ESSAY TOPIC 2: Compare and contrast The Dream in African American Literature and the American Dream.

Assignment

Sample essay(s)

The dominant “American Dream” narrative suggests that America is a land of opportunity and promise.  Immigrants freely choose to leave their homelands, their pasts, and their cultures behind in order to seek a better life for themselves and their families.  This dream hinges on the notion of individual merit, which itself hinges on individual freedom.  The dream is not so much a dream as it is a series of choices.  In the American Dream rhetoric, individuals who work hard and make the right choices are all but guaranteed success.  The individuals, by way of the Declaration of Independence, are guaranteed the pursuit of this “dream” through such words as “all men are created equal,” and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

“The Dream” narrative of African-Americans, by contrast, refers to a more literal dream.  This dream takes into account the absence of inclusion in the Declaration of Independence (African-Americans would not count as “men” for another century—and even longer for women, African-American or otherwise).  As such, liberty was flatly denied, life was tenuous, and the pursuit of happiness was downright ludicrous.  Slaves dreamed wildly simply by dreaming for the escape from chains.  As history has unfolded, the dream of African-Americans has advanced incrementally along with it.  This notion of bartering hopes, accepting levels of change over immediate success, is at the heart of “The Dream.”  By looking at Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Black Girl Lost, one can trace the existence and evolution of “The Dream” of African-Americans. 

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Linda’s dream is to be free from servitude.  Upon becoming pregnant by a free black man, she hopes of gaining freedom.  She hopes the father will be able to purchase her and her child.  These are only hopes, as her master has all rights to her and any child she bears.  The master denies these hopes.  Linda ultimately must endure years of confinement and a perilous escape in order to procure her freedom.  Even then, she finds she is still not free.  Ultimately, a friend and employer must purchase her “freedom.”  Once again, Linda must amend her dream to account for setbacks.  Now, finally, she is free.  However, Linda discovers she is still not yet free to do as she pleases.  While she “longs for a hearthstone of her own,” she must concede to living and working for the woman who purchased her freedom, as she has no other means of providing for herself.  As opposed to Max in Bread Giver, Linda cannot simply run into the street and have a job “magically” appear.  Yet she takes her dream in increments, always deferring the ultimate realization to a later date. 

Moving through time, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, continues to echo these themes of “The Dream.”  One example is shown in the passages surrounding Maya’s graduation.  She writes, “it was a dream of a day.”  Maya is filled with the excitement of graduating as well as receiving special honors for academic achievement.  Yet she is also filled with a sense of foreboding.  She writes, “something unrehearsed, unplanned, was going to happen, and we were going to be made to look bad.”  It is as if she knows that her dream cannot be fully realized, at least not today.  She also makes special note of the pronoun “we.”  This reflects the group identity related to “The Dream.”  If anyone is made to look bad, they will all look bad as a group.  This is a direct contradiction to the notion of individuality inherent in the “American Dream.”  Sure enough, the white speaker manages to discredit most of the graduation celebration, but not quite.  Near the end of the passage, Angelou writes, “we were on top again.  As always, again.  We survived.”  The dream is a process, always a series of successes followed by failures.  Yet, the failures tend to be followed by other successes, other dreams, realized in increments as the result of resilience and faith.

Finally, in Black Girl Lost, the readers finds a near-contemporary view of the African-American pursuit of “The Dream.”  In this story, two urban youths seek to assert their individuality and create the wealth and success of the “American Dream” for themselves.  However, once again, society is not on their side.  Raised in the ghetto, abused and abandoned, these youths have no real means of achieving the “American Dream.”  While Sammy, the immigrant, is able to set up shop and appears well on his way to better days, the only options for attaining money available to Sandra and Chink are stealing and selling drugs.  Already the dream is compromised.  Yet the reader gets the sense that these characters are seeking to improve their position by the only means possible, and, given the chance, would make good with their success.  However, a plan a tenuous as theirs is doomed to fail, and fail it does.  The most perverse and horrible distortion of “The Dream” occurs at the end of the novel.  “Don’t worry, Daddy,” Sandra whispers to Chink, “you’re free now, honey.”  The final line, referring to Chink, reads, “he was free at last.”  Chink is dead.  Echoing the high ideals of freedom, peace, and equality spoken by Dr. King, the book screams of the injustice of a dream never realized. It took death for Chink to achieve that freedom. [TNK]

The differences between the Dream in African American literature—which will also be referred to as The Dream—and the American Dream, can be seen in Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, and Black Girl Lost. The Dream, an idea that Martin Luther King Jr. expounded upon, is an alternative narrative to the American Dream (Objective 3a). All three women in these novels are striving for the American Dream. On the other hand, the setbacks the characters face, along with their feelings of a need to rise again, and the feeling of a quest for group dignity all collaborate into these women pursuing The Dream, as well as the American Dream.

