“The Fallacy of the American Dream”
“America, land of opportunities, where the streets are filled with gold”. This was how most immigrants saw the United States of America. Those immigrants who were seeking for a better way of life came to the “land of opportunity” with a blind fold, not knowing things were totally different from what they expected. The harsh reality first hit the Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants just to mention a few. Then, the Mexicans and Puerto Ricans also experimented the “American Dream”. It took a long time to unmask what was behind the American Dream. Authors like Mark Twain started criticizing the American system in his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The 20th century gave birth to a generation of writers that could not live a lie any longer and decided to reveal the true American way of life and make public the fallacy of the American Dream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first writers of the 20th century who openly accused the double standard of the American Society and its American Dream. Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” depicts an American society that tries to hide adultery, racism, bootlegging and many other social issues behind a life of luxury, elevated social status and superficial behavior. Fitzgerald also uses the character of Jay Gatsby to symbolize the lower class American or immigrant who is desperately striving to reach the American Dream. The novel describes a person who tries at all cost to reach his dream. Even though Gatsby reached a “high” social position, he was still rejected and died in his attempt to belong to the American society. Fitzgerald suggests at the end of the novel, that the eyes that are engraved on a billboard represent the silent witnesses of all the injustices that are performed by a World Power that supposedly acts according to the slogan marked in the bottom of its National currency: “In God We Trust”.
The accusations to the American Dream did not stop. Things were about to change when the Civil Rights movement was born in the 1960’s. This decisive step gave birth to a new generation of black and Hispanics (specially Mexican and Puerto Ricans) who took a firm stand and decided not to tolerate the harsh treatment their predecessors went through. Embracing “pejorative” terms like “Chicanos” and “Nuyoricans” these groups of bold men and women would fight to open the eyes of the oppressors, the oppressed and those who forgot their heritage and blindly embraced the American way of life in order to be accepted. Gloria Anzaldúa and Pedro Pietri belonged to that group who were resolved to open a new path for the next generation to claim what was rightfully theirs. It was time to tell the American nation that what ever they obtained was not due to the “loving kindness and mercifulness” given through the American Dream. Everything those immigrants had was fruit of their hard labor. Hard labor, slave labor as outcasts of their society and not one Puerto Rican or Hispanic should belong to the long list of “Obituaries”.
Anzaldua’s poem “El sonavabitche” depicts how the immigrant who is finally a U.S citizen abuses from those who are willing to do anything in order to get a share of their dream. She describes that “hijo the la malinche” that becomes a traitor towards those of his own race. She shows how “el hijo de la chingada” abuses of “los mojados” by forcing them to hard labor and giving them harsh living conditions and then deports them back to Mexico. The end of the poem serves to illustrate how this “coyote” finds himself in the same positions as “los mojados” when he is discovered by a social worker. Her text serves to encourage “Chicanos” to unite and to never forget where they come from. There is no difference between a Mexican who is a legal resident and a “mojado” they are all immigrants. Therefore ,there shouldn’t be a difference between people who share the same heritage.
On the other hand Pietri through his “Puerto Rican Obituary” is loudly accusing the generation of Puerto Rican immigrants who blindly believed in the American Dream. This American Dream consumed their energies, their hopes and most of all their dignity as Puerto Ricans. Pietri uses common names such as Juan, Miguel, Olga, Manuel to show how a great number of Puerto Ricans were brainwashed with the belief that things would be better and they would find jobs and own a descent house. Sadly, these immigrants were slowly dying as they were being rejected and subjected to peasant wages and extremely hard labor. Their children were denied proper careers and were subject to suffer the fate of their parents. Their culture was trying to be absorbed by the Nation. They were being consumed by stress, some by jealousy, by neglect and most by nostalgia. Symbolically and literally they were dying, they were part of the Obituaries. In conclusion the characters shown in “The Great Gatsby”, “The sonovabitche” and “The Puerto Rican Obituary” are victims of the American dream. Are things today any different from those mentioned above? Some may reply with a forceful YES. Things have changed. There are more rights for those who decide to leave their countries in search of a better life. But others will reply with a deep hole in their throats “NO”… The answers may vary, but the results are clearly seen in the headlines of the news.
