The definition of the American Dream is simply: In the United State of America, no matter what job you have got, people who work harder would have a better and happier life, and the opportunity is fair for everyone. As time went by, American society are more and more complicated, however, today almost every political leader of America likes to reiterate the significant of the American Dream. At the same time, American residents are also very enthusiastic about the simple conception even though today their live may not as good as “the good old days”. Why do Americans insist on the American Dream so much? I think we can find the answer from American literature. A lot people have the idea of American literature always fighting against the American Dream, but in this essay, I’d like to propose an opposite view: American Dream has never been discarded by American authors from the 20th century. On the contrary, American literature extends the hope of the American Dream and lets it become more acceptable, today, Contemporary American Literature is the same as its predecessor, and it still advocates the American Dream.
In the 1930s, the period followed the WWI is most important to the American Dream and American literature, because at that period the American Dream could be broken at any time. In order to defend the hope of the Dream, many world famous American authors came forward, such as Ernest Hemingway, T.S.Eliot, and William Faulkner. And one of the most important writers in this period is: Francis Scott Fitzgerald. And his most representative work <The Great Gatsby> becomes the best exemplar of the ideal of the American Dream in that period.
<The Great Gatsby> is a story about a man named Gatsby who is falls in love with a woman, but because of military service, they become separated from each other. After that, the woman married another rich man, when poor Gatsby come back to home and discovered this. He felt very sad and decided to become a prominent and rich man, he finally became another rich man in the small town, and he made a plan to recapture his woman. In the end, the woman learned of Gatsby’s plan then she also planned to be together with Gatsby again, but, at the end of the story, Gatby felt life is meaningless and finally he decided commit suicide. And the woman returned to her rich husband again.
In my view, this novel is full of symbolism. The woman is a symbol of America, and Gatsby is a symbol of American citizens at that period, the boy is the exemplification of the author himself, and the rich man stands for Europe. Firstly the woman is very capricious and her activities always make readers feel sick, I believe that is the people’s true feelings about the American government because people thought they were being cheated by the American government at that time. Secondly, the great Gatsby is a real man who never gave up his dream. Although he died, he succeeded because he worked very hard and finally realized his dream. But in the end, he found that the woman who deceived him is unworthy, but he loves the woman so much. So he chose to discard everything.
Gatsby is the embodiment of the 20th century American Dream. As far as I am concern, American literature told us that although citizens felt hopeless about the deception of their government, they never gave up their American Dream. “No wasting time …… No more smoking or chewing Bath; every other day Read one improving book or magazine; per week Save $5.00 {crossed out} $3.00 per week…be better to parents”. This is a pessage from the novel that clearly reflects a part of the definition of the American Dream: To work harder is the best way to make the dream come true.
After the lost generation, another period can also explain to us how the Amercian Dream never died.This is also a well-known group named the Beat Generation. And this generation is more popular. Even today some people are still influenced by the ideas of the Beat Generation. The representations of the Beat Generation are William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. The book <on the road> by Kerouac reflects their ideals perfectly.
With the same belief of protecting the American Dream, the views of the Beat Generation are however, different from the Lost Generation.The latter concentrates on restating the rules of the American Dream while the former pays more attention to people’s misunderstanding of the American Dream.
In the 1960s, American people felt confused again, they were numb about the excitation of the American Dream because of the Second World War. People felt tired, too much burden on them so that they got no freedom. However, the prerequisite to achieving the American dream is freedom. But some people, most of them from the government and high society hold a very extreme view: they believed the American Dream told American people that working hard is the only way to be succeed, thus, they use their power to require people to hold the same view as them. However, that extremely idea would make all people become the Dream’s slave. Therefore the beat generation had a mission which called for a second belief (this concept is proposed by Kerouac), they decided to go against the government’s global authority, in another word, they thought that the American Dream meant freedom instead of enforcement. So they fought back.
Some writers use irony to satirize people. As Ginsberg wrote in his poem <Howl>: Breakthroughs! Over the river! Flips and crucifixions! Gone down the bolld! Highs! Epiphanies! Desparis! Ten year’s animal screams and suicides! Minds! New loves! Mad generation! Down on the rocks of time! Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! The wild eyes! The holy yells! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! Down to the river! Into the street.” A lot of exciting words in this poem mirror the anger of the masses. But so many profanities also put <Howl> in court, however, Mark Schorer, a professor of the University of California Berkeley told the lawyer that in the view of literature, Howl’s words have no problems, instead, he personally thought the idea in this book were splendid.
In addition, the beat generation promoted freedom and idealism. Like Kerouac’s famous book <On the Road>, we always read this book in a library or social way. After reading this book, one can get a strong feeling of pursuit, and the roles in the book are all pursue their freedom. Kerouac was trying to tell us his concept: the way to achieve the dream is activity and freedom. Perhaps this is the reason why American people gained more and more respect for liberty after the 70s. Afterwards, freedom and the American Dream are become every American president’s declaration and promise. At present, whether the situation is good or bad, Americas still extend their American Dream peacefully. For example, President Obama and his famous slogan “Yes We Can”. And he also propagates the American Dream in his new book <the audacity of hope>.
In this review, attempts have been made to talk about the relationship between the American Dream and American literature, how American literature affects the American Dream. As always, this investigation has a lot of limitations, for instance, the choice of period and works, the analysis of books and writers. What’s more, we could do more research on this topic. To be more precise, the American Dream is important not only to American people, but also other countries citizens. Because this is a real ideal that everyone should chase.
voodoochildzm 