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Victoria Rice
February 23, 2016
ENG181-001
Project 1, Final Draft 2, Part 2: Artists Statement
Ugly History
My chapter of Flight is the twenty-second, or an additional chapter to be added onto the
very end of the story. I made the decision to write a chapter at the end of the story because I felt a
need to keep the story going. I appreciate the ending Sherman Alexie wrote but I felt like putting
Michael into a dream as Zits again would be able to show how much Michael grew from his
experience time traveling. My ending answered more questions as I addressed the main themes:
betrayal, revenge, and identity. I specifically chose this smallpox epidemic because it was a
massive betrayal. Experiencing this painful event provoked feelings in Michael that would allow
the reader to see whether or not he believed in revenge. This is parallel to the technique Alexie
used during the entire novel to allow the reader to see Zits psyche.

My second listed source, a journal article by Elizabeth A. Fenn, Biological Warfare in

Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst was actually the first I found. This
article gave me information on my specific historical event. The hardest part about this
assignment was finding a specific Native American smallpox epidemic. This entire article was
very helpful but paragraphs two to seven were specifically about Fort Pitt. This is primarily
where my information about the blankets and facts that set the tone for me to imagine what the
Delaware chiefs homecoming would be like. During my research I found this article and
instantly knew that the Battle of Fort Pitt was the event to write about because it is such a well
documented act of betrayal by the British to the Delaware. It was in my ANT280R class, a

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cultural anthropology course about Native Americans taught by Dr. Vidali, this semester that I
learned of the Delaware Nation and how they were the first to sign a peace treaty with the United
States. They had been betrayed but learned to trust again, just as Michael has learned to in the
novel.

The first source I have listed is the book First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of
American Indian History by Colin G. Calloway. I used this source to gather general information
about smallpox and Native Americans. The excerpts I read (page 246-250, 219-220) helped me
understand how large the impact of illness was and why it was so deadly in the case of the Native
Americans. It is important to understand the topic in a general sense, not just specifically like
seen in Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond Jeffery Amherst.
Fort Pitt was mentioned in this reading and I learned specifically how spirituality tied into the
event as an outlet for anger. I used this as part of Michaels dads story in the dream. I believe it
is important to note that pride caused pain for Michaels father both in real life and in the dream.
In both, he blames others and wants to fight because he does not want to take the blame himself.
Michaels father in real life left him but fights with others because he feels bad about it.
Michaels father in the dream wants to fight others and is blaming them for the illness when it is
he who brought the sickness into the village on the blankets.
My third source is the most simple. It is the Center of Disease Controls web page for the
basics about the smallpox disease. This is where my timeline for the story came from. I tried to
follow the pace of the disease and describe it as accurately as I could. This is very important
because without it my chapter would not have been cohesive at all.

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I do not typically sound like Sherman Alexie when I write. I mimicked his style not only
on a surface level by using simple sentences and profanities but in a deeper fashion as I also
copied the way he transitions in his book. Alexie frequently has Michael/Zits waking up and so I
incorporated that into my chapter. Another characterizing feature is how Alexie is in the head of
Zits. His emotions are told to the reader in depth. It was easier to write from Zits point of view
because of that.

I also tried to copy a stylistic feature Alexie frequently uses: repetition. I emphasized
several main topics in my chapter by using parallel sentences and even used some identical
phrases by Alexie earlier in the novel. An example of this is the Youre not real I have towards
the end of the chapter. This is the same phrase the man in the bank told Zits before he was
brought back from his trip through time. In my chapter, Michael learned from Zits what that
meant and knew that what he was living was not real, which is what triggered the suicide.
Michael killed himself because he knew that he had learned what he needed to and wanted back
into the real world.

Works Consulted
Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. Print.
Fenn, Elizabeth A. "Biological Warfare in Eighteenth-Century North America: Beyond

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Jeffery Amherst." The Journal of American History 86.4 (2000): 1552. Print.
"Smallpox Disease Overview." CDC Smallpox. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.
Alexie, Sherman. Flight: A Novel. New York: Black Cat, 2007. Print.