The
American Dream:
Illusion
and Reality as Reflected in Literature
The American Dream, a national ethos of the
United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and
equality) constituted the theme of the
ELSA meet held on 29th Nov. 2020. The title of the meet was ‘The
Idea of American Dream as Manifested in Literature’. Stating the definition of
the American Dream by James Truslow Adams, who popularized
the phrase in his 1931 book The Epic of America, Prof. Ghosh elaborated on what aligns the idea of the ‘American
dream’ in the forefront of our thoughts when it comes to individual destiny and
national advancement. He also shared with us the concepts that augment our
notion of the American Dream and its relevance in Literature referring broadly
to Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and William James.
The highlight of the meet was the active participation of Professor
Jonah Raskin from Santa Rosa, California. Jonah Raskin is well remembered
for his face-to-face with ELSA members during his visit to Agra in March-April
2017. It was a privilege and honour to hear directly from him what he, as an
American, felt about the many sides of the “American Dream.”
Dr. Manju elaborated the idea of American dream with her presentation on “Benjamin Franklin: Founder of the American Dream.” Franklin believed that every American must perfect each virtue in order to attain the American dream and make America into a great world power. Enunciating the fact that individual morality is superior to the morality of the majority, Ms. Anjali Singh recounted the idea of American Dream in her presentation on the topic ‘Follow your Heart: The American Dream as lived by Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain's Novel’. Subsequently, Dr. Roopali Khanna shared a poem by Claude Mckay titled ‘America’ revealing both sides of the American Dream, the illusion as well as the reality. Claude McKay balances ideas of loving and hating the United States of America by exploring the good parts of the country and the strength and vigour it contains while simultaneously referring to the ‘bitterness’, violence, and corruption the country is known for. Mr. Saurabh Agarwal highlighted the illusion of American Dream excavating the inner life of an Asian American man struggling to repudiate the hard-baked boundaries of marginalization in the novel Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu. Dr. Rajan Lal spoke on Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman while Dr. Tanya Mander, dealing elaborately with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, maintained that the vaunted American dream, the idea that life will get better, that progress is inevitable if we obey the rules and work hard, that material prosperity is assured, has been replaced by a hard and bitter truth of witch-hunts that went against the grain of ‘liberty’. A dream inevitably gives us hope for the future, and it also brings us power in the present. It makes it possible for us to prioritize everything we do. Such was the dream of Martin Luther King. Prof. Santosh Gupta, reinforcing the true meaning of the American dream, shared with us Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s phenomenal speech “I Have a Dream” wherein King emphasizes the fact that the United States owes its Black citizens their freedom, described by the founding fathers as an unalienable right. The youngest among the participants, the 8-year-old Mrigakshi Singh shared Melville’s Moby Dick which is said to be the perfect embodiment of the American dream. Dr. Maurya hinted at the idea of an ‘Indian Dream.’ The meeting marked the Special presence of Mr. Shravan Chemburkar from Mumbai and Dr. Chanda Singh and Mr. Shravan Kumar from Agra.
Explaining it to be the first of its kind to be expressly
enunciated in written form Prof. Ghosh elaborated the prophetic words
written by the founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence who
defined the contours of that same dream. Phrases such as “Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness,” “all men are created equal” and that these same men are
“endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” are words that have
formed the American dream into what we know it to be. However, Prof. Ghosh in his concluding remarks,
highlighted the American dream as a bundle of contradictions where the ‘dream’
as well as ‘dilemma’ seemed to exist simultaneously. According to him, if the American Dream was a credible
narrative for Obama, the black president in the White House, it was possibly a
nightmare for the likes of Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and George Floyd. Also,
fictional works like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Theodore
Dreiser’s Sister Carrie bring to light the reality behind the illusion
of seeking ‘happiness’ through material prosperity.
The Meet concluded with a reference to
the statement by Charles Johnson, made in his interview by Prof. Nibir K.
Ghosh:
“I would unhesitatingly say that in America our
passions define our possibilities. Despite the ambivalence of the so-called
American Dilemma, there is no denying that America was founded on principles,
ideals, and documents (The Declaration of Independence and The
Constitution) that forced it to be forever self-correcting. In this country
no individual or group, white or black, could tell me not to dream.”
Reflections on the
American Dream
Jonah Raskin
I
don’t remember precisely when and where I first heard the expression, “the
American Dream.” But I do remember the excitement I felt. It crept up on me and
took me by surprise. “The American Dream” seemed like a concept that could
explain the literature and the culture of the United States. I must have been
in college, probably 19 or 20 years-old, and on the cusp of wanting to be an
English major, but to study American rather than British literature. That meant
going against the grain of the Columbia College English Department where
English literature was prioritized and American literature shunted off to the
side.
