Defining the American Dream
Through Literature, Political Discourse and Current/Historical Events
“If you work hard and play by the rules you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you” (Clinton). This excerpt, taken from former President Bill Clinton’s speech to the Democratic Leadership Council, summarizes the idea of the American Dream for many Americans. Many subscribe to the notion of the existence of the “Dream,” but few have actually dwelt on what it actually means. Scholars, such as political scientist Jennifer Hochschild, have studied this idea of the American Dream through the lens of economic and social opportunity. She concludes that the “Dream” is a set of “tenets” that, if followed, increase a person’s likelihood for success but do not guarantee success (Hochschild 18). This view, however, is not the only one argued by scholars. Literary historian Jim Cullen puts forth the concept of multiple different “dreams” which throws out the notion of a singular American Dream that unifies the nation. Although many may regard the Pursuit of Happiness for all — the concept described by President Clinton — as the one true model of the American Dream, Cullen argues that immigrant dreams, dreams of Western expansion and dreams of home ownership must also serve as models of the “Dream” (Schudson 567). But given that the American Dream may be all of these different things at the same time through our history, other critics contend, is the “Dream” anything but a narrative that a nation makes up about itself? In other words, is the American Dream actually just a saying American’s use to signify a history of social mobility and opportunity that does not exist? Homi Bhabha adds a third level of complexity to our working definition of the American Dream, responding to other critics by reframing the “Dream” as nothing but a story about the nation that is endlessly moldable and dedicated to the false premise of economic opportunity and equality.
The work of these scholars give us a conceptual framework of the American Dream as one singular “dream,” as a multitude of different “dreams” and as a narrative signaling a history that does not really exist. From here, we may explore other texts that give insights into our guiding question, “What is the American Dream?” That is one of the tasks of this essay, the other being the work of finding how these texts communicate with one another in answering this question. All in all, the following suggested readings must not be seen as an exhaustive list of texts that explore the concept of the American Dream, but a well-rounded list that may be adequate for a student of an English Language Arts classroom to make their own informed definition of the American Dream.
Drawing a thread from the research of Jennifer Hochschild to useful information for a secondary English student begs the question, “What might a student read in order to develop a similar opinion as this scholar?” To that I end, I propose that a student analyze the rhetoric of a couple different speeches by prominent American politicians and speakers. Because the notion of the singular American Dream as “tenets” for success is often used in political discourse, I made the connection from this research to President Bill Clinton’s 1993 address to the Democratic Leadership Council and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream…” speech. President Clinton’s reference to one’s “God-given ability” and Dr. King’s reference this “nation’s creed” are allusions and full-blown references to The Declaration of Independence. This notion of the American dream is deeply-rooted in the line of the Declaration stating that all people are “endowed by their creator with unalienable rights…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Thereby, these speeches continue in a similar vein, concluding that all Americans share a common desire to pursue happiness that is set out for them in their nation’s founding document. This line of thought continues to today, when politicians invoke the “pursuit of happiness” as they discuss its demise. For example, President Donald Trump states in his presidential victory speech that he will “begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream” so that “every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her full potential” (Trump). By giving each person the “opportunity to realize his or her full potential” President Trump shows that values the pursuit of happiness above all things, and he vows to remove all impediments to this pursuit. While some may read the “pursuit of happiness” as the common theme of all American Dream narratives, other works of literature show that not all American Dream narratives are just variations on this same theme.
According to work of Jim Cullen, the American Dream may not be read as just one singular “dream,” but rather as the conglomeration of multiple different “dreams” that do not always equate to “the pursuit of happiness.” American writers come from such diverse backgrounds and historical moments that lead to their different musings on the American Dream. The foundational text that I wish to use to compare to other literature is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In this novel, main characters Lennie and George dream of one day owning their own farm in California and living of the “fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck 14). This not only draws from the founding “pursuit of happiness” doctrine, but also from the telos of Manifest Destiny, whereby Americans may find freedom and stake their God-given claim to the land of the Western United States. This is different from the “rags to riches” narratives drawn upon in other works of literature. One example for comparison may be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where Jay Gatsby presents himself in the style of the self-made man — the embodiment of the American Dream. These texts only represent, however, one small segment of all the potential views of the American Dream. Specifically, they represent the American Dream in a predominately white and Anglophone cultural context. Authors such as Alice Walker and Tomás Rivera represent the American Dream in a different way than Steinbeck and Fitzgerald. Walker’s The Color Purple presents African-American female characters who attempt to claim space within the highly patriarchal community. Even though the community prefers masculinity over femininity, the female characters enact a variety of the “Dream” by asserting their independence and equality as human subjects. In …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, Tomás Rivera presents a male subject who strives for individuality as he navigates his home community of migrant workers. Although his Mexican community speaks Spanish, the boy finds that the public school prefers English speakers. The school’s influence is felt throughout the community as the boy is whipped for his poor performance in school (Rivera 70). The ending of the novel reaches a similar conclusion as The Color Purple, where the subject claims his individual space within the community through artistic creation. All in all, these texts revise the American Dream as it pertains to the African-American and migrant communities. That is, the “Dream” is not just a “rags to riches” narrative but can also be a narrative of oppressed people finding their individual voice in their given community.
