Deanna Scott

February 21, 2010

American Dream + American Assimilation = Social Segregation

            The American dream is an idea, strongly believed and instilled by most minority families. This idea holds a positive and alluring belief that a person can aspire to be happy and have a successful life, at a price. The American dream holds a dark side within its charm, while it may promise a happy and successful life the price for success is the severing of social ties. Social ties that include family, friends, and racial kinship. As a result, Americanization is responsible for inequality amongst minorities. Those who voluntarily forget the past and focus on privileging the individual use class to create identifiable signs or markers of power and prestige. The characters depicted in Toni Morrisson’s “Song of Soloman”, Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine”, and Rudolfo Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” demonstrate how those who have become too Americanized break apart from the family compared to the least Americanized who seek to heal and reconnect the broken bonds.  

Unquestionably, The American dream sets the ground rules for what most people attempt to achieve in life.  Every person yearns to be profitable in life, such as owning a nice house, having plenty of food to eat, live in a safe neighborhood. These are the basic needs that that all people find within the Americanization idea. This idea meets a person’s basic needs; food, shelter, and safety. As long as a person’s basic needs are met then they are content until they are influenced by personal or selfish motives. There is also a dark and shady side of the American dream. There are personal and selfish motives that strive from the constant competitive nature of the American dream. The American dream can instill damaging competitions, selfishness, disassociation, and is the prime cause of inequality. Inequality, social disparity, streams from people who feel the need to force themselves to become “better” than their peers or more “American” than their peers, such as Macom Dead Jr. of Toni Morrisson’s “Song of Soloman”.

Macom Dead Jr. exemplifies a man who has achieved the American dream. He has all of his basic needs met, he owns a house, has plenty of food to eat, and lives in a nice neighborhood. Macom achieves the basics of the American dream but easily becomes corrupt by the dark competitive nature of that dream. Macom displays his corruption from the American dream on outside appearances. Objective 2 notes that Class may remain identifiable in signs or markers of power and prestige or their absence.Keep in mind that as a man in a higher position compared to his fellow peers, Macom and his family’s outer appearance must reflect his status. Macom’s demonstrates his position by ritually driving his green Packard on Sunday afternoons. “For him it was a way to satisfy himself that he was indeed a successful man” (Morrison p.39). The Ford is green, exactly like money. It signifies that Macom Dead Jr. is driven by money and continually expresses his vast quantity of it. Macom’s children also display his high status and position, his daughters were lemony skinned instead of dark skinned like their neighboring peers. Instead of being “barefoot, naked to the waist, dirty”, Macom’s girls were clean and clad “in white stockings, ribbons, and gloves” (Morrison p.236). His visual wealth is used to regularly shame and draw envy from others to feed his increasing ego.

Macom’s only interest in life is elevate and separate himself from his fellow black peers.Objective 2 notes that Class may remain identifiable in signs or markers of power and prestige or their absence.He fortifies his position through his marriage to Ruth, the Doctor’s daughter, rather than marry a common darker skin woman. He has light skinned daughters whom he displays “like virgins through Babylon”. Comparatively, Babylon describes any rich and magnificent city believed to be a place of excessive luxury and wickedness. Macom’s household is the true Babylon, all of his finery displays the wickedness of being in a high position. Macom’s superficial wickedness is so great that he despises anything or anyone who would upset his standing position, namely his sister Pilate. Pilate is an embarrassment to him, a prime example of how someone of low standing position should look. “Her shoelaces undon, a knitted cap pulled down over her forehead,” (Morrison p.26). Compared to her delicate, feminine, and elegantly dressed nieces, Pilate’s state of dress is mannish and trashy. “Why can’t you dress like a woman?” More like Macom’s idea of how a woman should present herself. “What’s that sailor’s cap doing on your head? Don’t you have stockings? What are you trying to make me look like in this town?” (Morrison p.27). Superficial.

