The American Dream has kept America running for many years, and it will continue to power the country for many years to come. The American Dream is a very special goal for everyone, even people who live outside of America. To have a dream is something special; to achieve the dream will take hard work. The United States was built on dreams as well as men who believed they could accomplish what they dreamed. The American Dream is usually a specific dream involving land, money and even the amount of freedom a citizen has. Unfortunately, these American Dreams are almost never achieved.
Famous African-American poet, Langston Hughes wrote a poem called “A Dream Deferred” in 1951 that describes how the American Dream, over time is either accomplished or becomes a nightmare. Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby two books written around the same time depict this American dream and show how the dream can be a disaster if it is the only focus keeping men occupied in life. “A Dream Deferred” is a great work of art, and it will help to show whether or not the two books about the American Dream are stories of success or failure. Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck in 1937 is the story of two brothers who dream of owning their own farm one day, but end up working at another farm as they are traveling. The book depicts some of the obstacles that stand in the way of the farm and also shows how such a simple American dream as owning a farm can ruin two lives.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925, which talks about a man named Gatsby, who works very hard to attain money and a house so he can impress a women named Daisy, who he has loved his entire life. He never gets to be with her, but she is able to see what he has done for her. Langston Hughes’ poem shows both books as examples of how the American dream is almost impossible to achieve by narrating how dreams change over the years when they are put aside. The American Dream is a goal attempted by Lennie and George in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Jay Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby by tracing how each main character searches for the American Dream, measures the success of the American Dream but how each ultimately ends in tragedy as measured by Langston Hughes’s “A Dream Deferred.”
