The American Dream - ELSA online Google Meet: Sunday, November 29, 2020

ELSA online Google Meet: Sunday, November 29, 2020

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 29^th 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.” - Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie

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:

"America"

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