A country’s dream signifies its goal, objectives and ideologies. A country’s dream determines its style of functioning, organizing and constituting its laws and principles. It is the national ethos of the country and shows its political, social and cultural aspects. America is a new country that started with a noble dream and high aspirations. The American dream is to provide equal opportunities to all irrespective of race, religion and color and create avenues for upward mobility to everyone. The American dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking and hard work. The standard icon of the American dream is the statue of Liberty. It was about originality, individualism and pursuit of happiness.
Jefferson articulated the “American dream” in his United States Declaration of Independence written in 1776 which stated that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental right and all men are created equal. “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 American dream crystallized the ideals of liberty, democracy and equality which had really originated from Europe. Life in America created favorable conditions to realize these ideals in real life as far as possible. Vernon L. Perrington explains the American dream as the process of “a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank.”
The American dream is viewed from two perspectives; religious and secular. From the religious point of view America is viewed as a New Jerusalem, a new Garden of Eden or new Israel with an obviously lofty future. On the other hand the secular interpretation lays emphasis on having a happy family, owning a house and being successful in the land of opportunities with endless possibilities. Benjamin Franklin felt that character and hard work constitute the dream when acquired with values and morality.
According to American history there are two types of American dreams: the
collective and the individual. At individual level it is the dream of a person
to get what one seeks. The desire to settle down, to have a good job and to
have a happy family is the personal aspiration. At collective level it is
transmission of heritage from generation to generation the ideals of democracy,
liberty and equality.
The term “The American dream” was first used by James Translow Adams in his book “The Epic of America” written in 1931. The American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. Alexis de Toqueville, the French historian, in his book “Democracy in America”, the American dream is “the charm of the anticipated success.”
The American dream was complex and comprises three parts. The first part is that it sprang from the prevailing conditions of the nineteenth century American life. The chief characteristic of this life was westward expansion or the frontier expansion. Secondly the American dream was influenced by the combination of reality and the idea of a new world offering endless opportunities for a new life. Thirdly the American dream is a combination of certain ideals like liberty, democracy and equality which created a new society with many opportunities for growth and development.
The American society was previously assumed as a melting pot of various cultures with diverse qualities and skills emphasizing the combination of parts into a single whole. But really speaking it is like a bouquet of flowers with diverse colors each flower retaining its own identity, yet mixing with other ones to form a beautiful bunch of flowers. According to salad bowl theory America as a multi-cultural society is metaphorically compared to a salad bowl integrating different cultures while maintaining their separate identities.
American Literature may be described broadly as an expression of the American dream. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The great Gatsby” (1925), Arthur Miller’s “Death of a salesman” and Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy’ (1925) show the negative aspects of the American dream. The famous American dramatist, Eugene O’Neill exposed the illusory nature of the American dream in his plays. Ernest Hemingway in his novel “The old man and the sea” considers success and inner peace as concepts of the American dream. William Dean Howells in his novel “The rise of Silas Lapham” discusses the life of a self-made man depicting America as a land of opportunities with endless possibilities.
**************************************************
25th September, 2020 Somaseshu Gutala
No comments:
Post a Comment