What is “The American Dream”?
Preparation for reading Death of a
Salesman
What do we mean by the phrase
“American Dream”?
• As we have (hopefully) seen from the variety of
images presented to us by our classmates, “The
American Dream” does not have one meaning. It
means (and has meant over time) different things
to different people.
• So why do you think this is a phrase that is so
powerful and resonant with readers and listeners?
I’ve heard politicians use it, but I’ve also heard it
from graduation speakers, insurance commercials,
real estate commercials… where have you heard
it?
Definition One: The Fulfillment of Phrases
from the Declaration of Independence
• One way to view “The American Dream” is as
the fulfillment of what are seen as “promises”
made in the Declaration of Independence.
• Specifically, the phrase “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.”
Ah, but it’s not that simple…
• What exactly do we mean by “liberty”? Liberty
for whom? And what exactly is meant by “the
pursuit of happiness”? These phrases have meant
a lot of things for a lot of people. And these
words have been quoted to support freedom from
govt. interference and marriage equality, just to
name a couple of causes.
• The failures of the United States to live up to
those ideals have been rallying cries for civil
rights activists.
Another Useful Version of This
Definition
• A sociologist named Gunnar Myrdal, in a 1944
book that examined the gap between the
American idealism and the reality of the
country at the time, defined the America
“Creed” (the phrase “American Dream” wasn’t
in common use yet, but Myrdal is talking
about the same concept) in this way: “liberty,
equality, justice, and fair opportunity for
everyone” (qtd. in Cullen 117).
Definition Two: Upward Social
Mobility
• In this definition, the defining characteristic of “The
American Dream” is the ability to rise up the social ladder.
• This “dream” assumes that there exists in America equality
of opportunity, which means that everyone has an “equal”
shot, no matter their station at birth.
• Some major implications of this version of the “dream”
include:
– Children could have better (or at least more financially stable)
lives than their parents.
– Each individual is free to fulfill his/her potential (which is
beneficial to everyone).
– Hard work will be rewarded with financial stability, dignity, and
comfort for oneself and one’s family.
Definition Two: Upward Social
Mobility
• While no supporters of this version of the dream ever
thought they were creating a “classless” society, the
possibility of upward social mobility blurs boundaries
between social classes in a way that, especially in the
first century of America’s existence, was fairly unique
among Western nations.
• This idea recognizes that while some Americans are
going to be wealthy business owners, and some are
going to be garbage collectors, the first enjoys no
special legal privileges because of his/her station, and
the second can, theoretically at least, look the first in
the eye with dignity.
But wait! This one is complicated
too.
• The belief in the possibility of upward mobility gave
rise to phrases like “pull yourself up by your
bootstraps,” which implied that anyone, no matter how
difficult their circumstances, could, through hard work
and determination, succeed.
• The problematic idea that this belief gave birth to was:
“If upward social mobility is possible, than those who
are not upwardly mobile must have something wrong
with them.”
• Those who held this problematic idea thought (ok, let’s
be honest… think) that the poor stay poor because of
some failure of morals or of willpower.
Equal Opportunity?
• Martin Luther King Jr., in his last sermon
before he was assassinated in 1968, said, “It’s
all right to tell a man to lift himself up by his
bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to tell a
bootless man that he ought to lift himself up by
his bootstraps” (qtd. in Cullen 128).
• Here, King is questioning the assumption of
equal opportunity embedded in the
“bootstraps” phrase.
Definition Three: Home Ownership
• Home ownership as an essential characteristic of “The
American Dream” is older than the phrase itself.
• Why is home/land ownership so vital?
– It taps into the ideals of independence/privacy laid out in
the Declaration of Independence.
– It has played an important role in American History, all the
way back to the earliest days of the US when the Western
frontier (now, in 1776 “The West” was Ohio, not
California…) was seen as “wide open” country that
anyone, no matter how poor, could come, cultivate, and
make a life for themselves.