Sharing Macom Dead Jr.’s corrupt ideas of displaying the power of the American dream’s physical wealth, Lyman Lamartine of Louis Erdrich’s “Love Medicine” follows the teachings of the American dollar. Lyman’s personal motives begin as rage against the American hold over him and his people. Streaming from his infuriated thoughts:

          They give you worthless land to start with and then they chopped it out from under your 

          feet. They took your kids away and stuffed the English language in their mouth. They sent

          sent your brother to hell, they shipped him back fried. They sold you booze for furs and

          then told you not to drink. It was time, high past time the Indians smarted up and started

          using the only leverage they had – federal law” (Erdrich 326)

At this moment, Lyman truly becomes corrupt, and his positive motives for enhancing his people’s social and educational standing becomes selfish. Similar to how Macom Dead Jr. instructed his selfish and greedy teachings to his son to own things, “own things. And let the things you own own other things. Then you’ll own yourself and other people too,”

Lyman plans to train the next generation (Morrison p.64). “He’d start his own training program, get staff right out of high school, teach the Chippewas the right ways, the proper ways, the polite ways, to take money from retired white people who had farmed Indian hunting grounds, worked Indian jobs, lived high while their neighbors lived low, looked down or never noticed who was starving, who was lost” (Erdrich p.327).

            Lyman’s people were not the only one who felt lost. Others who found themselves easily swayed into the glamour of gambling produced from Casinos like Lyman’s dream are the three elder brothers, Leon, Andrew, and Eugene from Rudolfo Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima”. It’s natural for grown men to leave home, explore, and find their own way in life. What makes Leon, Andrew, and Eugene’s desire to leave unnatural is that all three were called away from their family by an outside force, war. All three brothers served in World War II. By serving, they may have brought honor to their family, but after coming home there was a great mental and emotional distance between the brothers and the Márez clan. The three are described by their youngest brother, Antonio, as “my brothers had spent the winter sleeping during the day and in the town at night. They were like turgid animals who did things mechanically” (Anya p.65).  Recall Lyman Lamartine’s earlier description, “they sent your brother to hell, they shipped him back fried”, war is hell .The connotation of the description “fried” indicates being exhausted, inebriated, and incapacitated through intemperance such as alcohol and sex. This fried nature is only the beginning of the war-sickness described within the story. It further spreads like a disease poisoning the brothers’ metal peace at home, “it’s hell to have seen half the world then come back to this,” (Anya p.66). The war-sickness burns within their veins, instead of seeing the true cause of the infection, they blame their father’s blood. “It’s that Márez blood itching,” the same “Márez blood in us that touches us with the urge to wander. Like the restless, seeking sea.” The Márez blood is not to blame yet the brothers seek relief and misdiagnose a fruitless resolution, “money, booze, and women” (Anya p.67). The money, the booze, the women, all are just temporary escapes that cannot truly heal their mental and spiritual wounds like the love and bonds of the family.

Subsequently, all of these men have found a reason to abandon the teachings, the richness, and the comforts of family and instead embrace temporary pleasures. There are multiple factors that break the bond of the family, such as a lust for money, power, and selfish ignorance. Macom Dead Jr. of Toni Morrisson’s “Song of Soloman”, Lyman Lamartine of Louis Erdrich’s “Love Medicine”, and Leon, Andrew, and Eugene from Rudolfo Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” are all guilty of creating social segregation. Macom created his social segregation through status and appearance. “A nigger in business is a terrible thing to see,” (Morrisson 29). Macom became sinfully prideful of his accomplishments, such as marrying the Doctor’s daughter, well dressed children, owning nice cars, and the keys to several rental houses. “They were the keys to all the doors of his houses(only four true houses; the rest were really shacks)”, (Morrisson p. 23-24). Still, his wealth lay only in outward appearances. Socially and maternally, Macom was the poorest man in the world. He does not have a healthy or strong relationship with anyone, especially the main females characters that are closely associated with him in the novel. “The only person in the world he hated more than his wife in spite of the fact that she was his sister. He had not crossed the tracks to see her since his son was born and he had no intention of renewing their relationship now,” (Morrisson p.24)