            The Dream, as opposed to the American Dream, factors in setbacks. For Linda in Incidents, the setbacks seem the greatest, as she is not a free person until the very end of her story. There is no greater setback than being owned by another human being. Unless that is one is a female and owned by another human being. This would be a setback all three characters have, in that they are double-minorities, so to speak. Once Linda escapes the clutches of slavery, she is unable to enjoy the personal rewards of being a nurse because she is discriminated against. While she is at a hotel she is not allowed to eat dinner with the other white people (636). How can Linda rise on a ladder of success when she is not even allowed to eat in the presence of the dominant race? In Caged Bird, being a double minority provides Maya with her own share of setbacks, even though she is growing up in the nineteen-hundreds. She is raped as a child, never has a strong father figure, and does not have the hopes of attaining the higher education her young intellectual mind yearns for. This last setback is a result of Maya’s race. As a minority, the dominant culture still exerts power over her. In chapter 16 of Caged Bird, Mrs. Cullinans tries to get away with changing Maya’s name from Marguerite to Mary. Maya does not let Mrs. Cullinan get away with it. While Maya might have won a battle, she still fights a war though out the novel. Sandra in Black Girl Lost also experiences setbacks of poverty, discrimination, and even rape. In Lost, Officer Horner points out what is arguably Sandra’s biggest setback, which was a mother that did not care about her (165). He relates Sandra’s present condition to the failure of her parent.  In Bread Givers, the immigrant has a setback. It is not snowing the next day, so he cannot shovel snow anymore and is consequently out of a job. He is able to find a new one though soon after.  The minority women I am discussing are often faced with a cold reality that does not let them rise above their setbacks. They are often setback and are not able to get back on top of things, so to speak. Out of the three, the only one that seems to be able to progress despite setbacks is Maya. She even gets the streetcar job and finishes high school despite being pregnant. In comparison to Linda and Sandra, Maya’s setbacks do not stop her from her pursuit of the American Dream. Although Linda gains her freedom, she is still dependent upon others.

            One major difference between The Dream and the American Dream is the idea of a lack of a social contract, in that the minority did not voluntarily or willingly chose to be placed under the laws and society they must live in. Linda does not choose to be a slave, and Maya and Sandra do not choose to be female and black. Linda and Sandra are similar in that they both do not believe in abiding by laws that only suppress them. Linda is a runaway slave, and Sandra deals with illegal drugs. Ironically, the only way for theses young women to pursue the American Dream is to break the social contract they have with America. Maya does not really ever go against the law, but she still fights it. (For example blacks were not allowed to work on streetcars until she had that rule changed.)

            Another concept in the difference between The Dream and The American Dream is the idea that The Dream is more group-oriented, while the American Dream is more individualistic. In Incidents, Linda is discriminated against because of her skin color. She relates her personal problem to a problem for all African-Americans. Linda calls to all blacks, claiming that if every “colored man and woman” stands up for himself or herself and does not submit the domination of whites, “eventually we shall cease to be trampled underfoot by our oppressors” (637). Maya too does not relate injustice as something strictly personal, but as something all African-Americans should work together against, as they fight together against it. At her graduation she does not feel that he in particular is on top again after the singing of the Negro National Anthem, but that all the blacks were. She felt that “we were on top again. As always, again. We survived” (184). In Lost, I do not know that Sandra’s thoughts were ever group oriented. In her ever- man-for-himself world that she lived in, she was too busy worrying about her own survival and of Chink’s to think to much about the entire African American race. Hers was a sad life of being trapped inside a bubble with no knowledge that a better world even existed.     

            Lastly, while the American Dream focuses on the present or the near future, The Dream focuses on a future that is less concrete. It is the idea that one day there will be the equality among Americans that will allow all races to achieve the American Dream. Linda expresses the idea of one day finding happiness in the end of her story. She expresses how  “the dream of my life is not yet realized. I do not sit with my children in a home of my own” (664). Most Americans would not be satisfied with the only thing keeping them from being homeless is the charity of others. Linda is hopeful though. Her dream is not yet realized, meaning that someday it will happen. The Dream can be seen in Caged Bird as well when Maya feels herself “headed for the freedom of open fields” (172). She does not feel like The Dream has come true yet, but it is still somehow within grasp. Sandra in Lost also thinks of The Dream as something that has not happened, but someday it will. Even as the end is closing in on her and Chink, she still looks to the future as being possibly good. She tries to convince Chink to let her take him to a doctor. She tells him “we got the car. All we’d need is a running chance. With your wounds took care of right, you wouldn’t have to think about dying” (171). Sandra believes in the possibility of a good future even though the present is dismal.

