American Dream in Good Country People and Recitatif - Essay Example

American Dream also represented getting other materialistic and emotional things like a house, securing a stable work, getting a good education, a stable family, etc. "The American Dream is "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” (Adams, 2001, pg. 214-215). This wish to accomplish the American Dream was also visible among the fictional characters, like in the case of Hulga Hopewell in Good Country People and both Twyla and Roberta in Recitatif. So, this paper will first discuss and then compare how these characters tried to fulfill their American Dreams in one way or other.

The protagonist of the story, Good Country People, Hulga Hopewell is a middle-aged woman with only one leg, having lost the other in an accident in her childhood. To compensate for the loss, she wears an artificial leg but struggles to ambulate normally like others. She also has a heart problem and because of these problems only she is not able to pursue a good career and achieve her dream. She is highly educated and her dream was to work as a lecturer at a university. However, she is not able to actualize that dream of a stable job because of her disability and other problems. “She had a weak heart. Joy had made it plain that if it had not been for this condition, she would be far from these red hills and good country people. She would be in a university lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about.” (O’Connor, year, pg. no). Although she could not fulfill this interpretation of the American Dream, she can fulfill the American Dream of getting a good education. Although she is disabled, she can study well and has even acquired a doctorate, a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Because of this achievement, she placed herself well above the rest of society, which gave her optimum confidence.

Recitatif, written by Toni Morrison is about two girls, Twyla and Roberta from different racial backgrounds, about which the author does not reveal anything overtly. That is, without revealing who is white and who is black, the author provides a series of stereotypical clues to allow the readers to find out themselves. Both girls faced a tough childhood in an orphanage, even not accepting the race of each other, but still growing up to fulfill their interpretation of the American Dream. ”It was one thing to be taken out of your bed early in the morning—it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race.” (Morrison, year, pg.no). However, their unrevealed racial identity also provides a skewed perspective of each character’s American Dream. That is, both the characters as part of one interpretation of the American Dream wants to be rich. When they grow up, both of them achieve visible levels of richness or their American Dream, with Roberta fulfilling that dream in an even more visible way. That is, Roberta marries an IBM executive, drives in a limousine with a chauffeur, and wears diamond jewelry and a fashionable outfit.

All the above discussed three characters try to fulfill their American Dreams in their way, leading to some comparison. While Hulga fulfills her interpretation of the American Dream by getting a good education, Roberta achieves that by marrying a rich person and by living a rich lifestyle, while Twyla by marrying a fireman and having a single child tries to fulfill the American Dream of having a stable family. Although each one could not fulfill other forms of the American Dream, they could fulfill at least one interpretation. For example, Hulga could not achieve the dream of getting a job, but could ‘walk with her head held high due to her accomplished education. Likewise, Twyla could not achieve richness but could fulfill the dream of a stable family, while it is the opposite in the case of Roberta. Read More