EXAMINING THE MANIFEST AMERICAN DREAM ENGLISH LITERATURE ESSAY   pt1      1900w

In this essay, I will be discussing whether or not the American Dream is manifest in America. This contention clearly needs some clarity, thus I will start with a brief examination of what exactly the American Dream constitutes, and how it may have a bearing and influence on the texts. I will then place the novels in some context, allowing for an exploration of the texts, Revolutionary Road and American Pastoral. I will then come to some conclusions as to whether or not the ultimate manifestation of the American Dream is America itself.

In the words of James Truslow Adams, author of The Epic America, the American dream is :

[…]that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are