The Dream and The American dream are inseparable in that they intertwine with one another in sharing the same values. The women are not therefore choosing one or the other. All three, Linda, Maya, and Sandra are faced with setbacks, including the color of their skin. In the 2002 class, V. B. explains how the American Dream is characterized by the belief that hard work and following the rules guarantees success. V. B. states, “this belief, however, does not ring true to the ears of the African-American. Time after time, they, too, work diligently and follow all the rules, yet success invariably eludes them.” The Dream thus comes into play as a result of the American Dream being unattainable. Minorities such as Linda, Maya, and Sandra are characteristically faced with many setbacks, yet feel the need to rise again despite them. All three characters are forces into social contracts by the dominant race and culture. Linda and Maya both strive for group dignity and the idea of The Dream encompassing equality for all minorities. All three characters also look towards The Dream as something that will happen someday, although it may seem like a long ways off at the time. In trying to purse the American Dream, these characters develop the idea of the African-American Dream in Literature. [NC]

Essay Topic 2:

            There is a single issue that repeats itself through many African American texts: the desire to find equality with the dominant class without sacrificing a sense of separate identity.  This struggle is personified by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “I Have a Dream” speech.  In it, Dr. King enunciates what is considered the African American dream, the desire to find amends for previous ill treatment, as well as the need to seek equality with the dominant class.  This dream is similar but strikingly different from the traditional American dream, in that it considers the setbacks that have befallen the African American community, as stated by Objective 3a. 

While the speech is beautifully written and was powerfully presented, one finds its most lasting influence in the literature that followed.  Maya Angelou lived out aspects of the Dream in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in her depiction of her grandmother and Graduation Day.  At the same time, the Dream is employed in Donald Goine’s Black Girl Lost, albeit in a slightly separate sense.  Again, the setbacks are cultural, and there is an attempt to rise to a better lifestyle.  However, the means by which this is pursued are certainly less virtuous.  However, in both pieces, one finds the Dream enunciated.

To begin, one should consider the effect of “The Dream” on Caged Bird.  Maya’s grandmother daily deals with setbacks but continues to live a virtuous life as a colored shopkeeper in 1930s Alabama.  On a daily basis, setbacks include dealing the powhitetrash children who mock and jeer Momma as she goes about her day’s business (Angelou 30-31).  Although Maya is disgusted with the way these children treat the woman she greatly admires, Momma instructs her to pay the girls no mind.  In a sense, Momma is living out Dr. King’s speech, especially when he said, “We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plain of dignity and discipline.”  This demand is fully met by the very civil treatment which Momma affords the young women.  In another scene, this behavior is met with respect, by a runaway fugitive who refers to Momma as Mrs. Henderson (Angelou 48).  Although the surname is questioned and mocked by the court, it becomes a matter of legend for the community within Stamps.  After all, no other African American is called upon with such reverence, even if it is not used consistently.  In this sense, Momma upholds the tenets of the Dream.  She acts with dignity, honor, and respect, maintains her own business, and proudly maintains and represents her community.

In a similar sense, Momma is also acting out the tenants of the American Dream.  After all, she does own her own business.  Although she is helpful to the community, shrewd business tactics help to keep her store open during the Depression (Angelou 51).  While her efforts do uphold a sense of community, they also reflect the American Dream of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps.  No one is helping Momma to stay in business with a loan or extra supplies.  Rather, Momma is helping others to retain their offices.  Such a favor is paid to the white Doctor, who refuses to treat Maya when she is sick (Angelou 188).  This is where the American Dream fails, for Momma cannot elevate herself to standing with the Doctor, despite the fact that she helped him financially without question.

Another major moment in which the Dreams are demonstrated occurs in the Graduation from the Eight Grade.  In this scene, a white speaker comes to tell the children of the wonderful developments in technology coming to the Central School, where the white students attended, as well as to encourage the athletic prowess of the African American students (Angelou 178).  This scene causes Angelou enormous discord, because it represents the glass ceiling of the American Dream.  In her mind, the world will only allow African Americans a very select spectrum of jobs (Angelou 179).  However, this is again overcome with the strength of community.  Instead of finding defeat in the face of the setbacks, Maya remembers the struggles fought before her and draws strength from them.

