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Join Date: Feb 2008
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True American Dream - English paper
The teacher wanted us to analyze two poems and write how they reflect the American dream. Instead of writing some "Work Hard, Achieve Something" bullshit, I decided to go a more truer root. I think its boring (I think), but try to look at from an English teachers viewpoint...
American Dream Analysis 3/4/08
Aleksandr Smechov American Dream Analysis 3/4/08
“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that
his place will be proud of him.” Abraham Lincoln’s quote on patriotism may be lucid and
simple, but it still holds a great truth that few can argue about: any man in America can
be happy, no matter what condition he is in, or what his social status is, because… wait a
second… of what? Because America is big and grand? Because America is the greatest
country in the world? No, that can’t be it, since many poverty stricken citizens of
America still face oppression and injustice. I don’t think they care if they live on
American soil, so long as they get enough money to feed their family. Maybe America is
great because there is freedom? No, that wasn’t true until after the civil war, and even
then, with the boom of industrialism, workers were subjugated and pressed on by
monopoly-hungry robber barons. Even after that, segregation and various other problems
halted true freedom from passing into America’s gold painted gates. Both Whitman in his
poem “I Hear America Singing”, and Claude McKay in “America”, show the true
American lives. Through hard and tireless labor, the true American limps on. Both poems
reflect how the American Dream, the ideal in American Society, is just a dream, which
only disguises America’s true face: A merciless monopoly of rich upper class citizens
with no intention of the workers moving up the ladder.
Walt Whitman wrote “I Hear America Singing”, a simple poem that supposedly follows
General Lee’s famous saying: “America is a tune, it must be sung together”. His poem
basically describes various low class workers “singing” together. These low class
workers “carry” the tune of a song, America, with each of their jobs. This further shows
how America runs on the sweat and blood of the oppressed lower class, while the upper
class rests their feet on the poor man’s shoulders. The song may appear happy on the
outside, but Whitman knew how it was to grow up poor, and he was a humanist, so I
interpret this so-called happiness much differently. The entire poem describes difficult,
menial tasks, and does not mention any luxury (except in the end where it says “At night,
the party of young fellows”, which more closely resembles a huddled mass of tired
workers drinking their problems away than an actual party). “The ploughboy’s, on his
way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown”. Would someone who
toils all day in the field, almost from dawn till dusk, be singing, patriotically? He would
rather be cursing the capitalist government for not helping farmers more, (government in
the 19th century refused silver currency, since it would not be beneficial to the upper
class, and the farmers just got to be more in debt). Obviously, the supposed singing
represents the outcry of the unified laborers. They are mistreated in society, and they
carry America with their song of hard work and low pay. Comparing this poem to a basic
idea of a typical American Dream would show anyone how reality fares against an
unrealistic thought, especially to the lower class in the 19th century. An American Dream
is centered around money, and moving up the ladder, with the result being happiness. It
should be vice versa, as the number one priority of the government is to help the poor,
not give out false hope, and make them happy. Whitman shows the every day normal
citizen singing his tune of hard labor, yet still far away from the American Dream. The
upper class say that this is the true American Dream, supporting your country, being
jolly, and contributing to society. Have they ever contributed? They have never sung
even a note of the song called America. Whitman, in my opinion, shows the falsity and
silliness of an American Dream in his time period, proclaiming ‘Is this really the
American Dream? Is this true happiness of the individual?’
Claude McKay presents a more visceral poem, and a more openly realistic approach to
disproving the American Dream. His work shows the true American’s thoughts: one with
anger towards America’s hardship, but still standing up to support himself and rise above
the oppressive lifestyle. He describes America’s “hate” as an obstacle that he overcomes.
The hate is of coarse the hierarchy, which brings the lower class down. “Yet as a rebel
fronts a king in state” tells his fight against the rich, and him standing up for himself and
other’s in his condition. The American Dream is totally irrelevant according to the poem.
The only thing left is survival. Overcome the people holding you back from a decent
living and become free in a country where freedom has been indefinitely overdue. In the
last line “Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand”, I think McKay is making a big
reference to the American Dream that ‘could have been’, and instead getting a lost
memory.
The poems show, to me at least, the clear nature of the American Dream: an excuse for
the laborers to labor so the rich can get richer. Both writers started out humbly, and know
a lot about economical depression and the falsity of the golden roads in America. Both
poems give off a correct message: the American Dream is just a dream, nothing more.
Workers most likely realized this when the country went medieval: The robber barons
became the lords, and the people became the surfs. America is basically a fight between
Good and Bad. There is no room for an American Dream.
Last edited by stanza-reel : 03-05-2008 at 03:23 AM.
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