2nd Sem. ISP: The American Dream

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Literature

21 May 2009

ISP: The American Dream and its effects on literature

The American Dream has always been a siren of sorts for people, standing for upward social mobility, economic comfort, and material wealth. Since the formation of the nation, the U.S has stood for opportunity. Especially with the turn of the 19th century into which America became the economic powerhouse it is today, the American Dream however began to stand in more and more for fiscal wealth and attainment of material goods. Its economic standing depended on being able to sell the maximum amount of goods and services to its consumers, and the idea of the American Dream began to tie more and more into the economic system and values of the time. The American Dream is an ambiguous concept. It has been touted as signs of a meritocracy where those with talent and determination clamber to the top. It has been criticized as a tool of the social aristocracy to keep the lower classes behaved and well endorsed in the economic and social system not always the most congenial to the penurious. It has been described as something transcending a mere rat race, but of the discovery of personal identity, ideals and of the rare state of happiness. However, whatever ideals can be tied to the American Dream’s existence, there is no mistaking that the fiscal mobility aspect of it will always be a part of the American Dream. Ignoring this only handicaps the viewer into seeing clearly the concept of what the American Dream truly is, an idealistic system as well as a dark tool of conformity and loss of personal identity. Like all systems made by human beings, its nature grapples between its inherent bright and dark side. As a playing ground for the similarly ambivalent nature of human beings, it is without peer in allowing people to truly delve into human nature unmasked as it is. As a peculiarly American institution, it is much a part of the American psyche and hence a strong influence on its literature. A concept riddled with both greed and generosity, with both good intentions and guilt, with ignorance and irresponsibility as well as idealism.
Babbitt is one American novel that introduced the all-encompassing influence of the American Dream, with the economic aspect overriding all other facets. For George Babbitt the main character, the pursuit of social respect and all the newest modern comforts is all he lives for. True, he has vague passions and desires for something more, shown by his friendship with his philosophical artistic friend Paul, and his constant dream of “the fairy girl”, a lovely being that promises hope, beauty and magic for him, but is always slipping always from him even in dreams. Babbitt subscribes to the system of garnering wealth and prestige even when it obviously doesn’t fulfill him as an individual or even a human being, all because he needs respect from others. Emptiness with his life can be found with lines such as these describing the important aspects of his life: “The Babbitts’ house was five years old. It was all as competent and glossy. Throughout, electricity took the place of candles and slatternly hearth-fires. In fact there was but one thing wrong with the Babbitt house: It was not a home.” Later on in the novel, Babbitt goes on to abandon his square existence to take on a life of stereotyped hedonism as a Bohemian, in order to pursue an idea of what life should be like. However, Babbitt really only escapes the frying pan for the fire, as he enters a world fueled with as much materialism, shallowness and hypocrisy as the one he left. And in the end, his desire for his peer’s recognition is so great that he goes back to his old life and habits gratefully. “Within two weeks no one in the League was more violent regarding the wickedness of Seneca Doane, the crimes of labor unions, the perils of immigration, and the delights of golf, morality, and bank accounts than was George F. Babbitt.” Sinclair Lewis, the author of this novel, was obviously presenting to American society the dark side of the American Dream, with its overwhelming emphasis on material wealth being the goal in life. Babbitt is the tragedy, who forever is trapped in this rat race, and is unable to extricate himself to find any true meaning or passion in his life. Instead, much like his name, Babbitt is reduced by society to nothing more than machinery gear, made to conform seamlessly to the values of whatever society he was in. The American dream is depicted as a tool as well, one that keeps individuals in check for the pursuit of material goods. Written in the Roaring Twenties when the whole of America seemed to be swept off its feet with post war prosperity and materialism with the advent of easy credit, Lewis intended to show the darker side of the American dream. One where people essentially sold their souls for physical comfort.
The Grapes of Wrath also parses through the American dream and its effects. The Great Depression in which the novel is set can be seen as the aftermath from the previous decade’s subscription to the idea of the American dream economic aspects. The sharecroppers who march onto the golden land California do so in pursuit of the American dream, not the bloated and avaricious dreams of rich men who seem to gain their wealth by skimming it off other’s backs, but a simple desire shared by all for food, shelter and security. With the sharecroppers lie the very heart and driving force of the American dream—and this desire is often manipulated by richer men to create a cheap labor force, a captive market, and a focus for dislike and arrogance. However, by reinforcing the sharecropper’s dignity and strength of character even in the face of hardship, Steinbeck emphasizes the basic value of the American dream that they represent. Both the value, and its darker promise. America a century ago colonized the west by hordes of men hungry for land and a living, so much so that they cleared the land of the original inhabitants. Steinbeck, writes of how “The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river; and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, and in the eyes of the people there is the failure. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy for the vintage.” By doing so, he emphasizes the common value that every man has, and each owns’ inalienable right to survive. For the sharecroppers at the end of the novel, oppressed by the upper and middle class, hungry and with no shelter, Steinbeck suggests that these oppressed have the right to fight back for their bread and meat if they have to. That even if it means embracing some form of socialism, revolution and re-ordering of the social hierarchy, the people have the right to do so to survive. Thus, Steinbeck reveals not only the downfall of evils in the system, but the redemption of the American Dream in the common man. No longer a tool to keep the workforce submissive, but a tool for revolution as well. A promise to the masses that all deserve a measure of physical security and comfort, and should get it, by whatever means.
In the end, the American dream can be seen as a truly American concept. It is both a tool for conformity as well as a philosophy advocating revolution. This hope by the people to better themselves, whether it be by economic, religious, political or idealistic measures, is something that has driven the path of this country, from the founding of the colonies, to the American Revolution, to the Industrial age, to the civil rights and environmental movements of today. The American Dream allows the U.S to take advantage of other nation’s, in terms of post-colonial control as well as manipulating cheap labor forces that enter the country. But it’s inherent idealism and the basic belief underwriting it that believes every person has a right to happiness, not just the elite, is what also drives ideological movements to better the less fortunate in America, such as programs to support third world countries or take a hand in stopping human rights violations abroad. The American Dream will continue to affect the views and values of this nation, and does so as a paradoxical force just like the country that created it—both idealistic and cynical, dark and yet drawing people towards the light and the happy ending.