– Another event that helps to explain the importance of home
ownership is the Homestead Act of 1862, which promised
title to 160 acres of previously unclaimed land to anyone
who would work on it for five years.
Definition Three: Home Ownership
• Home owners were (and still are) seen as
stakeholders in their communities, and in a
larger sense, the country as a whole.
• As American cities grew, a rising middle class
needed housing and access to the opportunities
provided by cities. This (and the rapid rise of
the automobile) created suburbs.
Features of Suburbs
• Neither country nor city – lacks the isolation of “the
country” and the metropolitan nature and economic activity
of “the city.”
• In the beginning, suburbs were reliant on public
transportation to get workers to city, but everything changed
when the automobile because affordable for average middle
class workers.
• Suburbs, in a way, were seen as fulfilling some of the ideals
from the Declaration of Independence. The personal
mobility provided by cars offered freedom/liberty, and the
stereotypical house with a yard and a fence provided
privacy and a “peaceful” environment – “happiness.”
The Problem With Suburbs
• As suburbs began to develop identifiable characteristics, as separate from
cities, one of the most recognizable was an emphasis on conformity.
• In the 1950’s various authors were beginning to see this suburban sameness
and conformity as a danger to the individualistic character of America,
– The phrase “company man” came to mean a worker, usually from the suburbs, who
was made in the same “mold” as all of the other workers in his company, and who
accepted the policies and decisions in his workplace without question.
• Artists working in film and literature produced pieces that critiqued
suburbia.
– “Stepford Wives” is one of the more famous critiques of suburban sameness.
– American pop culture is still producing work like this. The Office was an incredibly
sharp critique of American corporate culture (yes, I know it was originally British)
and the concept of “the company man.”
• As cities grew, little suburbs were being incorporated into big cities in the
late ‘40s and early ‘50s. (This is what is happening to the Lomans.)
Definition Four: The Possibility of Extreme
Financial Success and Fame
• This definition of “The American Dream” is a version
of your classic “rags to riches” story.
• This is related to our previous definition of the dream
as “upward social mobility,” but there are some key
differences.
– “Upward social mobility” was grounded in the promise of
reward for diligence and hard work. This version relied
(mostly, but not entirely) on luck and/or personal charisma.
– This version emphasized luck, risk taking, and gambling
rather than of equal opportunity.
– The allure of this version of the dream is it could happen to
anyone, with almost no effort.
Symbols of the Dream of Wealth
and Fame
• California became a potent symbol of this version of the
American dream thanks to the Gold Rush of 1849, and later,
Hollywood.
• Two early Hollywood celebrities who embodied this
version of the dream were Douglas Fairbanks and Mary
Pickford (Who were married, and after she’d been recently
divorced, too, which was QUITE the scandal…) They were
the quintessential early Hollywood couple – effortlessly
glamorous and endlessly interesting. Fans followed their
lives the way we follow reality TV personalities and other
celebrities today.
• If you want to read a novel that is all about this “luck,
wealth, and fame” version of the American Dream, look no
further than The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford at their
home in the early 20’s.
This is a picture of “Pickfair,” a home that was sometimes called “The
White House of the West Coast” that appeared in postcards, and in many
fan magazines. Notice how relaxed and “effortlessly good looking” they
are.
• “To be sure, these were people with real talent,
but exercising that talent was something that
presumably came naturally, something that
simply happened in the course of a normal
day. To put it another way: the American
Dreams of Benjamin Franklin, Abraham
Lincoln, and Andrew Carnegie rested on a
sense of character; those of Douglas
Fairbanks and Mary Pickford rested on
personality” (Cullen 177).
So, to sum up…
• We have four competing definitions of “The American
Dream” here.
• Definition One: The Fulfillment of Phrases from the
Declaration of Independence
• Definition Two: Upward Social Mobility
• Definition Three: Home Ownership
• Definition Four: The Possibility of Extreme Financial
Success and Fame
• As you begin to read Death of a Salesman, ask yourself
how these competing versions of the dream are present
in the lives and attitudes of these characters.