Climate Change
Much of Flight Behavior explores how climate change has already started to affect the world around us and how people are handling that change—be it through their attitudes towards climate change or the environmental changes that threaten to shift how they live in the near future. The monarch butterflies arrive on the mountain after a torrential flood hits the small town in Mexico that serves as their usual habitat. This disruption of their natural system is a change to a thousand-year migration pattern; although it may seem minor, the shift in their flight is a huge indicator of just how much our environment has already changed due to global warming. Many of the novel's other themes, such as the media's role in public discourse, or class relations and agency in regard to social responsibility, are affected by climate change, both in its current and its future consequences. Climate change also serves as the narrative engine through which readers are able to witness ideological differences between Cub, Dellarobia, Ovid, and other characters. For example, when Ovid starts explaining the scientific evidence that supports the severity with which climate change has already affected the world, Dellarobia pushes back and explains that it will be hard for Ovid to convince people from her town—made up of a social class and background that Ovid doesn't understand—of climate change without "tangible" proof that is more easily understandable than scientific measurements or observations.
Appalachia and Class
While Feathertown, Tennessee is a fictional town, it mirrors many small towns scattered throughout the Appalachia region of the United States, an area that has historically been associated with economic struggle and poverty. The inhabitants of Feathertown reflect this socioeconomic reality; their school district struggles to provide an adequate education and few of the town's inhabitants have much of a future outside of the town due to the lack of opportunities that could help them find opportunities elsewhere. Most people work blue-collar jobs doing manual labor, such as Cub, who manages the farm, or Dovey, who works at a butcher's counter in a grocery store. Dellarobia, herself, found her future defined by the socioeconomic status of her parents: she remained in the town, working as a waitress before leaving her job to become a full-time housewife. When she drops Preston off and tells him that he will receive a free-lunch voucher, she recalls receiving the same vouchers when she was in school, highlighting the lack of class mobility for Feathertown's residents.
Education
Several pairs of characters within the novel demonstrate contrasting relationships towards education and privilege in the forms of education they were able to access. Dellarobia, despite possessing a desire to go to college and doing well in school, could not pass the ACT with a high enough score to go to college--and was already pregnant by the time she took the exam, so would not have been able to attend no matter what. Cub, on the other hand, never wanted to go to college, an attitude that is upheld by many of Feathertown's residents who see no use in pursuing an education beyond high school. Feathertown's high school also fails to provide an adequate education; gym teachers are put in charge of math and science classes, and many other core subjects fall through the cracks due to poor attendance or a lack of faculty. Ovid and his graduate assistants fall on the other side of the coin, having had excellent access to higher-level education. When Dellarobia meets Peter, Bonnie, and Mako, she is impressed with their knowledge and the ways that their educational opportunities have allowed them to live lifestyles that contrast with hers. Bonnie, for example, is not pushed into the gender roles that Dellarobia feels forced into.
Media Responsibility and Climate Change
As Ovid confronts Tina during their interview, he grows increasingly frustrated with her inability to truthfully relay any information about global warming. When he attempts to explain the gravity of the situation and how the butterflies are only one symptom of a catastrophic process that will affect the entire planet as climate change intensifies, Tina denies everything and tells him that people don't want to hear such depressing news. Even during the interview, her cameraman keeps interrupting and telling Ovid that he needs to move so that he can get a good shot of the beautiful butterflies—the same shot that Ovid is trying to convince the audience is not as beautiful as they may think, since the butterflies' presence is an indication of irreversible natural disasters and environmental changes. Ovid's frustrations are centered around Tina and the media's fixation on optics: the way that climate change is perceived by the public, as opposed to the scientific truth about it. By not telling the truth, Tina and the media are putting lives at risk; they seem to be more concerned with ratings and advertising money than with relaying the facts.
Marriage
Unhappy and happy marriages permeate the novel: Cub and Dellarobia, Hester and Bear, Ovid, and Juliet. Each of these represents a different type of marriage. Cub and Dellarobia are two people who were forced together by an unwanted pregnancy; Dellarobia became trapped within the marriage, tethered to her domestic life even though she and Cub aren't compatible at all. Hester and Bear parallel these initial circumstances, since the two married even though Hester didn't feel strongly inclined to do so and only agreed because she was afraid the circumstances of her other pregnancy—an illegitimate child with another man—could impact her future marital prospects. These two pairs differ, however, in their final decisions regarding how they handle their unhappiness. Dellarobia finally decides to leave Cub, in part because Hester tells her that she doesn't, and didn't, expect her to stay in a marriage where they are clearly incompatible. Ovid and Juliet are a contrast to both of these marriages, since they are happy and bring out the best in each other. Their love for each other helps Dellarobia realize how unhappy she is with Cub and pushes her to leave him.
Infidelity
For much of the novel, Dellarobia struggles with desires for other men. The novel begins with her journey to begin an affair; she only stops because she sees the butterflies, which fill her with such a feeling of wonder and awe that she treats it as a sign telling her to abstain from following through with her desires. However, after Ovid's arrival on the farm, Dellarobia once more feels attracted to a man other than Cub. She develops a crush on Ovid, in part due to the way he treats her and how it differs from her relationship with Cub. Where Cub doesn't share Dellarobia's interest in learning more about the world, Ovid helps her and fosters her curiosity by giving her a position helping his research and serving as a lab assistant. Dellarobia's frustrations with her life at home, the domestic responsibilities she carries, and the lack of shared interests between herself and Cub, all culminate in her continuous desire to seek relationships outside of her marriage. This frustration is paralleled when Hester reveals that she cheated on Bear during the first stages of their relationship while he was away serving in the military. Her cheating led to an illegitimate child, who Dellarobia later realizes is Bobby Ogle.
Religion
Feathertown revolves around the church, which is led by the charismatic young pastor Bobby Ogle. When Dellarobia sees the butterflies, the townspeople later interpret her knowledge as a vision from God and she gains notoriety within the town—fame that later leads both Cub and Hester to grow resentful towards Dellarobia, since both of them care more about the church than Dellarobia does. Dellarobia's lack of faith makes her feel like even more of an outsider to her local community, since she feels indifferent towards church and only goes to appease her in-laws. Bobby Ogle is also later able to convince Bear not to honor his contract with the logging company, demonstrating how he can use his power within the town—a product of his status as the town's pastor—for good, allying himself with the actions that better serve the environment.
