Beauty, Borders and the American Dream in Richard Dokey's ‘Sanchez’

Abstract

Critics have pointed out discrepancies between what is commonly understood as the American Dream in the mainstream culture at large and the fictive representation of Chicanos or Mexican-Americans who attempt to appropriate the dream as their own. For example, Luther S. Luedtke explores the Chicano novel Pocho only to conclude that this novel confirms its protagonist as a “universal man” who “suffers an existential insecurity against which no community can protect him” (14). The existential plight demonstrated in the novel is heightened because of the distance between the historical and mythical origins of the Chicanos and the white mainstream culture which posits the American Dream in confusing and alien terms.