Through these texts a student of American literature may begin to see the American Dream as more of a plurality of narratives rather than one single narrative. But, then again students may ask, “what good is a narrative to a person who struggles against oppression like Celie from The Color Purple or the boy from …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him?” In other words, students may question what value the study of the American Dream has to make real change in their community. When students begin to synthesize current and historical events with the literature, then they may find that the American Dream is, as Homi Bhabha argues, one such false narrative that people tell about their nation. One current event that I connect to in this line of thought is the recent executive order that cancels the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, otherwise known as the “Dreamers” policy. The policy protects nearly 800,000 undocumented people living in the United States from the fear of deportation, giving them an “opportunity to earn a living” (Rodriguez para. 4). Those who talk about DACA enact the language of the American Dream, the kind that draws back to the Declaration of Independence. It is evident, though, that even while many Americans submit to the concept of the “Dream,” the reality of the matter is that opportunity is not afforded equally to all people in this nation. A look to the historical context of the novel Of Mice and Men draws a similar conclusion. Like the “Dreamers” of today, migrant workers of the 1930s moved around California searching for work during the Great Depression. Lennie and George are examples of these migrant workers. The legislation of the 1930s put forth severely cut into the protections for these migrant workers, with “repatriation” acts being one of the most problematic (“Timeline of Agricultural Labor”). The “repatriation” acts, like the cancellation of DACA, deported many Mexican-American farm workers and pressured those who remained to leave the United States. With these two examples, students may see the problems of the American Dream concept, those problems being that America portrays itself as a “land of opportunity” but then takes away such opportunities with legislation. Thereby, students may see the American Dream as just a narrative built on the promise of opportunity and social mobility, with little to back it up.
From this, a couple other current events and articles that students may look to for information on the actual status of opportunity and social mobility in the United States come to mind. An article by Fortune magazine from 2017 reported that only 35% of people with disabilities from the age of 18 to 64 had jobs in the United States in 2015 (Donnelly). This is compared to 76% employment for people without disabilities in the same year (Donnelly). Many would argue that this statistic is result of disabled people being unable to do the same kind of work as able-bodied people. Those people, however, probably do not realize that accommodations exist that would allow a person with disabilities to do the same work as people considered fully-able, and most of these accommodations cost little or nothing to implement (“Workplace Accommodations” 3). So, although the “tenets” of the American Dream state that all hard-working and law-abiding people should have an equal shot at pursuing happiness, the same people may not get a shot at employment because of their disability. Another example from the world of sports shows that even if opportunity may be equal between people, their compensation for the same work may not be equal. I am speaking here of the five U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) soccer players who filed a complaint to the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2016 for the disparity in pay between the men’s and women’s teams (Waldron). Although the USWNT and U.S. Soccer struck a new, more-equal pay deal earlier this year, the light shed on the pay gap between men and women in the United States still burns brightly. It once again goes to show that, even though the American Dream says that all people have an equal opportunity, it is not always the case in reality.
All in all, our guiding question about the American Dream and the texts drawn upon in this essay may offer students a variety of responses. Students may develop their own opinion on the matter of the American Dream, perhaps choosing to look at it as “tenets” for success or looking at it as a misguided concept. Nonetheless, students may connect this question to their own lives, extending its lesson to civic engagement in their community.
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi K. "DissemiNation: Time, narrative and the margins of the modern nation." The Location of Culture, Routledge, 1994, pp.199-244.
Clinton, William. “Remarks to the Democratic Leadership Council.” Washington, D.C., 1993, np. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=46193.
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. Oxford UP, 2003.
Donnelly, Grace. "See How Your State Ranks In Employment Among Workers with Disabilities." Fortune, 28 Feb. 2017, np. http://fortune.com/2017/02/28/disability employment-rank/
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925.
Hochschild, Jennifer. Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton UP, 1995.
King, Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream…” Washington, D.C., 1963. Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
Rivera, Tomás. “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.” Tomás Rivera: The Complete Works, ed. Julián Olivares, Arte Público Press, 1992, pp. 61-124.
Rodriguez, Carmen Heredia. “Trump's Decision on 'DREAMers' Reverberates through Health Care Industry.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 20 Sept. 2017.
Schudson, Michael. “American Dreams.” American Literary History 16(3), 2004, pp. 566-573.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1937.
