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THE AMERICAN DREAM Some people say that the American Dream is nothing but a fallacy or an illusion. They maintain that it is not possible for everyone to want to attain whatever they fancy on. The American Dream is also known as freedom that is infinite. Some people call it the American Dream which is referred to as a promise of wealth, prosperity and a life that is well-lived. It is a long-standing ideal that ensures ones success in life as long as he or she is willing to work extremely hard in whatever way possible, so that one can attain the financial security that is almost guaranteed to be within reach. Indeed, the American dream has become a driving and motivating force for millions of immigrants that flock to the Land of the Free because poverty has become so rampant and extensive in their countries that the only option that is viable to them is to move to a country that promises them success, wealth, freedom from material prosperity.
However, even though this is oftentimes true for the people who really do work hard for the dream, the American Dream should not be promoted as it is. This is because it shifts the focus from the nuclear family to material wealth and it perpetuates greed as it entices people to come work in a land of opportunities which may otherwise not turn out to be so (The American Dream). Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros is an interesting novel of a Hispanic family. The author expounds on the different hardships that the characters experience as Caramelo is referred to skin color. It is a color so sweet, it hurts to even look at her. (p. 37). There is also the reference to the grandmothers and the grandfather who pulls out a cloth from the walnut-wood armoire of caramel, licorice, and vanilla stripes. (p. 58).
This skin color obstructs their pursuit of the American dreams that they have. The color brown or caramel also alludes to the dark and struggling times that people go through in life. Meanwhile, F. Scott Fitzgerald's greatest work, The Great Gatsby is an insightful recount of the life during the 1920 s. This is considered as a time of wealth and promise of abundance but the author presents a bigger picture as he dwells on the truth behind the search for the great American dream.
The novel presents the deterioration of mans spirituality as he tries to find the promise of wealth. There is emptiness as man searches for that without looking at the consequences of such foolish ways. The green light symbolizes Gatsby's search for hope and the futures hope which to him remains unreachable. "I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone - he stretched out his arms towards the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward - and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness. " (16) For the people who leave their country of origin, there is a substantial tradeoff for embracing the American Dream. Behind the veil of power and comparative material wealth that is promised to every individual, there is a significant loss that one must encounter.
And that loss is the loss of traditional culture. The American culture in both novels is spurred not by curiosity or a certain zeal for knowledge. This particular longing was fueled by negative emotions. This passion for learning the ropes of American culture was born out of the longing of the authors desire to fit in.
The American Dream may be able to provide a person the necessary wealth that one could only dream about in his native country but it also takes away the immaterial liberties that come from being rooted in a different culture. Indeed, the American Dream will always be a Utopian dream until people realize that material wealth is not the only path for success and happiness. Just like the characters in both novels, the American Dream promises people from all walks of life and all countries of origin that within this land, there is freedom from oppression, freedom from poverty and material wealth but for other people, it will only remain a dream for them. Several people have risked leaving their homelands in search of a bright future in the United States yet there are millions today on relief and people are still being persecuted and discriminated. The land of the free is still a land of oppression and even though people would like to view it as a land of opportunity, it becomes more like a land of deception and false hopes. Lala Reyes who is the only daughter of the closely-knit Reyes family depicts the struggles of the Hispanic girl whose roots in two cultures are pressure enough, including all the turmoil of an imperfect family.
Her childhood is wrought with a lot of experiences being part of a Mexican-American family. There are good sweet moments but they are overtaken by the bitter ones. She initially considers herself as very unlike the grandmother but these changes over time as she sees that she inherited the caramelo rebozo, a candy-striped silk heirloom that was made by her great-grandmother. She is bossy and the dominant figure in the family, reflecting the same kind of stubbornness as Lala yearns for more freedom. She wants to go to college and have a good career but this is met with adamant negativity as her father reacts: "If you leave your father's house without a husband you are worse than a dog. You aren't my daughter.
You aren't a Reyes. You hurt me just talking like this. If you leave alone you leave like, and forgive me for saying this but it's true, como una prostitute. Is that what you want the world to think? Como una per, like a dog. Una persia.
How will you live without your father and brothers to protect you? One must strive to be honorable. You don't know what you " re asking for. You " re just like your mother.
The same. Headstrong. Stubborn. No, Lala, don't you ever mention this again. " The tradition of Lala Reyes family with her aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers as well as her older brothers to visit Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City for the summer has spurred the family members to interact with each other in a deeper way. She seems to be a small voice among a family of opinionated individuals but Lala's actions speak louder than these voices that surround her. Grandmother does not understand what Lala is asking why the grandmother was tagged as awful, there is conflict and Lala is accused of exaggerating.
Thus, it is inevitable then that the family weaves lies and other stories just to keep the family fires burning with narratives of the family's history and loves. The opening of the story immediately establishes that there will definitely be lies in between the stories. For instance, they say, "Tell me a story, even it it's a lie (p. 2) Lala even blurts out loud, "Did I dream it or did someone tell me the story? I can't remember where the truth ends and the talk begins" (p. 20). She refuses to be a part of all the lies as she exclaims "I wish I could tell you about this episode in my family's history, but nobody talks about it, and I refuse to invent what I don't know" (p. 134). This is a story that has a redeeming value at the end no matter how difficult the struggles of Lala were.
Clay or Lala states, "I'm not ashamed of my past. It's the story of my life I'm sorry about" (p. 399). Lala is able to find her own voice amidst the rest of the strong members of the family. Between the two characters, the one whose idea of the American Dream stands a chance is Lala because she pursues it with all determination and she is not jaded by all of the happenings around her. Gatsby has already become a skeptic and cynical of the events in his life.
In sum, both stories recount the lives of individual members of the family. But it is the family at Caramelo that transcends beyond petty stuff and heavy lies that eventually makes it a better indication of one that achieves the American dream in the process. Indeed, as the narrator posits, this life is composed of the interweaving of lives with each other and how each one responds with the circumstances that fall on them. In fact, the nonlinear plot structure of Caramelo supports the fact that family and history are continuously happening without beginning, middle, or end, but are, rather, a "pattern (p. 399). References I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman. About.
com Literature Classic. Retrieved March 16, 2009 at: web Hughes, Langston. 1938. Let America Be America Again. Retrieved March 16, 2009 web Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby Cisneros, Sandra Caramelo
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