Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The American Dream a lie?
The "American Dream" the reason why immigrants come to america to buy a home with a white picket fence and a red Ferrari. This dream is what every single person wants to accomplish they work day and night scrapping for every nickle and penny just to live a better life. In the movie Children of Invention and in the novel The Jungle, both families come to america in hoped of the "American Dream", but yet sadly both once happy families are marred with divorce, tragic hardship and the elusive escape of the "American Dream". Is the "American Dream" a lie? Raymond's mom is scammed into two different pyramid schemes that cost her family financial woes the first time and legal trouble the second time. Some people may say that pyramid schemes are just shortcuts and the "American Dream" is about working hard and making money, but in "The Jungle" working hard just is not enough to earn the "American Dream". So what does it take to live "The America Dream"? A whole lot if luck and hard work. I Can say this personally because I 'am a immigrant and when I first came to America life was hard people treated you differently, even to this day people tell me its because of people like me Americans are loosing jobs. Yet the guy at the top is still living "The America Dream" while the rest of us work hard just to make it by day to day.
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I definitely understand what you are saying with discrimination to immigrants and their strong will to make it in America, or in other words "The American Dream." I do not think it is right to compare The Jungle to Children of Invention in most aspects. The two pieces are set at very different times in America where very different circumstances affect the two families in question. But in the same sense it raises the question: has anything changed in the time span from The Jungle to Children of Invention?
ReplyDeleteThe two time periods are very different, ranging the time span of The Jungle to modern America in Children of Invention. These two time periods are so very different, yet what has changed? The living conditions in Children of Invention are far better than the atrocious situation the family from The Jungle was in in Chicago. The workers in The Jungle treat Jurgis and his family members horribly, violating their human rights. This is not the case in Children of Invention, but at the same time are the people in a suit with a smile conning Elaine into an illegal scheme for them to get richer any different than the bosses who drive Jurgis like a slave only to get richer? It seems that although the time period is different, the main themes are the same. Privileged Americans taking advantage of immigrants trying to make an honest living in pursuit of the American Dream. It seems that the American Dream is real, and people are truly living it, but the way they attain it in both pieces is extremely questionable at best. In reality the way the American Dream is attained in Children of Invention and The Jungle is by deception and cutthroat business techniques. In conclusion, it seems very little has changed for immigrants in terms of how they are treated in their pursuit to attain the American Dream. The reality is sad but true....