Notes: American Dreamers

The idea of the American Dream began with Columbus. It began with the early explorers and continues through today. Some elements of the dream have been constant:

  1. Portrayal of America as a Garden of Eden.
  2. The idea that history is progress.
  3. The idea that the individual is of utmost importance.

Establishing the "Dream"

The Puritans dreamed of creating a model city. They saw America as a new Eden. John Smith sought adventure and sent reports back to Europe. Sometimes, however, the dream was tarnished by colonists' treatment of Native Americans and by the institution of slavery.

The political writers were evidence of the realization of the dream in the 1700's. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, asserting the rights of the individual; Franklin wrote Poor Richard's Almanack in which he maintained a belief that the way to health, wealth, and wisdom was through hard work and education. This idea was taken directly from the Puritan tradition.

Romanticism and the 19th century

The Romantics ushered in the American Renaissance in the early 1800's. Theirs was a vision of promise. One of the groups of Romantics was the Transcendentalists, Emerson the first and most important. In his essay, "Self-Reliance," he celebrated the worth of the individual. Later, Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass, a long autobiographical poem which proclaimed and celebrated his diversity.

There was also a dark side to the Romantics, those who questioned this striving for Utopia. One of the most significant of these Dark Romantics was Nathaniel Hawthorne. In The Scarlet Letter, he portrays the two edifices first constructed by the Puritans: the cemetery and the prison (incarceration of the body and of the soul). Later, slavery, too, showed the hypocrisy of the American Dream.

The post-Civil War writers were called the Realists. Twain was the pre-eminent Realist, known for humor, but a cynical humor. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn he portrays the river as freedom and the shore as the evils of society. Huck rebels against the strictures of society, takes to the river, and tears up the letter to Miss Watson. His innocence and integrity win out over the laws of society.

The rise of a modern identity

The 20th century ushered in new ways in which the dream was tested. While opportunity lies at the heart of America, there were immigrants who worked long hours and for low wages. Such conditions were exposed in Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. In 1917 World War I caused Americans to come face to face with the horrors of the human condition. Disillusionment caused many writers to leave America, writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Eliot (author of The Waste Land).

During the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was a major voice. His greatest poem "I, Too, Sing America" was the voice of African Americans speaking for themselves.

Following the Jazz Age of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was the collapse of the Stock Market in 1929, ushering in the Great Depression. On the heels of the Depression, Steinbeck wrote his most famous work The Grapes of Wrath, a story of disillusionment but also a positive statement on the resilience of the American people.

World War II put industry back to work and caused writers like Saul Bellow to look once again for the good.

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960's was followed by the Vietnam War, a time when the American Dream was tested once again, causing us to confront flaws in our society: conformity, complacency, and commercialism.

Americans continued to struggle; writers continue today to reflect in such pieces as MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech.