America is Not America

Ah, the much-anticipated Langston Hughes post...It's just not me until it's did the day before.

SO:

Heh. I like this poem~ Hughes was/is totally on the right track here. I could write 2 pages worth of post talking about this poem, but I have guidelines to meet, so I'll try and summarize my take on it. No hating if I'm not the least bit original or out of the box.

Basically: America is the Land of Phony...the "American Dream" is indeed just that. A dream dreamt up by Europeans--and actually, probably other peoples too-- who wanted something better than the reality they had. This was the dream of equality, happiness, and freedom (give or take some more desirable qualities). People came here hoping for a better life and a fresh start, and yet 200+ years later, we are in a glorified version of the countries we'd come from. "Freedom" and "equality" are just terms...used loosely and relatively.

In this country of diversity, there is no equality; and dreams are crushed by the cruel reality of the same game of life: eat or be eaten and winner take all. We, the people, who dreamed of such a great land, work hard for a seemingly unattainable dream and get nothing in return. We have nothing...except the hazy memory of the American Dream.

ANSWERING GIVEN QUESTIONS!!!!!

Hrmm...I'd say that the two perspectives in this poem were the optimistic view and realistic view. Namely, the delusion that America is the bestestest country ever, full of freedom, equality, and opportunity. 8D Now, the realistic perspective: all that is a bunch of PHOOEY. We're just technologically advanced, but inevitably that has led to a bunch of other problems, and the more complicated our society gets the more complex our problems become. And there is a ubiquitous existence of prejudice and unfair judgments and assumptions, no matter how small or how hard we try to cleverly cover it up.

Umm, I feel like that paragraph answered a lot of the other questions, so the rest'll be short answers!

Hughes calls for an America that is America--the very epitome of the "America" (dreamed land) people have hoped for, for centuries. A land of freedom, and opportunity, and equality...and this is really getting quite redundant... >. > At this point, I am using "America" as the Promised Land and dreamland of most people; it's just a..umm...symbol. There we go. (Hard to explain/put into words)

I would say the overall tone of this poem is... one of scorn and distaste. OH, and wistful too. Hughes is looking down on the America we've become, and dislikes the fact that the very people who tried to build up an ideal country of freedom and equal opportunity are the ones helping to make it what it is today...either they're the oppressed or the oppressors. Hughes hopes for a better America...an America that is truly "America".

I think Hughes criticizes the whole--well, the same 3 main traits/qualities/principles or whatever that I keep mentioning above--there is no equality, there is no freedom, there is no opportunity. Hughes is criticizing the lack of all of that.

Fitzgerald and Hughes must have been on the same page; they both are doubting the "America"-ness of this so-called "America." No equality in The Great Gatsby's  New York; no equal opportunity as proven by the differences in financial affairs and status. Etc., etc....

I agree with the criticisms 100%... or close enough to that. I mean, I've always been viewing the world in a kind of cynical way, so I'm already inclined to believe a lot of things are lies by default. I'm a skeptic, and I DEFINITELY do not think our America is the America. Everything is just a lie or jumbled up contradiction.

--STARBURST: IT'S A JUICY CONTRADITION!!!

--AJ out.

Americans' Dream

Nomnom...as I type I chew Havarti cheese. :)

I admittedly had no idea what the heck this "American Dream" everyone's talking about is. So, like any not-completely-lazy curious person, I did a likkle bit of research. The definition of this "American Dream" has changed quite a bit over time, but I guess:

The American Dream started as a "promise" (*cough, cough*) that here in America, the "Promised Land", there is happiness for any and all people.  A few of the sources I looked at refer to the United States Declaration of Independence, particularly the phrase "pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness." That was the original American dream.

Now, though, I'd say the American Dream roughly translates to living a (relatively) good life, with no financial or family or medical problems, among other things. The "good life" would be a successful life, and one filled with happiness and stability. This is the promise of the American Dream--provided you work hard.

After all, it just wouldn't be right if hard-working people toiled their lives away to get a well-deserved happy life and the fortunate people born with silver spoons just happened across this happiness.

SO, the American Dream today:

 "is split into two distinct camps: those who work to earn it and those who think it's owed to them."

The article I chose is "The American Dream--RIP," published January 13, 2012. It talks mainly about the American Dream's aspect of money. Reading it, I found myself agreeing completely with the author's idea that the one of the problems with America and its Dream is money. "Found money" in particular. The author referred to "easy come, easy go" a lot throughout the article, saying that although a minority of people in America are lucky enough to come across "found money", it is still too many.

Found money is basically easy money, or just money people didn't earn. The article cites investing in the stock market, fraud-committing CEOs, professional football and basketball players and Leigh Steinberg (a super-agent of star NFL players) filing for bankruptcy, and the lottery as examples of all that is wrong with the world. Or, at least, the world within America.

The problem is that when people just get money, they think they can do whatever they want with it. Which they can, I suppose, but not without oft-negative repercussions. Nowadays, people with easy money are quite extravagant with their spending, as we see in The Great Gatsby (which means even in the 1920s people were a little too liberal with their money). People tend to spend "found money" much more easily than money they've earned. Also, people's warped thinking has led some to the idea that they are owed such money, and thusly we have the Occupy Wall Street protests.

That is messing up the American Dream. Owed money my a--erm, foot. How lazy and greedy can you get? Those of us who don't have jobs now are anxious looking for jobs and ways to earn and save money, and you (protesters) who probably have jobs to be doing or looking for are spending your time lobbying for that 1% to stop being greedy and let you in on the action? Selfish little--go look for job openings, fools.

What's worse is that once people get their easy money, they blow it on worthless things--their "American Dream". The Lincolns and Cadillacs and $XX million dollar houses. Nice dream. The money that the working- and/or lower-class ( most of us aren't really working now...) deserves or would like to work for is given to lazy bums and wasted, and it rarely comes to the lower-class at all. Our "dream" is a living nightmare of economic atrophy and wasteful idiots.

How does all that relate to The Great Gatsby? Allow me to point out that most of the setting in the story is set in wealthy places. New York, the city of lights; West Egg, where Nick Carraway lives between two huge estates and where Jay Gatsby throws extravagant parties almost every night; East Egg, across the way and where the even more wealthy live in palaces of white.

The very setting of The Great Gatsby showcases Americans' liberality, "living the dream" as it's often put. Gatsby is said to have inherited his money, and Tom and Daisy Buchanan were born into wealthy families; Exhibits A, B, and C of easy money. They live in houses that easily impress our Nick Carraway, who comes from a "well-to-do," or prosperous, family as well. However, seeing as Nick actually works, I wouldn't classify him as one of those who live an excessively lavish life.

I don't think there's anything more to say. The American Dream today is that of high-class and expensive materialistic things to some, and to others it's just to be comfortable again. To relate it to GeGa (my new pet name for The GrEat GAtsby), many of the characters in the story set in 1920 are just as bad as the 1% in today's world.

I don't like it. You can control dreams, right?

Why don't we change this one.

"But there's nothing greedy about corporations selling products, making a profit, creating jobs, paying employees, benefiting investors, and everyone in the chain paying taxes that fund entitlements, government and infrastructure. Absolutely nothing."