Likewise, Lyman plans of creating a barrier, a segregation of status. Power blinds Lyman as brightly as the lights of his casino fantasy. Instead of teaching the new generation how to better themselves he wishes to teach them how to be polite servants who secretly steal from elderly white people. Recall Macom’s lesson,“own things. And let the things you own other things. Then you’ll own yourself and other people too.” (Morrisson p.64) Lyman will own people alright, “money was the key to assimilating,” but at the price of his and his people’s dignity (Anya p. 327). Lyman decides to, “appeal to frenzy, appeal to purpose, appeal to the Gods of Chance,”. The only appeal that Lyman is creating is the humane sin of greed. “Why not make a money business out of money itself?” Lyman’s Americanized corruption leads him to become willing to sell out his own people for a future “based on greed and luck” (Anya p. 328).

The sin of greed and the illusion of luck have decimated the feelings of freedom, equality, and opportunity to people and how they treat others. Denying their fellow man of their rights of friendship, kinship, acknowledgement, and respect is morally deceitful. Take for instance Leon, Andrew, and Eugene from Rudolfo Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima”. The brothers create their social segregation through their own selfishness. Selfishness is the desire to succeed at the expense of others, such as crushing their father’s dream of moving his family to California. “My father increased his pleas that they plan a future with him in California, but they only nodded. They did not hear their father. They were like lost men who went and came and said nothing,” (Anya p.65). Following object 3’s dominant “American Dream” narrative “which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and privileging the individual” the three brothers willing agree to turning their backs on and abandoning their father’s dream for their own advantage. “We can’t build our lives on their dreams. We’re men, Andy, we’re not boys any longer. We can’t be tied down to old dreams,”( Anya p.68 )Worst of all, they dump the responsibility of upholding at least one of their parents’ wishes on their youngest brother, Antonio. “And they still have Tony”. The last wish, their mother’s wish, was for “Tony will be her priest” and “Tony will be her farmer”. Tony is their scapegoat, “and her dream will be complete and we will be free!”.

Nevertheless, there are those who seek to heal and rethread the broken bonds of kinship, such as Pilate, Lipsha, and Ultima. Take for instance, Pilate and Macom’s broken relationship. “Pilate wanted to make peace between them” (Morrisson p.166). Pilate’s desire to rekindle her relationship with her brother streamed from coming from a broken family and creating a broken family. At an early age, Pilate lost both of her parents. Her mother died in child birth and her father was murdered. Later in life, she gave birth to her daughter Reba, and Reba gave birth to Hagar. “Hagar, needed family, people, a life very different from what she and Reba could offer, and if she remembered anything about Macom, he would be different. Prosperous, conventional, more like the things and people Hagar seemed to admire.” The consideration of her granddaughter’s social welfare prompted Pilate to search for her brother, unfortunately her strong feelings of family connection were not met. “She arrived with suitcases, a green sack, a full- grown daughter, and a granddaughter, and found her brother truculent, inhospitable, embarrassed, and unforgiving. Pilate would have moved on immediately except for her brother’s wife, who was dying of lovelessness then,” (Morrisson p.167). The lovelessness that Pilate speaks of is the marriageable distance between Ruth and Macom. Understanding that the social segregation did not simply exist between herself and Macom but extended as far into her brother’s created family, Pilate sought to correct this segregation before it streamed into the next generation. Pilate’s plan to ensure and heal the broken Dead family began with a folk remedy, “greenish-grey grassy-looking stuff”( Morrisson p.139). Pilate ensured that the link of the family, Milkman, was born.

