Tits up in a ditch displays a huge distinct message that the American Dream dose not exist. Since the day Dakota was born into the Lister family she was set up for a difficult life. First of all starting off being abandoned by her mother and having to have her grandparents raising her. Bonita and Verl Lister was already financially struggling family so Dakota just added more to problem and to add she wasn't a boy. Her not being a boy meant she couldn't take over the “farm” or what was suppose to be a farm.The american dream now is dependent on luck and Verl Lister didn't have the best of it “ His secret boyhood dream had been to become a charismatic radio man, meeting singing personalities, giving the news, announcing songs, describing the weather.” (Proulx 3) He had no idea how to …show more content…
After because of baby she got fired and didn't have a job thus later having her grandparents forcing her to go to the Army to get this better life and education and job. The Army theres two outcomes survival or not . She was able to achieve getting a job but not the one she was set there to do she made a few friends and for once is was actually happy. That didn't last long and soon her life would turn completely upside down with the loss of her baby , new friend , and having to take care of her lifeless husband who she doesn't resents and a farm to look after. This leaving her towards being “tits-up in a ditch.” Dakota never lived a life she truly wanted she once at the point of reaching it but then slowly one by one things started to fall apart. This proves how hard it is to reach the American dream you truly have to work for it not everyone is a lucky as others. In Dakotas situation even working hard for what she wanted or what her grandparents wanted for her failed. Tits up in a ditch= unhappy
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
In the young life of Essie Mae, she had a rough childhood. She went through beatings from her cousin, George Lee, and was blamed for burning down her house. Finally Essie Mae got the nerve to stand up for herself and her baby sister, Adline as her parents were coming in from their work. Her dad put a stop to the mistreatment by having her and her sister watched by their Uncle Ed. One day while Essie Mae's parents were having an argument, she noticed that her mothers belly was getting bigger and bigger and her mom kept crying more and more. Then her mother had a baby, Junior, while the kids were out with their Uncle Ed. Her uncle took her to meet her other two uncles and she was stunned to learn that they were white. She was confused by this but when she asked her mom, Toosweet, about it her mom would not give her an answer one way or the other. Once her mom had the baby, her father started staying out late more often. Toosweet found out that her dad was seeing a woman named Florence. Not long after this, her mother was left to support her and her siblings when her father left. Her mother ended up having to move in with family until she could obtain a better paying job in the city. As her childhood went on she started school and was very good at her studies. When she was in the fourth grade, her mom started seeing a soldier named Raymond. Not too long after this, her mother got pregnant and had James. Her mother and Raymond had a rocky relationship. When James was born, Raymond's mother came and took the baby to raise because she said that raising four children was too much of a burden for a single parent to handle. Raymond went back to the service for a while but then when he came back he and Toosweet had another baby. Raymond's brothers helped him build a new house for them to live in and they brought James back to live with them. During this time Essie Mae was working for the Claiborne family and she was starting to see a different point of view on a lot of things in life. The Claiborne's treated her almost as an equal and encouraged her to better herself.
She loses her job she had at a factory and almost got raped by her boss. She goes without a job for a while and Lavaughn even had to miss a day of school because Jolly didn’t go home for two days. The story line could be seen as a lesson to many teenagers, especially girls. Getting pregnant at 14 or 15 could change your whole life and that could be one thing the author is trying to get across to the readers. Making big decisions like that early on in life may affect it more then some people think it might. ‘’ But I never been in such a bad mess like Jolly is. I never had 2 kids and no job and the rent due.’’ (Wolff
...f the bad that is going on in her real life, so she would have a happy place to live. With the collapse of her happy place her defense was gone and she had no protection from her insanity anymore. This caused all of her blocked out thoughts to swarm her mind and turn her completely insane. When the doctor found her, he tried to go in and help her. When the doctor finally got in he fainted because he had made so many positive changes with her and was utterly distressed when he found out that it was all for naught. This woman had made a safety net within her mind so that she would not have to deal with the reality of being in an insane asylum, but in the end everything failed and it seems that what she had been protecting herself from finally conquered her. She was then forced to succumb to her breakdown and realize that she was in the insane asylum for the long run.
