Arriaga 1 Angelica Arriaga Mr.

Newman English 101: Rhetoric 5 November 2013 A Not So Pleasant Dream In 1776, the Declaration of Independence commenced a movement that would embrace the newfound freedom of the nation. This movement involved the ideas that all men are created equal and everyone had certain unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Because of this, a concept formed around the idea that anyone who works hard will gain success and achieve a better future than one began with. This concept reached out into the consciousness of Americans who aspired a greater purpose. Many embraced this concept in hopes of achieving success, but achieving success has a different reality; it would cause frustrations on oneself. The emotional destruction caused by this concept hides within a dream: The American Dream. The negative effects of the American Dream can be found in Flight Patterns, where Sherman Alexie mocks the concept through the internal conflicts of his characters. In some cases, social and ethnic backgrounds prohibit an individual from pursuing a better lifestyle even though society tends to implement the idea that there is an equal opportunity of success. Even those who come to America seeking a better life do not gain a clean slate; instead they carry their past with them. As a result, Alexie chooses to introduce Fedaku in the short story to provide the irony that lurks within the American dream in order to display the

Arriaga 2 barriers that limit the success of others: How could a physicist drive a taxi? Well, in the United States, I am a cabdriver, but in Ethiopia, I was a jet-fighter pilot (Alexie 56). The audience then learns that Fedaku is actually an intelligent man who studied at Oxford that possesses a haunting past of defecting from his country. Through this character, one could assume that being a man from Oxford would guarantee success in America, but idea of equality is flawed. In actuality, America offers no promises to the individuals who live on the land of the free and the home of the brave. This is why we see this man who desires a more pleasant life, but is stripped away from his opportunities of individual freedom due to his past. Sometimes, ones fate is sealed in America and eventually breaks the mentality of a person. As author Hiromu Arakwawa stated Humankind cannot gain something without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. This reflects on the ideas of the American dream. What society tends to demand from an individual is to have certain requirements that primarily focus on having a good work ethic, but what the requirements dont state that is that an individual will need to sacrifice a part of their life. William, in Flight Patterns, gains his workaholic impulse that makes him loses his sense of appreciation of his family and a deep dissatisfaction of his own tasks in life. Even though he does what the middleclass life expects him to do, he still struggles to cope with his own American dream and becomes confused with his priorities like he wanted the world to be fair and decent place. At least that was what he wanted to want (Alexie 53). William becomes frustrated and doesnt acknowledge his privileged position. Instead, he focuses on the flaws of his own life and has a hunger to become better than what he already is. With the freedom to make individual choices, deciding on what choices to make seem to cause people to become confused on whether or not they have the ability to choose their own fate.

Arriaga 3 In Flight Patters, the ideal stage of the American Dream is marked when a person gains economic wealth, a steady job, and the ability to maintain rights that are guaranteed in the constitution. However, Alexie uses William to demonstrate the idea of not having liberty and happiness once someone reaches their own version of the American Dream. By doing so, the audience understands that William has to lose his identity because of his desire to become Americanized since He wanted to know all of the great and tiny little American details (Alexie 49). Even though William thinks of himself as the average American, he knows that he is the subject of stereotypes and decides to lose much of his Spokane background so he could smell of Dove soap in order to gain his entry into the notebook-computer tribe. (Alexie 52-53) Yet, that doesnt stop him from people sniffing him out at the airport no matter how he acts or dresses. He also becomes nave in believing that hard work and perseverance is all he needs to attain his own happiness. In the end, William is consumed with the idea of becoming a white citizen that it leads to his own distraught. An idea that originated from the Declaration of Independence has been deemed unrealistic because the thought of everyone having the right of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. is not true. The American Dream isnt as simple as society claims it to be, but it still finds its place as the national ethos of the United States. This dream will continue to evolve in time, but prove that people who come to America or who already originate from this country are struggling to survive just like William and Fedaku. It is the characters own conflicts of the dream that brings out a different perspective to this glamourized concept and points out that not everyone who works hard will have the ability to gain success, and that pursing the American Dream often strips away identity.

Arriaga 4 Work Cited Alexie, Sherman. "Flight Patterns." 2003. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2005. 49-61. Print
Rubric for Literary Analysis Purpose (33): Successful (A+ thru B): Demonstrates a superior understanding of Flight Patterns in that you analyze and not just summarize the story Shows a complex understanding of the Critical Lens/ Lit Device/Moment concept/Area of Interest

Genre (33): Successful (A+ thru B): Contains a thesis in the last sentence of the intro that effectively captures your argument Includes well-chosen support from throughout the text that supplements the thesis Analysis is academic in nature

Design/Layout (20): Successful (A+ thru B): Uses MLA format to skillfully weave quotes and paraphrases into the text Uses a 12-point, Times New Roman font with a double-spaced page Includes a creative title, appropriately placed headers, heading, and page numbers Includes a Works Cited page that accurately lists the text(s) used

Audience (25): Successful (A+ thru B): Uses vocabulary appropriate for a college audience Assumes a level of intelligence and sophistication for the audience Grammar/spelling/punctuation should be appropriate for a college freshman

Stance (14): Successful (A+ thru B):

Arriaga 5
Offers a convincing argument Includes a consistent tone that presents your perspective appropriately