There
weren’t many offerings in American literature. What offerings there were, were
taught mostly by Quentin Anderson, a large fellow with a gruff voice who seemed
to want to make war on undergraduates. I took a class about the American novel
with him and wrote a paper on Hawthorne’s The
Blithedale Romance in which I concluded that the author was closer to the
Puritanism of his own ancestors than to the utopian sentiments of his
contemporaries in New England. Anderson assigned me a C+ and wrote something
like, “Your concluding thesis can’t save a sinking ship.”
Still,
I was not discouraged by the C+. In an American history class, I wrote a paper
on Theodore Dreiser and received an A-, though the professor chided me for
using a Marxist source. Marxism was out and Freudianism was in. Then, I
discovered the American literature classes that were taught by Carl Hovde, a
gentle fellow who smiled and laughed and encouraged me.
I
graduated from Columbia College, was accepted into the graduate school at
Columbia University and chose late American literature as my field of study. In
those days late meant after 1865 but not after 1945. It also meant no
literature by women and no literature by authors of color. I wrote an M.A.
thesis on Henry James in which I argued with T.S. Eliot, who said something
like “James had a mind so fine no idea could violate it.”
I
was not opposed to ideas. In fact, I liked them too much, including the idea of
the American Dream. Quentin Anderson didn’t like ideas at all. I remember that
he rarely if ever even used the word “idea.” The most that he would allow was
the word “notion.” According to Anderson, a good writer, like Henry James,
might have a notion, but not an idea.
Now,
nearly half-a-century after I graduated from Columbia College I know that no
one single idea can explain or encompass all of American literature and culture.
Still, the phrase “The American Dream” can be very helpful. Americans don’t
have a monopoly on dreaming, but they are definitely big dreamers. They dream
of wealth, success and power, and they also dream of freedom, liberty and the “pursuit
of happiness,” an idea which Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration of
Independence.
The
founding fathers, or brothers as one might call them, including Washington,
Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton and Madison, did not think that the American dream
should extend to women and to people of color. They also believed that only
white men of property should be allowed to vote. But once the American Dream
was out and about, no single group, sect, class or caste could monopolize it.
Nearly everyone wanted a piece of the American pie.
American citizens still want to own their own homes, to dream their own dreams and to enjoy the benefits of democracy, though now it is more difficult than ever more to enjoy them. It's also probably worth saying that while we have the American Dream, we also have the American Nightmare, but that’s another story for another day.
Jonah Raskin, Writer, Poet, Journalist from Santa Rosa, California, USA
The (Black) American Dream
Santosh Gupta
The American Dream with its multi-hued glory attracted millions of
people from different races, colors and countries. The American Dream promised
them success, freedom and equality. But a large number of the African
Americans, who had lived within the
country for many generations and had worked hard to make America a great nation, found
the Dream always slide past them, leaving them far behind others. While they
contributed immensely to the wealth of the nation, their community remained
mired in abject poverty. In 1963 Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., brought the
Black people to Washington, D.C. The March of Washington was attended by some
200,000 people, of all races, those who had been participating in the ongoing
Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., began his speech with “I have a
Dream,” appealing to the nation to let the dream(s) of the Blacks come true. Standing
on the steps of the majestic Lincoln Memorial, he recalled the great President
who fought a war for the freedom and equality for the slaves, reminding the
nation that the promises made then
remained unfulfilled, “One hundred years later the Negro is still not free.” Segregation
in public spaces continued. Negroes were abused and exploited. The
speech exposed the failure of the America’s political ideology.
Martin Luther King spoke about the Dreams of the Negroes on many
occasions. In this speech he expresses a sense of urgency. He refers to the
important documents like the Declaration of
Independence, Emancipation Proclamation and the U.S. Constitution, to build
up a legitimacy for their demands.
One of the most quoted lines from the speech says, “I have a dream that
my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin, but by
the content of their character.”
King ends the speech on a note of hope and trust in his nation, avoiding
bitterness and anger. The speech put him in the ranks of Jefferson and Lincoln,
the men who have shaped the thinking of the American people.
Prof. Santosh Gupta, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
The American Dream: Some Reflections
Nibir K. Ghosh
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (The Declaration of Independence - 4 July 1776)
James Truslow Adams is usually attributed first with coining the phrase "American dream," when describing it in his 1931 book The Epic of America, where he wrote of a "dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity according to ability or achievement."
Benjamin Franklin,
who helped write the declaration, was also an example of the achievement of the
American dream. Franklin's rise from an apprentice to one of the most respected
figures of his age was a demonstration of the opportunities of the New World.