Each character in the novel has their own interpretation of the ‘American Dream – the pursuit of happiness’ as they all lack happiness due to the careless nature of American society during the Jazz Age. The American Dreams seems almost non-existent to those whom haven’t already achieved it.
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
One girl who chases the American Dream is Lena Lingard, a small farm girl from a poverty-stricken family. "Lena gave her heart away when she felt like it, but she kept her head for her business and had got on in the world." (192). Lena had one thing on her mind: money. To her the American Dream was wealth. She wants freedom from worry about where her next meal would come from. Lena begins her journey to wealth by becoming one of the many hired girls in the town of Black Hawk. There she was apprentice to a dressmaker and before long began to show great potential. Soon she began making money with her hard work, dedication and talent, but she uses this money not to indulge in her own desires, but to benefit her family. She spent her excess funds buying clothes for them, and paying their bills. But this wasn't enough to gain society's approval. She is a hired girl. Because she went to many dances over the summer months, many young men began noticing her, as they never had before. Because of this Lena earns a reputation like those of the hired girls; that ...
The conception of the American Dream has since long been distorted and the principals have undergone, as John E. Nestler depicts it in his essay “The American Dream”, “a metamorphosis” from the basic idea of freedom and equality to materialistic and individualistic ambitions, which would constitute “a sign of moral decay”. In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry uses the character Walter Lee Younger to illustrate the distorted interpretation of the American dream and its consequent adverse effects. Walter grew up in a time, when money would apparently reign the world and be the center of attention a...
In conclusion, the American dream targeted the individual working hard in the pursuit to become successful and wealthy, with high-quality job and prosperity. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American dream symbolizes being free from any kind of restrictions and the ability to have the pleasure in the wide-open Western edge. However, The Great Gatsby criticizes the American dream due to moral and social value decay of the society.
What is the American Dream? A nice house in the suburbs, Two cars, kids and a good job? This seems to be what most people consciously or unconsciously strive for. American Beauty uses one man’s quest to find happiness in his life. Lester Burnham is a 42-year-old father, trapped in a loveless marriage. His wife Carolyn Burnham desperately wants to keep up her image. Becoming obsessed with maintaining her image of the American Dream by trying to perfect everything she does. They have an evasive daughter Jane who spends much of the movie calling her parents pathetic. American Beauty uncovers the egocentric materialistic underlying of American culture
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
...child relationship is pure agony and resentment. In the same way her master forced her to work he forced her to bear a child that she does not want. In response, she runs away from her master by running away to Pilgrim's Point. She runs away from her duties as a mother by killing her child.
It is a film in which there is a very strong feeling of two scenarios; these being the notorious 'American Dream' so often utilised by American film makers, and a 'David and Goliath' feel which would magnetise virtually all of the 'Blue Collar' public in America. This is probably because this may be something that they are able to relate to. I have already mentioned one of the infamous American classes; Erin is of the blue-collar variety and is the antagonist of the other main class, 'white collar' workers in office jobs.
According to Merriam-Webster`s Collegiate Dictionary, the American dream is “an American social ideal that stresses egalitarianism and especially, material prosperity; also: the prosperity or life that is realisation of this ideal.” It is well in line to view the American dream as a set of rules for achieving success. This is even more stressed when President Bill Clinton says that "if you work hard and play by the rules you should be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you.” More so, The Declaration of Independence of 1776 states that “All men are created equal…endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Nevertheless, the undelying question is What does the novel ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac have to say about the American dream in light of the activites and themes he presents in the book? The American dream, all be it real or mythical, caused the American society to be placed on a conformist lifestyle. This conformist lifestyle of the American dream is what Jack Kerouac finds to be unacceptable as he writes “On the Road.” He protests the conventional system of having a job, family, a picket fence lifestyle, etc. He says “the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...(5)” In “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac presents a counter culture. A nonconformist dream that assures freedom that is tied to the exploration of the road- the beats. They saw the mainstream life as a prison.
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.