesitation, fear, and eventually, his success. It is an interesting story about how a timid and hesitant seagull finally takes his first flight. His diving into a fish because of pure hunger was an absolute blessing. The story proves that one does not attain success immediately and goes through several failures to attain success.

The Black Aeroplane is a unique and mysterious story about a pilot’s flight from Paris to London. He suddenly finds himself amidst dark clouds and absolutely helpless. However, a strange black aeroplane comes to his rescue and guides him towards an airport. On asking the control center, the pilot finds out that no other plane, except for his, was flying that night.

Two Stories About Flying Analysis Key Points

His First Flight is about a bird who was afraid of flying. He was under the impression that his wings would not support him when he took his first flight. His family makes all kinds of attempts to get him to fly, but they were all in vain. Then, finally, in a fit of hunger, he takes a plunge at a fish and almost falls, but his wings spread, and he takes his first flight.

The Black Aeroplane provides an insight into how a pilot performs under stress. It is a very interesting story of how a pilot came across a mysterious black airplane that rescues him in distress.