Moreover, his idea that hard work is the only true way to wealth became a key
tenet of the American dream.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Self-Reliance”: Advocated strong Individualism
“There is a time in every man's education when he
arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;”
“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist…Nothing
is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
Another key aspect
of the dream is freedom. This feature is woven in the image of young Huck
in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain's 1884 adventure
novel. Huck does what he feels is right. Worried that he is helping his slave
friend Jim to escape, by the end, he listens to his heart when making
decisions.
One's-Self I Sing (Leaves of Grass) by Walt Whitman
One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.
Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I
say the Form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.
Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." Opening lines, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.” -
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu:
Shattered Dreams of
‘Generic Asian Man’
Saurabh Agarwal
Chinese
immigration to America has a history of more than 200 years but the integration
of the Chinese is still far from complete in their adopted nation. They landed
on the shores of America with dreams of a better life than what their native
country could have offered. Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, winner of The United
States of America's National Book Award this year, employs an innovative style
of narrative, shaped like a screenplay for a TV series, to reveal the reality
of the integration of the Mongoloid race in American society. It shows how the
whole tribe gets bracketed under one title: ‘Generic Asian Man’ for
their individual identity is of no consequence. They look alike
irrespective of the country they may belong to. According to Yu, the Orientals
are “trapped as
guest stars in a small ghetto on a very special episode. Minor characters
locked into a story that doesn’t quite know what to do with them.” He wonders
even after two centuries why they aren’t American. They continue to live
in Chinatown, a place in the city that is considered the hub of slumming,
gambling, prostitution and opium. Thus Yu says:
“They
zoned us, kept us roped off from everyone else. Trapped us inside. Cut us off
from our families, our history. So we made it our own place. Chinatown. A place
for preservation and self-preservation.”
Life in this place of their confinement is not easy; there
are no means of escape. ‘The Generic Asian Man’ continues to dream for he
realizes that going back may not be an option now. Interior Chinatown
shows the constant struggle of Asian Man to get integrated into American
society which is uncomfortable with their faces which look the same with the
accent's absence.
Saurabh Agarwal, Entrepreneur and free-lance writer.
Benjamin Franklin: Founding Father of
American Dream
Manju
“Hold fast to dreams
For if the dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.” –
Langston Hughes
American dream is
a simple idea that every American citizen should have equal opportunity to
achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination and initiative
in the field of industry. It has nothing has to do with one’s class, caste,
religion, heritage or sex. The life of Dr Benjamin Franklin is a living example
to prove that through the doors of hard work and industry everyone can succeed.
As for most of the people success means money. Franklin also said “Time is
money” and not only this rather he even suggested the way to achieve it by
saying “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
His life expresses highest aspirations and perfection where one is pursuing the
dream of collective wellbeing. Franklin, the most accomplished, most accessible
and most Paradoxical personality held his dreams so fast that one day he
transformed his dreams into reality through hard work and perseverance. He
showed how a boy born in a modest family of seventeen children which could not
afford his education for more than two years became an all-rounder: a scientist,
inventor, journalist, businessman and statesman. He was the driving force
behind America’s first public library, first non-religious college and first
national news paper. As a diplomat he made American independence a reality. And
in the field of science he was nothing less than the greatest thinkers of his
time. The doorway to this amazing personality is his autobiography which he
began to write at the age of 65. Benjamin is an image maker and he made best
image of himself in American history.
Dr Manju, Associate Professor, Department of UILAH, Chandigarh University, Punjab
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: Perspectives on American Dream
Rajan
Lal
Arthur Miller’s
play Death of a Salesman appeared on
the dramatic scene in 1949, grabbing the Pulitzer Prize in the same year but
indirectly the Depression of the 1930 lies in its backdrop. The action of the
play takes place in Willy Loman’s house and yard and in various places he
visits in New York and Boston of today. The American Dream in Arthur Miller’s
play, portraying the dispirited and schizophrenic life of Willy Loman,
metaphorises the ideal by which equality/opportunity/approach to be successful
is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be
achieved. Miller’s own ideal in play is that one must be ruthless (or at least
a bit wild) in order to achieve the “floor to haem” or “rags to riches” or in
other words to achieve success.
Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is one of the
post-war plays replete with power and substance passing through the tunnel of
illusion and reality. In the play in hand, as in other plays, Miller is
seriously preoccupied with the problems faced by society. Willy, the
protagonist of the play may be termed a product of faith and illusion. Willy is of the view that success depends on
personality, contacts, a quick smile and good clothes, not on hard work,
persistence and perseverance and that these will bring everything one wants in
life. This is his illusion, not reality. Reality of success is coupled with
hard work and with high hopes. No pains, no gains. But Willy seeks to find easy
paths to get success. That’s why he falls a prey to the magical book of Dale
Carnegie, an American writer, How to Win
Friends and Influence People. But he experiences that something has gone
wrong, and we come to know the mistake is that Willy had chosen a wrong a
profession for himself under the impression, better to say under his illusion,
that selling profession was the best in the world. Biff, Happy and Linda all
pass through illusions and finally encounter reality of their dilemmas.