While a very different text from Caged Bird, Black Girl Lost by Donald Goines also explores the significance of “The Dream” in African American culture.  In the novel, Sandra and her boyfriend Chink seek to raise themselves from the ghetto through the sale of dope that Sandra retrieved one day from the street.  While they are not exceptionally violent to the dominant culture, their struggles mirror both the American Dream and “The Dream.”

In consideration of the American Dream, one must consider Sandra and Chink’s sense of free capitalism.  As soon as Sandra discovers the dope within her possession to be pure, she finds Chink and convinces him to sell it for her (Goines 48).  As Chink and Sandra find success, they begin to make purchases of nice clothing, a car, and plentiful food, items that had been concerns previously.  Of course, the sudden improvement in their lifestyle becomes the pair’s undoing, but it is a bitter arrest for the detective.  As he notes of the white officers, “he doubted seriously if either one would have been able to pull himself up out of the ghetto as they had been trying to do” (Goines 63).  This is a direct enactment of the American Dream, where free capitalism was employed to improve social standings.  However, the means were illegal, which leads to the arrest and all subsequent events.  However, if the characters were immigrants as opposed to African Americans in the slum, the outcome may have been somewhat different.

At the same time, Lost reflects aspects of “The Dream.”  For example, Sandra works for Sam, an immigrant of European descent.  She works very hard for him and does not hold his ethnicity against him, which is a tenement King warned against: “ The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people . . .”  Obviously, this is not a concern with Sam.  As a result, Sandra is able to rise somewhat on the social ladder.  Certainly, if all actions to success had remained legal, the relations with Sam and his wife would have been vital. 

Of course, one cannot consider Lost without factoring the role of the police and the prison system.  King was very adamant in his speech that African American men must be given fair treatment in the prisons.  In his words, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”  This feeling of brutality was understated after Chink’s breakout, when the police commented on their lack of concern over an African American looking into the woods, because of the failure rate of their escapes (Goines 130).  At the same time, there is a strong assumption on the part of the police that the African American prisoners will provide information on one another to reduce their own sentences (Goines 131).  These factors, however true they may be, highlight the fear and dehumanization that the prison system instills in the African American community.  This fear is so great that it leads Sandra to destroy Chink at the end, sooner than return him to the prison (Goines 183).  In fact, the last words of the novel are “He was free at last” (Goines 184).  This is, of course, a direct reference to Dr. King’s speech.  However, it is interesting how the reference is employed.  After all, within the speech, the quote implied freedom from general oppression.  Within the world of the novel, it meant that Chink could not be arrested again.  Although not as reassuring as Caged Bird, one finds a distinct tangent with “The Dream.”

In conclusion, one finds marked differences between the living of the American Dream and “The Dream” in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Black Girl Lost.  The American Dream is personified through the owning of one’s own business, whether legal or not.  At the same time, there is a feeling of trying to live beyond one’s current class, despite the conflicts presented by the dominant culture.  At the same time, “The Dream” is upheld by the continual efforts to operate peaceably with the dominant culture, as well as in the complaints against the justice and prison system.  In both pieces, these two dreams run solidly, at times parallel and at times crossed. [RL]      

The American Dream is based on the Declaration of Independence which guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The American Dream establishes a way for the dominant culture and immigrants to speak for and govern themselves.  They break from their past and focus on the future.  They believe the American Dream gives them a natural order to dominate and establish their rights as citizens.  The American Dream also focuses on individualism and nuclear families (Obj 3).

            The Dream is based on Martin Luther King’s Dream Speech.  It is deeply rooted in the American Dream and has the same language as the Declaration of Independence.  The Dream shares in its idea of equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  However, it differs from the American Dream in that it focuses on success in the future “one day” not immediate success and factors in set backs.  The Dream reconnects with the past and does not abandon it because of involuntary participation of the slaves.  Instead of individualism, the Dream focuses on group identity and the need to rise again.  It is also more focused on traditional families rather than nuclear groups (Obj 3a).

The Dream is the American Dream with a catch because the American Dream does not include minorities.  When Sandra in Black Girl Lost, finds the dope on the street she is given an opportunity to make a better situation for herself.  However, the setback or catch is that selling dope is illegal and will be looked down upon by the dominant culture.  The dope causes her to struggle with the law.  There is the idea that the dominant culture places barriers on minorities. 

