LITR 5731:
Seminar in American Minority Literature
University of
Houston-Clear Lake, 1999
Sample Student Midterm
Kurt Bouillion
February 27, 1999
Dr. Craig White
Mid-Term LITR 5731
Reconnecting
the African-American to the American Dream
The American Dream began as a vision for the men who framed the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of
America. These two documents provided the foundation upon which the American
Dream was built. The reality of the American Dream translated into a
nightmare for the African-Americans who had to overcome slavery in order to
achieve the ideal that all men are created equally. Their dream did not become a
reality with the signing of the Declaration of Independence; in fact, even after
slavery was abolished, there was no concrete date established that mandated that
whites and African-Americans were equal. The law said the slaves were free;
however, society did not consider them equals. The African-American writers
utilize the American Dream in their works, but they seem to use it in an
interesting manner: connecting to the past in order to realize their future. The
slave narratives outline dreams of freedom and often provide insight into the
horrors of slavery, while more contemporary writers use the dream to connect to
their characters’ past and the horrors in their lives in order to realize
their future.
The founding fathers of the United States of
America crystalized this country with a "dream". Their dream was a
vision of the things they wanted in life and for their country, which was
memorialized in the form of the Declaration of Independence. The architects that
built this country dreamed that all men would be considered equals and
"that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights" including "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"
(Jefferson, 729). The original version of this dream, found in Thomas
Jefferson’s autobiography, states that the representatives in the United
States were offended that a "cruel war" had been waged against human
rights by the British and that this war violated the "sacred rights of life
and liberty"(731). The original document argues against the commerce, which
supported removing people from distant lands and "carrying them into
slavery" (731). The representatives called slavery an "assemblage of
horrors", yet they managed to strike the nightmare from their blueprint
(732). By removing this definition, the Declaration simply states that all men
are created equal: thus begins the American Dream with a contradiction
that would last for years.
The Declaration of Independence established an ideal of equality that
African-Americans would have to work to overcome for many years, even after
slavery was abolished. After their independence, theoretically, all men were
considered equal in the United States by law; yet it would take a century and a
civil rights movement to achieve equality. The African-American portion of the American
Dream seems to reconnect to the American Dream of the past as
African-Americans search to build their own future and attain their own American
Dream. In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a famous speech at the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he plainly stated his reconnection
to the American Dream:
When the architects
of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every
American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be
guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
He continues to say that America defaulted on
this promissory note, but that he has "a dream" that is "deeply
rooted in the American Dream". King’s speech reconnects to the
Declaration of Independence and then projects into the future. By reconnecting
the African –American dream to the past, he attempted to position his dream as
part of the original and then build a new dream for the future. That dream is
that the country will rise up and recognize the very ideal under which it was
founded in order that in the future, all men will be created equal.
The dream is a theme seen in many different
forms of African-American literature. For example, the slaves, whose narratives
we still read today, related dreams or visions to their audiences, which usually
linked their slave and free lives. Olaudah Equiano recounts his past in The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and describes several
dreams he had about future events in his life. He states that his mind was
filled with "inventions" and "thoughts" of being freed
(86-87). Though this is not a "dream," it is a vision that he creates
regarding his liberation from his oppressors, much like the founding fathers had
in their dream of independence. Likewise, Frederick Douglass reveals his visions
of images representing the horrors associated with slavery in the autobiography Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass explains that he spent his
Sundays in a "beast-like stupor" moving in and out of sleep under a
large tree overlooking Chesapeake Bay. He explains that while in this stupor,
"flashes of energetic freedom would dart through his soul accompanied by a
faint beam of hope" (293). These images came and went and when he reflects
upon them, as he writes the story of his past conditions, he realizes that his
sufferings on the plantation seemed more "like a dream rather than a stern
reality" (293). He also remembers sitting under that large tree on the
Sabbath while contemplating the ships coming in and out of the bay with their
pure white sails:
Those beautiful
vessels, robed in purest white, so delightful to the eye of freemen, were to me
so many shrouded ghosts, to terrify and torment me with thoughts of my wretched
condition. (293)
Knowing that he spent his Sundays in and out
of sleep, and daydreaming of the imagery of the ship’s sails appearing as
ghosts, suggests that Douglass is having a "day-mare" rather than a
simple daydream. Images of ghosts are usually associated with night and thus
related to nightmares. Regardless, Douglass converts the image to his dream of
freedom and relating it to its antithesis, which is his reality: the nightmare
of slavery.