Dr.
Rajan Lal, Assistant professor, Hindu College, Amroha
Claude
Mckay’s Perspective of The American Dream in “America”
Roopali Khanna
In the wake of the 1929 stock
market crash, the American historian James Truslow Adams reconsidered centuries
of American history in terms of the conceptualization and realization of the
American dream. In the epilogue, Adams clarified, “It is not a dream of motor
cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and
each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are
innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of
the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” The Jamaican-born Claude
McKay protested black Caribbean migrants’ and African American citizens’
exclusion from the American dream of equal opportunity. Mckay uses the
form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America
characterizing the bittersweet and love-hate relationship between striving for
the American dream and being denied that dream due to racism. The poem
America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should
be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude
it projects amongst the people:
Claude Mckay
Although she feeds
me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my
throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath
of life, I will confess
I love this
cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows
like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength
erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps
my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel
fronts a king in state,
I stand within her
walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice,
not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into
the days ahead,
And see her might
and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch
of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless
treasures sinking in the sand.
As a companion piece to Mckay’s poem, I would like to share a poem by Ophelia Flowers:
Living the
American dream isn't always as it seems.
Fancy cars, movie stars……….
Pain filled lives with no hope to find,
for to true happiness they are blind.
"Do what you want for tomorrow we die."
It's the way many live, but inside they cry.
They can't see why their world is a mess.
They've lost their way but won't confess.
To surrender is the only way to be free.
But if they won't hear it, they'll never see.
We must show the world how to lose their chains.
They need to know God cares for their pains.
The American dream shouldn't be about me.
To so many it is, and they simply won't see.
Dr. Roopali Khanna, Guest Faculty, BDKM, Agra
“Follow your Heart”: The American
Dream as lived by
Huckleberry Finn in Mark Twain’s Novel
Anjali Singh
The American Dream
is best summarized in the ‘democratic’ ideals as defined in the US constitution:
Freedom to pursue one’s dream and live a better life. Emerson’s essay,
‘Self-reliance’ too echoes the same. I have chosen the novel Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn as I found the character of Huck remarkable in
every sense. It inspires us to learn about this progressive aspect from the
perspective of a youngster, the building block of any nation. The novel is
about a young boy following his instincts to explore the opportunities for a
better life. He chooses to break out of the bonds that enslave him and find
complete joy and freedom in escaping them; feeling most free in the company of
nature, he follows his heart. Huck is believed to have been modeled on a real
life character Twain had known; Walking the American Dream, it aids his
liberation, a consequence of the choice he makes for himself. The steps he
takes journeying towards the Free State symbolises his non-conformist approach.
Starting with his individual focus, he inches towards the community by bonding
with Jim, the runaway slave. Huck thinks freely and is able to define his own
individual perception. Huck’s many utterances in the novel are replete with the
idea of the dream he wants to turn into reality:
“It don't make no
difference whether you do right or wrong, a person's conscience ain't got no sense,
and just goes for him anyway.”
What is remarkable
is that an illiterate boy with a drunkard biological father is able to break
free from the ideological succession chain.
“But it was rough
living in a house all the time...and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I
lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and
satisfied.”
To conclude,
Emerson too has emphasised on the inner, to affect the outer. Huck’s desire is
illuminated from within. The thought pushes him to act, which he does. Despite
the nurture he had, he chooses to follow the ‘nature’s way. Thus the American
Dream, seemingly an illusion, streams into a reality: “He had a dream and it
shot him.”
Anjali Singh
(Research Scholar)
Moby
Dick: An Inspiring Tale
Mrigakshi Singh
Comments
It was very interesting. I enjoyed the meeting. That is why I remained till the end. I enjoyed listening to your views on the topic and how you manage the meeting. 👍 I am amazed at your deep knowledge, and the way you describe in very clear terms the thought process behind each and every author and how it shaped the American thinking of that era. How it relates to the American dream, the flaws and still maintains the freedom of every individual to reach the heights he or she chooses. Truly spectacular. 🙏🙏🙏 Thank you and ELSA for inviting me. -- S.B. Chemburkar
I lost connectivity towards the very end. But thanks for your invite. A great session, very informative, with interesting, stimulating presentations.
I could have spoken about The Grapes of Wrath, wherein Steinbeck depicts the shattering of a poor and helpless white American family's dream as they move to the West. But the book also speaks of the courage and resilience of the new lot of Americans. The Grapes of Wrath is a fine illustration of the various aspects of the American dream.
Dr. Chanda Singh, RBS College, Agra