In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass experiences the setbacks of the American Dream when he frees himself and goes to the North.  Although he is free, he is at the risk of losing his freedom to slave kidnappers.  He lives in fear and feels that he is unable to trust anyone.

Douglass experiences another setback when he goes to work for himself as a calker but is met with racial prejudices.  Because of this, he is unable to secure employment.  He was hopeful in gaining independent wealth through the American Dream, but it was quickly taken from him.  However, Douglass does experience the American Dream in his ability to subscribe to a newspaper and read it.  He was also free to use his voice and discuss abolition with other liberators.  His power to do this expresses the Dream’s idea of rising up from barriers.

Caged Bird also expresses the Dream’s idea of community and rising up from racial prejudice when the people unite during the high school graduation to sing the Black Anthem.  Maya is discouraged from the white man’s presentation but then feels proud after the valedictorian’s speech because she realizes her people will rise up as a group to overcome discrimination.  Momma rises up from racial discrimination as well when she endures the insults from the powhitetrash children.

The Dream’s idea of “one day,” freedom in the future, is expressed in Lost by the way that Sandra kills Chink to free him from a life in prison.  Caged also expresses this idea when Maya receives a watch from Mama and declares that “it was the dream of a day.”

The representation of the American Dream contrasts that of the Dream in that there are no discriminations to overcome.  In Bread Givers, the immigrant is free to follow the American Dream in the way that he breaks from his past and adopts the dominant culture’s language to gain access to independence and wealth.  Once he assimilates or joins the dominant community, his intentions are not questioned.  He gains immediate success.  There are no barriers holding him back.   

The differences in the representation of the Dream in African American texts versus the dominant culture’s American Dream in other stories such as Bread Givers are that the dominant culture still discriminates against minorities.  The dominant culture continues to hold up barriers against minorities not allowing true freedom.  There is still power struggles between minorities and the dominant culture despite improvements in society.  The term, freedom, is not clearly defined and the idea of equality is still questioned. [TK]

Since the Declaration of Independence, man has continually sought to uphold the ideals of all men being created equal and have held on to the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  This is the American Dream – to be able to live in a free country and to always have the hope of a better future.  This was the attainable dream for millions of American Immigrants.  For African Americans, however, this dream was quite different.  It was an allusion of something that they were not allowed to grasp.  Dr. King brought attention to the African American dream of being the same dream that millions of Americans already had the opportunity to live, but that African Americans were still fighting for. 

In relation to course objective 3a, the American Dream emphasizes immediate individual success, “the Dream” factors in setbacks, the need to rise again, and a quest for group dignity.  As Dr. King said in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “I still have a dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream, that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.”  The African American dream is not one based on happiness, but one based on equality.  This theme is continually repeated in African American Literature and Poetry and is often the works central theme.  The African American Dream is deeply rooted in the American Dream, but is not identical.  It has a catch.  The followers of this dream did not enter into America’s social contract willingly, but forcibly.  The American Dream results in ones ability to forget the past, their roots, and lose their identity.  However, the African American Dream encourages one to hold onto his past and form extended families based on traditions.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, his journey is comparable to the journey of the American Immigrant.  He is leaving his old world of the south in search of a better future in the north.  He believes this journey will liberate him and allow him to break the chains of slavery.  However, although not in the physical chains of slavery, he is continually faced with having the break the chains of inequality.  This is evident in his wanting to seek employment.  He has been trained to caulk very well, but the white caulkers refused to work with him.  In his case, racism prevented him from the Dream.

In Black Girl Lost through the characters of Sammy and his wife, provides an example of the American Dream that was realized by an immigrant couple.  They have seemed to have achieved their dreams economically.  Sammy owns his own business and is able to benefit from assimilating into the dominant culture.  Sandra is not so fortunate.  She is not able to dream of her future because she is forced to survive daily.  It is through her choice to become involved with Chink and drugs which leads to her downfall.  It is this lifestyle that she chooses that prevents her from freedom, equality, and opportunity.  Sandra is never able to attain this dream and it is only through Chink’s death that “He was free at last.” 

Since their arrival on the shores of America, African Americans have continually fought for equality and an opportunity to live the American Dream.  However, in not being able to do so, they have taken hold of a different dream.  One in which they are able to hold onto their pasts and look hopefully toward the future.  It is best stated by Giselle Hewitt from the Fall 2002 semester who quoted from the course webpage, “The Dream in the African American culture is a dream that is always on the horizon, in the near future.  It is the dream of an oppressed people, people with very little choice.”  The Dream of the African American people continues to be a hopeful prayer of equality – one day. [KM]