“America, land of opportunities, where the streets are filled with gold”. This was how most immigrants saw the United States of America. Those immigrants who were seeking for a better way of life came to the “land of opportunity” with a blind fold, not knowing things were totally different from what they expected. The harsh reality first hit the Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants just to mention a few. Then, the Mexicans and Puerto Ricans also experimented the “American Dream”. It took a long time to unmask what was behind the American Dream. Authors like Mark Twain started criticizing the American system in his book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The 20th century gave birth to a generation of writers that could not live a lie any longer and decided to reveal the true American way of life and make public the fallacy of the American Dream.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the first writers of the 20th century who openly accused the double standard of the American Society and its American Dream. Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” depicts an American society that tries to hide adultery, racism, bootlegging and many other social issues behind a life of luxury, elevated social status and superficial behavior. Fitzgerald also uses the character of Jay Gatsby to symbolize the lower class American or immigrant who is desperately striving to reach the American Dream. The novel describes a person who tries at all cost to reach his dream. Even though Gatsby reached a “high” social position, he was still rejected and died in his attempt to belong to the American society. Fitzgerald suggests at the end of the novel, that the eyes that are engraved on a billboard represent the silent witnesses of all the injustices that are performed by a World Power that supposedly acts according to the slogan marked in the bottom of its National currency: “In God We Trust”.
The accusations to the American Dream did not stop. Things were about to change when the Civil Rights movement was born in the 1960’s. This decisive step gave birth to a new generation of black and Hispanics (specially Mexican and Puerto Ricans) who took a firm stand and decided not to tolerate the harsh treatment their predecessors went through. Embracing “pejorative” terms like “Chicanos” and “Nuyoricans” these groups of bold men and women would fight to open the eyes of the oppressors, the oppressed and those who forgot their heritage and blindly embraced the American way of life in order to be accepted. Gloria Anzaldúa and Pedro Pietri belonged to that group who were resolved to open a new path for the next generation to claim what was rightfully theirs. It was time to tell the American nation that what ever they obtained was not due to the “loving kindness and mercifulness” given through the American Dream. Everything those immigrants had was fruit of their hard labor. Hard labor, slave labor as outcasts of their society and not one Puerto Rican or Hispanic should belong to the long list of “Obituaries”.
Anzaldua’s poem “El sonavabitche” depicts how the immigrant who is finally a U.S citizen abuses from those who are willing to do anything in order to get a share of their dream. She describes that “hijo the la malinche” that becomes a traitor towards those of his own race. She shows how “el hijo de la chingada” abuses of “los mojados” by forcing them to hard labor and giving them harsh living conditions and then deports them back to Mexico. The end of the poem serves to illustrate how this “coyote” finds himself in the same positions as “los mojados” when he is discovered by a social worker. Her text serves to encourage “Chicanos” to unite and to never forget where they come from. There is no difference between a Mexican who is a legal resident and a “mojado” they are all immigrants. Therefore ,there shouldn’t be a difference between people who share the same heritage.
On the other hand Pietri through his “Puerto Rican Obituary” is loudly accusing the generation of Puerto Rican immigrants who blindly believed in the American Dream. This American Dream consumed their energies, their hopes and most of all their dignity as Puerto Ricans. Pietri uses common names such as Juan, Miguel, Olga, Manuel to show how a great number of Puerto Ricans were brainwashed with the belief that things would be better and they would find jobs and own a descent house. Sadly, these immigrants were slowly dying as they were being rejected and subjected to peasant wages and extremely hard labor. Their children were denied proper careers and were subject to suffer the fate of their parents. Their culture was trying to be absorbed by the Nation. They were being consumed by stress, some by jealousy, by neglect and most by nostalgia. Symbolically and literally they were dying, they were part of the Obituaries. In conclusion the characters shown in “The Great Gatsby”, “The sonovabitche” and “The Puerto Rican Obituary” are victims of the American dream. Are things today any different from those mentioned above? Some may reply with a forceful YES. Things have changed. There are more rights for those who decide to leave their countries in search of a better life. But others will reply with a deep hole in their throats “NO”… The answers may vary, but the results are clearly seen in the headlines of the news.
posted by Lizely | 3:11 PM
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