Linda Brent, in her autobiographical work, Incidents
in a Life of a Slave Girl, has a similar vision of real life things, only
her demons do come at night. She recounts one evening, after the family had
retired to bed, where she sits in her usual place under a window and listens to
the activities outside. She concentrates on people singing in the streets while
thinking of her children:
I listened until
the sounds did not sound like music, but like the moaning of children. It seemed
as if my heart would burst. I rose from my sitting posture, and knelt. A streak
of moonlight was on the floor before me, and in the midst of it appeared the
forms of my two children. They vanished, but I had seen them distinctly. (432)
She continues, acknowledging that some would
call it "a dream" or "a vision" and she does not know how to
account for it. However, she claims it made an impression on her. The reader is
not certain if either Douglass or Brent is asleep or not. Certainly, given the
tranquility of each of their moments, the peacefulness of the countryside, and
the music, either could have easily gone to sleep, providing a logical
explanation for their visions: they were dreams.
African-American authors also utilize the dream in their works of fiction
also. The dreams, similar to those in Dr. King’s speech and the slave
narratives, reconnect to something in the characters’ past as they search to
realize their future. Toni Morrison’s character, Milkman, in Song of
Solomon, upon meeting an old woman, recalls a dream from his childhood:
He had had dreams
as a child, dreams every child had had, of the witch who chased him down dark
alleys, between lawn trees, and finally into rooms from which he could not
escape. Witches in black dresses and red underskirts; witches with pink eyes and
green lips, tiny witches… witches that ran, and some that merely glided on the
ground. (239)
We see the character reconnecting to his
youth and the images he encountered in dreams. David Bradley’s character,
John, in The Chaneysville Incident, has many occasions similar to those
of Douglass and Brent, where he moves in and out of consciousness, either by
natural or alcohol induced means, where he sees images. However, it is unclear
if he is awake or not. On one such occasion, he has been drinking and the room
begins to spin; an image comes to him:
And suddenly I
heard his voice, calling to me through the darkness, above the wind. No. Not
calling, like a ghost. Just…talking. And I recognized the words, knew where
they came from. For once upon a time we had stood on a hill, looking down at the
river shining in the setting sun… ( 392)
Here, Bradley, like the others, creates a
reconnection to the past, while the reader, like in Douglass and Brent, is
uncertain if the character is sleeping or not. Both Morrison and Bradley are
utilizing the ghost images in the dream in the same manner as both Douglass and
Brent.
African –American writers seem to reconnect to the past through these
dreams. Martin Luther King, in his "I Have a Dream…" speech
reconnects his dream to the Declaration of Independence so that the civil rights
movement could progress and African-Americans would be treated equally and
achieve their portion of the dream. Slaves, such as Douglass, Brent, and Equiano,
connected to their past by relating memories of their dreams of future freedom,
or nightmares of slavery to their audiences. Then, fiction writers such as
Morrison and Bradley write dream sequences that relate to their characters’
own pasts, while using images similar to those used in the slave narratives. The
reality is that they are seeking their portion of the American Dream.
Only the framers of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence left the
slave out of the equation, by stating that "all men are created
equal," then allowing slavery to continue for years after they signed the
document, which made this declaration. The American Dream is a real part
of our culture and the dream seems to be a strong theme in the African-American
literary canon.
Works
Cited
Bradley, David. The Chaneysville Incident.
New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Brent, Linda. Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis
Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Life of Olaudah
Equiano. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New
York: Penguin Group, 1987.
King, Jr., Martin Luther. "I Have a
Dream." Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. 28 August 1963.
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New
York: The Penguin Group, 1977.