American Dream: Problematizing

The American dream is a tempting idea, one that gives us a longing to hope for tomorrow. Maybe our dream will take place then, maybe in a week. It is like our whole lives we spend in the desert and the Idea of the American dream is a cool sweet mist that we long to grasp onto, it is all around us but we cannot drink from it or bathe in its glory. We can let it touch us and be around us but the perfect dream will never be ours.

In the play/ story The Death of a Salesman Willy Lowman is the poor soul corrupted by the idea of the American dream.  In his mind, it’s as if somebody physically made him a promise that if he were to work hard, then he would acquire all of these things, such as a big house, a good name for himself, a lot of money and whatever else. Willy is a broken man with a tattered mind; he can barely have solid fantasies much less have a solid reality. During all of this, Willy’s wife Linda was so supportive of him in all his shenanigans and lies. He was focusing so much on his sales pitching that he tried to be a salesmen at home and pitch them the idea that things were right and life was perfect. In the end, Willy really did what the American dream relatively consists of; he had a nice house, two kids, a car and money. What more could a man want? We chase things that cannot be obtained; it is all a part of a sick game that entertains the American mind.

The American Dream is also not something that was made up recently, even in the Bible it is a thing that is sought after and a thing that consumes one’s mind. In Ecclesiastes 2, Solomon talks about the labor of his hand and the sweat of his brow but also how he indulges in luxurious things like women and wine.  He worked as a man should do, but instead of taking his share he took that plus more. In the end of  the verse he realizes that it is all meaningless without the touch of Gods hand to make one happy, God will choose who pleases Him.

“For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!” Ecclesiastes 2:16