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Construction and Deconstruction of the American Dream

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Construction and Deconstruction of the American Dream CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM ALINA-ANDREEA DRAGOESCU “Banat” University of Agronomical Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Timişoara Abstract: The paper traces the American dream as the core of American mythology, underpinning the experiment of achieving a dreamland. There is more than one American dream to consider, as it has taken many shapes since the ‘invention’ of the ‘New World’. Therefore, the American myth is undercut by an inherent self-deconstructive proclivity from the beginning. Keywords: American dream, colonial, deconstruction, myth, narrative. “The Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream.” Carl Sandburg, Washington Monument by Night 1. Introduction The “American dream” is a significant metaphor, which may be con- strued as the nerve centre of American civilization. This foundation myth is the theoretical underpinning of the experiment to see whether a perfect society can be achieved. As a mark of boundless creative energy and resourcefulness, the “American dream” is the idea which perhaps best reflects the meaning of the American myth. The present paper traces, in a diachronic approach, the evolution of this founder myth from its early con- struction up to its latter-day breakdown, in order to reveal the fact that it sig- nificantly changes content. My major surmise is that the “idea” of America, which resulted in the creation of an extensive mythology around America, was essentially constructed as a dream. In this context, my aim is to address the idea of “America” as forged by the American dream narrative and to expose its inherent flaws. Considering that the construction of the myth begins with the “discovery” of America, B.A.S. vol. XV, 2009 180 the incipient American dream ought to be traced outside the limits imposed by the definition later given to it. For this purpose, the American dream is an indispensable notion in the process of creating or imagining America as a dream land. 2. The ‘Invention’ of America Historian James Truslow Adams was the first to use the phrase “American Dream” in The Epic of America in 1931. He defined it as 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 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 innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position (Adams, 1969: 214). Despite the fact that the American dream has often been attacked as primarily material, Adams gave it a much broader understanding. Thus, even though the pursuit of material plenty was among its facets, it essential- ly referred to the belief Americans share that they can forge destiny for themselves. Settlers, colonists and frontiersmen who migrated westwards were determined to find happiness in the wilderness by pursuing that dream. It sustained the colonists’ “errand into the wilderness” and later impelled Americans to strive for a better society (cf. Queen ed., 1982: 26). It is in this sense that Adams considered America the unique noble experi- ment, underpinned by the American dream. Nonetheless, the dream itself had started long before Truslow popular- ized it and made it America’s bedrock. It may be argued that the American dream actually started in the age of conquest and discovery and that it par- adoxically took the form of a European dream. Most authors agree that the Dream had started before it was literally formulated by Adams, but they associate it with the Pilgrims’ vision of a “City upon a Hill”. On the contrary, I deem the latter as a second instance of the American dream which had brought conquistadors to the New World in the first place. The question Edmundo O’Gorman (1961) asks in his Invention of America, “When and how does America appear in historical conscious- 181 CULTURAL REMAPPINGS ness?”, helps define the central idea of this paper. It is imperative to distin- guish among invention, discovery and conquest, the latter being a variety of the former, while we cannot rightfully speak about the “discovery” of America. O’Gorman examines the ontological attempt of defining America as lived by Christopher Columbus and presented in his journal. It becomes apparent that Columbus did not literally discover America, but rather con- structed an imaginative world, according to the earliest variant of an “American dream”. Building on Renaissance fantasy and European ideolo- gies of the time, he fancied he had discovered the earthly paradise. The fact that Columbus was convinced that he had reached Asia, as anticipated, is yet another proof of his flawed perception of the “new” world, which was new to him only. Not only did Columbus believe that America was elsewhere, but his description of its inhabitants he named “Indians” was inconsistent, too. He claimed to have discovered cannibals, Cyclops, dog-faced peoples and peo- ple with tails, as he