Pilate’s cure ensured a healing for the Dead family but not a cure for a dead relationship. Lipsha on the other hand, attempted to heal a broken relationship through Love Medicine. “These love medicines is something of an old Chippewa specialty,” (Erdrich p.241). Lipsha has a born talent for healing but the type of healing that he wishes to give both of his grandparents is out of his expertise. “Love medicines is not for the layman to handle,”.Truthfully, Lipsha is a more of a faith healer than a Shaman. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia defines faith healing as “relief or cure of bodily ills through some religious attitude on the part of the sufferer”. A faith healer is a person who performs healings thru prayer and spiritual rituals such as laying on of hands. “I run my fingers up the maps of those rivers of veins or I knock very gentle above their hearts or I make a circling motion on their stomachs, and it helps them. They feel much better,” (Erdrich p.241).  Shamanism encompasses the belief that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. Lipsha is not a messenger between the human world and the spirit world, he is unable to mend his grandparents souls but he attempted to try and restore their faith in their relationship. “Like the quality of staying power, the faithfulness was invisible,” (Erdrich p.240). The ideal of shamanism better suits Ultima, the curandera of Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima”.

Ultima of Anya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” is a curandera, an indigenous healer. Maritza Montiel Tafur, Terry K. Crowe, and Eliseo Torres add that “historically, healers in ancient Mexico played an important role in society and were held to many of the same standards of practice as modern-day healthcare professionals”. Where as, modern medicine fails to heal the physical ailments, Ultima can heal the spiritual ailments. Take for instance, Antonio’s Uncle Lucas, who had a curse laid upon him. Lucas’ family, specifically his father, “did not believe in this witchcraft thing” so when his son fell ill, the family tried consulting doctors and then a priest (Anya p.88). “The doctor in town and even the great doctor in Las Vegas had been powerless to cure him. Even the holy priest at El Puerto had been asked to exorcise el encanto, the curse, and he failed”,( Anya p.83,84). All of these men lacked an emotional element to their healing, such as belief and faith, instead they focus only on curing the body and how much they will be paid for their services. “Many curandero/as have multiple areas of specialty, and they usually work on many realms including the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual in order to diagnose and cure illness,” (Tafur, Crowe, Torres).

Comparatively, licensed American physicians share a common mistrust among people. Lipsha referral of licensed healers, “I heard of those suits. I used to think it was a color clothing quack doctors had to wear so you could tell them from the good ones,”(Erdrich p.245). His assumption makes a valid point about the view of American healing. A simple white coat marks a doctor, a person who automatically becomes trusted with a person’s health and life. Yet, a traditional healer such as Ultima is branded a bruja, a witch. The term bruja distances, segregates, people from different forms of healing tasks and rituals. The rituals that are not ignored by modern Americanized society, written off as old wives tales, are demonized and feared as evil.

Subsequently, Pilate’s action of using herbal plants to ensure her nephew’s birth seems more like drugging than herbal medicine. Her further actions such as putting “a small doll on Macom’s chair in his office. A male doll with a small painted chicken bone stuck between its legs and a round red circle painted on its belly” give the intention of witchcraft or voodoo (Morrisson p.146). Ultima has her questionable moments such as using clay dolls, “she lifted the three dolls and held them to my sick uncle’s mouth, and when he breathed on them they seemed to squirm in her hands”.  Afterwards, “she took three pins, and after dipping them into the new remedy on the stove, she stuck a pin into each doll,” (Anya p.101). Old Lady Pillager, Lipsha’s ancestor from whom he inherits his abilities from, “was known for putting the twisted mouth on people, seizing up their hearts” (Erdrich p.241).Still, all of their talents, supernatural or knowledgeable, were used in the attempt to heal and help others. Pilate’s abilities are similar to a cunning or a village wise woman. Helen Cornish ‘s description of cunning folk,“is commonly used by today’s magical practitioners to include all those who used folk magic beyond everyday domestic needs, and it is emphasized that “cunning” refers to medieval senses of knowledge, rather than current understandings as sly. This definition reinforces ideas of continuity through skilled knowledge and experience”. Ultima’s powers,“my powers were given to me by el hombre volador,” who was a “great healer from Las Pasturas,” (Anya p.94). Tafur, Crowe, and Torres, explain that “many curanderos (male) and curanderas (female) become healers after long apprenticeships, greater emphasis is put on the person’s innate talent to heal others (Torres and Sawyer, 2005). This talent cannot be learned and is typically referred to as a spiritual calling, or el don, a gift”. Ultima’s powers were her spiritual calling gift to help and heal others. Unlike Pilate and Ultima who learned or received their abilities, Lipsha was born with his, “I got the touch. It’s a thing you got to be born with. I got secrets in my hands that nobody ever knew to ask,”( Erdrich p.231). Or secrets that people of the modern American day would even think to ask. Cunning Folk, Faith healers, Curanderas, all have a strangeness that does not fit in with the American idea. Objective 3 describes the “American Dream” narrative—which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and privileging the individual. The supernatural healing aspect of Cunning Folk, Faith healers, Curanderas, proves ties to the old world, the old ways, the pre-dominated life and knowledge that must be forgotten to become acceptable to the dominant culture. In America, the doctor is the healer, trained in white medicine, a job profession governed by a printed book instead of personal wisdom or a spiritual calling.