“Timeline of Agricultural Labor.” National Farm Worker Ministry, nfwm.org/educationcenter/farm-worker-issues/timeline-of-agricultural-labor/.
Trump, Donald. “Transcript of Donald Trump’s Victory Speech.” New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016, np. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html
Waldron, Travis. “On Equal Pay Day, U.S. Women’s Soccer Players Finally Strike A Deal.” The Huffington Post, 5 April 2017, np. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-womenssoccer-players-pay_us_58e4faf4e4b03a26a3682a42
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt, 1982.
"Workplace Accommodations: Low Cost, High Impact [Report]." Job Accommodation Network, 1 Sept. 2017, Morgantown, WV, pp. 1-8.
The work of these scholars give us a conceptual framework of the American Dream as one singular “dream,” as a multitude of different “dreams” and as a narrative signaling a history that does not really exist. From here, we may explore other texts that give insights into our guiding question, “What is the American Dream?” That is one of the tasks of this essay, the other being the work of finding how these texts communicate with one another in answering this question. All in all, the following suggested readings must not be seen as an exhaustive list of texts that explore the concept of the American Dream, but a well-rounded list that may be adequate for a student of an English Language Arts classroom to make their own informed definition of the American Dream.
Drawing a thread from the research of Jennifer Hochschild to useful information for a secondary English student begs the question, “What might a student read in order to develop a similar opinion as this scholar?” To that I end, I propose that a student analyze the rhetoric of a couple different speeches by prominent American politicians and speakers. Because the notion of the singular American Dream as “tenets” for success is often used in political discourse, I made the connection from this research to President Bill Clinton’s 1993 address to the Democratic Leadership Council and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream…” speech. President Clinton’s reference to one’s “God-given ability” and Dr. King’s reference this “nation’s creed” are allusions and full-blown references to The Declaration of Independence. This notion of the American dream is deeply-rooted in the line of the Declaration stating that all people are “endowed by their creator with unalienable rights…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Thereby, these speeches continue in a similar vein, concluding that all Americans share a common desire to pursue happiness that is set out for them in their nation’s founding document. This line of thought continues to today, when politicians invoke the “pursuit of happiness” as they discuss its demise. For example, President Donald Trump states in his presidential victory speech that he will “begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream” so that “every single American will have the opportunity to realize his or her full potential” (Trump). By giving each person the “opportunity to realize his or her full potential” President Trump shows that values the pursuit of happiness above all things, and he vows to remove all impediments to this pursuit. While some may read the “pursuit of happiness” as the common theme of all American Dream narratives, other works of literature show that not all American Dream narratives are just variations on this same theme.
According to work of Jim Cullen, the American Dream may not be read as just one singular “dream,” but rather as the conglomeration of multiple different “dreams” that do not always equate to “the pursuit of happiness.” American writers come from such diverse backgrounds and historical moments that lead to their different musings on the American Dream. The foundational text that I wish to use to compare to other literature is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In this novel, main characters Lennie and George dream of one day owning their own farm in California and living of the “fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck 14). This not only draws from the founding “pursuit of happiness” doctrine, but also from the telos of Manifest Destiny, whereby Americans may find freedom and stake their God-given claim to the land of the Western United States. This is different from the “rags to riches” narratives drawn upon in other works of literature. One example for comparison may be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where Jay Gatsby presents himself in the style of the self-made man — the embodiment of the American Dream. These texts only represent, however, one small segment of all the potential views of the American Dream. Specifically, they represent the American Dream in a predominately white and Anglophone cultural context. Authors such as Alice Walker and Tomás Rivera represent the American Dream in a different way than Steinbeck and Fitzgerald. Walker’s The Color Purple presents African-American female characters who attempt to claim space within the highly patriarchal community. Even though the community prefers masculinity over femininity, the female characters enact a variety of the “Dream” by asserting their independence and equality as human subjects. In …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, Tomás Rivera presents a male subject who strives for individuality as he navigates his home community of migrant workers. Although his Mexican community speaks Spanish, the boy finds that the public school prefers English speakers. The school’s influence is felt throughout the community as the boy is whipped for his poor performance in school (Rivera 70). The ending of the novel reaches a similar conclusion as The Color Purple, where the subject claims his individual space within the community through artistic creation. All in all, these texts revise the American Dream as it pertains to the African-American and migrant communities. That is, the “Dream” is not just a “rags to riches” narrative but can also be a narrative of oppressed people finding their individual voice in their given community.