confesses in his diary and letters (cf. Cecil, 1989: 198- 200). The “Indians” he described and the exoticism he encountered only confirmed his faulty belief. The Indian was not discovered as “other”, but assimilated within the European categories of the alien or the exotic. Therefore, from a Eurocentric point of view, the invention of America meant that America was invented in the likeness of Europe and not understood in itself. Hermeneutic constructions of the New World were designed by pre- existent standards, as the discovery/ invention occurred under European terms of reference. Thus, the construction of America as “invention” rather than discovery is fundamental to understanding the nascent idea of America. In Marvelous Possessions. The Wonder of the New World, Stephen Greenblatt (1991) refers to this construction as ‘the imagination at work’ or ‘practical imagina- tion’. Invention or American dream myth-making is contrasted to a truthful representation of America, a distinction used to expose the reality of America. Greenblatt examines the early discourse of discovery as “a superbly powerful register of the characteristic claims and limits of European representational practice” (1991: 23). This colonial discourse exemplifies the difficulties of establishing contact between two systems of representation. In denying notions of reciprocity, the colonizers merely “project vain fantasies” (Greenblatt, 1991: 117). Thus, the encounter with otherness takes place within the cultural code imposed by the ‘discoverers’. B.A.S. vol. XV, 2009 182 In order to legitimate conquest, Europeans portrayed themselves as missionaries of civilization to the barbarian world. Similarly, a century later, Pioneers would continue the process of domesticating alien territory by integrating their quest in the scheme of national destiny and confirming the idea of mission. Thus, “self-made” Puritans and Pilgrims ventured into what they considered wilderness, inspired by the enterprise of inventing their dream land. 3. Self-legitimizing reinventions Myriad optimistic discourses are illustrative of the Puritan settlers’ and other 17th century pioneers’ American dreams and fantasies. These narra- tives conjure up a series of metaphors related to American dream mytholo- gy. For instance, America is envisioned as “the land of all opportunities”, Paradise or Garden of Eden, “chosen land”, “new Jerusalem”’ or “asylum of the world”. Thus, the Puritans’ dream, animated by great hopes, started as a set of high ideals and moral purpose, with their vision of — in Bradford’s words — a “city upon a hill for the whole world to look at” (cf. Pearce, 1965: 27). Committed to the ideal of establishing a “city of God” on earth, the Puritans entertained such legitimating fantasies. This was primarily a vision of religious freedom, but also an ultimate experiment of social order and harmony. It could be achieved through a hard-work ethic, accompanied by self-reliance, thrift and other virtues. The Pilgrims and the Puritans thus shared a high moral purpose. “In the early days of colonization, every new settlement represented an idea and proclaimed a mission”. However, the colonization of 1800 loses this distinctive character and is “rarely illuminat- ed by an idea” (Bradley, 1974: 616). However, it is my contention that 17th century colonists, like their fore- bears, invented their own America or found there what they wanted to find, as their fabulous accounts illustrate. They made up a “New England” and a “New World” of the mind, in the guise of Mother England and Europe instead of discovering America’s reality and encountering the “others” — Amerindians. Moreover, the pioneers’ individualism and the cultivation of the acquisitive spirit finally led to the acceptance of material success as the highest accomplishment (cf. Queen ed., 1982: 25). 183 CULTURAL REMAPPINGS Their version of the American dream can be traced in early colonial lit- erature, generally promotion literature, which was habitually camouflaged as travel writing or literature of exploration. Writers celebrated America’s lures, the enchanting climate and conditions, the friendliness of its inhabi- tants and the profusion of uncultivated food. They amply exaggerated all of these aspects, as well as the possibility of wealth and countless other attrac- tions America supposedly held in store. Even though most of the writings were sheer promotion materials advertising America to the newcomers, the themes and metaphors they contained have resulted in the American dream myth (cf. Lemay, 1988: 4). The construction of American dream mythology continued with the Transcendentalists and the Founding Fathers of the republic in the 18th cen- tury. The narrative of individual uplift is upheld by the founders of the Republic, as well as by the representatives of the Enlightenment. Using the same rhetoric of “the pursuit of happiness”, they espoused a philosophy of self-improvement central to the myth under discussion.
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