The healer’s role has been downsized in the American society. The emotional connection to the earth and with people is lost. Doctors do not hold a personal relationship with their patients and expect little pills to do all the work for them. This is to be expected in a society where temporary relief is in abundance through distractions and shortcuts. For instance, Pilate and Ultima’s specific healing herbs are not directly named when used, while Lipsha’s improvised love medicine fails. “I took an evil shortcut. I looked at birds that was dead and froze,” (Erdrich p.245). Medicine is a remedy, a substance, or preparation used in treating an illness while affecting a person’s well-being. “You could really mess up your life grinding up the wrong little thing,” (Erdrich p.241) There can be no shortcuts in healing; likewise, there can be no shortcuts in life. Lipsha settled, like Macom, Lyman, and the Márez brothers settled, for what was quickly available. Lipsha used “dead and froze” turkey hearts purchased from an American manufacturing distribution instead of hunting and gathering fresh geese hearts from Nature. From this misjudgment, Lipsha’s grandfather choked to death. Pilate used “some greenish-grey grassy-looking stuff” to drug her brother, Macom’s food (Morrisson p.139). Ultima used several combinations of plants for her cures.“ Pilate’s natural remedy ensured the birth of her nephew. Ultima’s homemade cures helped to sooth Antonio and Leon in to a peaceful slumber. The only spell items that helped to heal the family, biological and racially intended, are the plant cures from the Earth. The greenery of the Earth proves to lead to salvation. The imitative greenery of money brings destruction and disruption.

In conclusion, the American dream is an idea, strongly believed and instilled by most minority families. This idea holds a positive and alluring belief that a person can aspire to be happy and have a successful life, at a price. The American Dream was credited with helping to build a united American experience but has also been blamed for exaggerated expectations. It is noted that despite the deep-seated beliefs in the democratic American Dream, the modern American wealth structure still induces racial and class inequalities between the generations. Note that the advantages and disadvantages are not always connected to an individual’s successes or failures, but often to prior positions in a social group.Greenery is valuable to social union and social segregation. Money does not grow on trees, but it is the root of all evil. Macom, Lyman, and the three Márez brothers are attracted to the American Dream with a fulfilled promise of a future of economic success along with an egotistical ego. All of these men follow objective 3’s “American Dream” narrative—“which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and privileging the individual”.

In contrast, Pilate, Lipsha, and Ultima, were healers throughout their stories. Each never lost a strong connection to the family, spirituality, or nature. They chose the simple greenery of the Earth and gained knowledge of the Earth and its natural inhabitants. Using this knowledge, they tried to rethread bonds with their families and heal their families. Their methods were not modern according to the American medical standards but their strong desire to heal overcame where modern medicine failed.

These stories reflect the social union and social segregation brought on by the American dream. The American Dream’s idea of freedom, equality, and opportunity instills the desire for some individuals to break away from their immediate family and causes them to renounce and shun their extended family. Despite the promise of opportunity, the true sense of freedom and equality lay within the family and social group. Those who broke away must indulge in temporary pleasures and distractions to find an imitative peace found naturally in the family.

Works Cited

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