Through these texts a student of American literature may begin to see the American Dream as more of a plurality of narratives rather than one single narrative. But, then again students may ask, “what good is a narrative to a person who struggles against oppression like Celie from The Color Purple or the boy from …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him?” In other words, students may question what value the study of the American Dream has to make real change in their community. When students begin to synthesize current and historical events with the literature, then they may find that the American Dream is, as Homi Bhabha argues, one such false narrative that people tell about their nation. One current event that I connect to in this line of thought is the recent executive order that cancels the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, otherwise known as the “Dreamers” policy. The policy protects nearly 800,000 undocumented people living in the United States from the fear of deportation, giving them an “opportunity to earn a living” (Rodriguez para. 4). Those who talk about DACA enact the language of the American Dream, the kind that draws back to the Declaration of Independence. It is evident, though, that even while many Americans submit to the concept of the “Dream,” the reality of the matter is that opportunity is not afforded equally to all people in this nation. A look to the historical context of the novel Of Mice and Men draws a similar conclusion. Like the “Dreamers” of today, migrant workers of the 1930s moved around California searching for work during the Great Depression. Lennie and George are examples of these migrant workers. The legislation of the 1930s put forth severely cut into the protections for these migrant workers, with “repatriation” acts being one of the most problematic (“Timeline of Agricultural Labor”). The “repatriation” acts, like the cancellation of DACA, deported many Mexican-American farm workers and pressured those who remained to leave the United States. With these two examples, students may see the problems of the American Dream concept, those problems being that America portrays itself as a “land of opportunity” but then takes away such opportunities with legislation. Thereby, students may see the American Dream as just a narrative built on the promise of opportunity and social mobility, with little to back it up.
From this, a couple other current events and articles that students may look to for information on the actual status of opportunity and social mobility in the United States come to mind. An article by Fortune magazine from 2017 reported that only 35% of people with disabilities from the age of 18 to 64 had jobs in the United States in 2015 (Donnelly). This is compared to 76% employment for people without disabilities in the same year (Donnelly). Many would argue that this statistic is result of disabled people being unable to do the same kind of work as able-bodied people. Those people, however, probably do not realize that accommodations exist that would allow a person with disabilities to do the same work as people considered fully-able, and most of these accommodations cost little or nothing to implement (“Workplace Accommodations” 3). So, although the “tenets” of the American Dream state that all hard-working and law-abiding people should have an equal shot at pursuing happiness, the same people may not get a shot at employment because of their disability. Another example from the world of sports shows that even if opportunity may be equal between people, their compensation for the same work may not be equal. I am speaking here of the five U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) soccer players who filed a complaint to the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2016 for the disparity in pay between the men’s and women’s teams (Waldron). Although the USWNT and U.S. Soccer struck a new, more-equal pay deal earlier this year, the light shed on the pay gap between men and women in the United States still burns brightly. It once again goes to show that, even though the American Dream says that all people have an equal opportunity, it is not always the case in reality.
All in all, our guiding question about the American Dream and the texts drawn upon in this essay may offer students a variety of responses. Students may develop their own opinion on the matter of the American Dream, perhaps choosing to look at it as “tenets” for success or looking at it as a misguided concept. Nonetheless, students may connect this question to their own lives, extending its lesson to civic engagement in their community.
Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi K. "DissemiNation: Time, narrative and the margins of the modern nation." The Location of Culture, Routledge, 1994, pp.199-244.
Clinton, William. “Remarks to the Democratic Leadership Council.” Washington, D.C., 1993, np. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=46193.
Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. Oxford UP, 2003.
Donnelly, Grace. "See How Your State Ranks In Employment Among Workers with Disabilities." Fortune, 28 Feb. 2017, np. http://fortune.com/2017/02/28/disability employment-rank/
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 1925.
Hochschild, Jennifer. Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton UP, 1995.
King, Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream…” Washington, D.C., 1963. Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf
Rivera, Tomás. “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.” Tomás Rivera: The Complete Works, ed. Julián Olivares, Arte Público Press, 1992, pp. 61-124.
Rodriguez, Carmen Heredia. “Trump's Decision on 'DREAMers' Reverberates through Health Care Industry.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 20 Sept. 2017.
Schudson, Michael. “American Dreams.” American Literary History 16(3), 2004, pp. 566-573.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1937.
“Timeline of Agricultural Labor.” National Farm Worker Ministry, nfwm.org/educationcenter/farm-worker-issues/timeline-of-agricultural-labor/.
Trump, Donald. “Transcript of Donald Trump’s Victory Speech.” New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016, np. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/trump-speech-transcript.html
Waldron, Travis. “On Equal Pay Day, U.S. Women’s Soccer Players Finally Strike A Deal.” The Huffington Post, 5 April 2017, np. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-womenssoccer-players-pay_us_58e4faf4e4b03a26a3682a42
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt, 1982.
"Workplace Accommodations: Low Cost, High Impact [Report]." Job Accommodation Network, 1 Sept. 2017, Morgantown, WV, pp. 1-8.