Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2011 "The colossal vitality of his illusion": the myth of the American dream in the modern American novel James E. Ayers Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Ayers, James E., ""The oc lossal vitality of his illusion": the myth of the American dream in the modern American novel" (2011). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2767. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2767 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. “THE COLOSSAL VITALITY OF HIS ILLUSION”: THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE MODERN AMERICAN NOVEL A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by James Ayers B.A., Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, 2004 August 2011 For Edward ii Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the ongoing support of many professors, colleagues, friends, and, of course, my family. I am incredibly thankful for all the assistance and encouragement I have received over the course of this project and over the long course of my education, and I wish to thank a few people here. First thanks go to my mother, Teresa, whose unconditional love and undying support have made me who I am today. I would like also to thank my stepfather, Paul, and all of my brothers: together you have given me a strong foundation and you have always encouraged me in this pursuit. I would not be here today if not for the amazing faculty of my alma mater, who helped me to find and nurture a love of art and its many possibilities. Thank you especially to Mary Mumbach and Paul Connell. My appreciation for literature would not be what it is without Dr. Mumbach, and I would never have made it this far without the early encouragement of Dr. Connell. None of this would be possible without the flourishing academic environment created by these and Peter Sampo, Brian Shea, and Mary Bonnifield. I will be forever grateful to all of you. Very great thanks go to all of my professors and colleagues at Louisiana State University, especially to my director, Bainard Cowan. Dr. Cowan, your sustained interest in my project and faith in my abilities as a writer has been the primary sustaining factor in my graduate education. I can never express my gratitude to you for sticking with me, even when we were many miles apart. I would also like to specially thank Bill Boelhower, who has shown me a great deal of personal commitment and has iii always held me to a most rigorous standard. Thank you to the other members of my committee as well, Brannon Costello, John Lowe, and James Murphy. I will always be indebted to my “urban family” for providing me with such friendship, intimacy, and love. Thanks go to Ashli Dykes, who went through this process at the same time as me and therefore shared in all my pain, grief, and, eventually, my joy. I could not have done it without you. Thank you Jessica Vallelungo, Gentry Hanks, and Casey Kayser for always knowing when I need to cook, drink, or write, and for making sure I stayed on the right task. To the Fava “sisterpants” ladies, Colleeen and Leigh, you have both been a tremendous support to me, and your unquestioned confidence in me has often kept me going during the hardest times. I wish to thank Nicole Gagnon: even at 3,000 miles away you continue to offer me the guidance, closeness, and encouragement of a best friend. Thanks also to Anita Bordelon, whose interest in my project has helped me to believe in my project, and to Peggy Trenta, who has offered me much advice and feedback. I would be remiss if I did not especially thank the staff of Brew Ha-Ha. I wrote nearly half of my dissertation at the first table on the left, and you have given me a calming, relaxed environment and plenty of caffeine. Finally, I would like to thank Edward Fowler. It takes a strong person to live with a dissertation writer for the whole course of the project, and an even stronger one to always offer support in whatever form possible. You have given me anything and everything I have needed over the past three years, and not a single thing you have done for me has gone unnoticed. I love you. iv Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......………………………………………………………………....iii ABSTRACT.......………………………...…………………………………………………….…vi INTRODUCTION WHAT IS THE AMERICAN DREAM?..……………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER ONE THE AMERICAN DREAM AS MYTH: DEFINING AN APPROACH TO NARRATIVE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS……….…..18 CHAPTER TWO MYTHIC HERO: AUGIE MARCH AND THE SELF-MADE MAN IN AMERICA………………………......62 CHAPTER THREE MYTHIC WORLD: THE AMERICAN FRONTIER AS SPATIAL METAPHOR FOR ABUNDANCE..…….103 CHAPTER FOUR MYTHIC ACTION: THE PRIVATE/SOCIAL PARADOX OF UPWARD MOBILITY……………..…………150 CHAPTER FIVE THE AMERICAN DREAM IN THE 21ST CENTURY: A LITERARY CONSIDERATION………………………….……………………………….203 CONCLUSION AMERICAN DREAM / AMERICAN REALITY……………….…………………………236 BIBLIOGRPAHY….…………...……………………………………………………………...242 VITA…......…………………………………………………………………………………..…249 v Abstract This dissertation argues that the American dream is a large-scale cultural myth, and that through an analysis of the dream’s mythic structure we can locate a paradigm according to which both American literature and American culture are organized. The American dream has maintained unique relevance across the historical, regional, and cultural diversity of the American nation, in part because it always remains abstract and resists firm definition. Nevertheless, by breaking the broad myth into its most basic elemental parts we can begin to see patterns across the many distinctive versions of the American dream, such that we can identify the American dream as a generic category. This project therefore proceeds by analyzing the most basic narrative features of the American dream: its actor or hero, its setting or universe, and its primary action. Through an analysis of the figure of the self-made man, the “frontier” as American spatial metaphor, and the action of upward mobility, this dissertation locates common features across myriad versions of this American dream myth in order to establish the American dream as a pervasive organizing ideal within American culture. This dissertation focuses its study on American fiction of the twentieth century, where the American dream finds its clearest articulations, and it has special recourse to nineteenth-century and early American history and culture as the ground for this modern sense of the American dream. Finally, I end with a discussion of American literature of the last decade, in which I discuss prevalent contemporary attitudes about the American dream in order to assess its current condition. Ultimately, this dissertation suggests that the American dream, because it is a genuine cultural myth, vi both organizes American cultural experience and structures American literature about that experience. vii Introduction What Is the American Dream? An inquiry into the vast subject of the American dream must first establish some definitional parameters for discussing that subject. I will therefore open with a working definition—open to revision as necessary—at the outset. In brief, the American dream is the myth that, in America, opportunity exists for reward that is directly commensurate with one’s effort. This definition has been pieced together over the course of this project’s development, and functions as a working articulation of a pervasive and ambiguous cultural reality. This American myth has functioned integrally since the beginning of the nation, and it has persisted as a relevant description of American values despite the great historical, regional, and cultural diversity that makes up the nation. Indeed, it is the single-most definitive statement we can make towards the outlining of an “American consciousness.” Because the American dream has consistently remained vague—it neither denotes a clear set of goals nor offers a paradigm for their accomplishment—it has remained open to interpretation for all Americans, regardless of their historical moment, socio-economic position, or regional and cultural identity. It has also resisted definition for this same reason. Because it stands as a unifying national statement, though, its study is essential for an understanding of American culture generally; indeed, its study is the clearest means of understanding American culture—as a coherent unit—at all. The American dream functions vitally within American culture, despite its literal ambiguity, because it operates mythically. Americans therefore have a kind of innate 1 understanding of the myth as it has been passed on through American culture. Though many different versions of the myth have existed and continue to exist, we can recognize an overarching idea out of which these myriad versions are sprung. This project is explicitly concerned with outlining the structure of this governing idea. The many versions of this American myth, which we shall call “myths,” thus serve to articulate the general national idea for specific American sub-cultures throughout history. We cannot possibly pool all of the various myths together in order to abstract the organizing idea from their commonalities. We can, however, analyze the overarching structure of the myth through its dominant mythic articulations, and arrive at a working (and useful) description of the myth. This will offer us a unique tool for the study and critique of American culture and of the American novel.