The internalization of myths is a universal truth for all cultures, especially American culture in modernity. Both Coates and Brant combat the myth of The Dream and also myths of internalized hierarchies of race and status. In Between the World and Me, Coates’s idea of the dream is a lie of innocence that feeds the ignorance that most Americans have towards the injustices constantly occurring around them. He described his wife as being woken from the dream due to her “knowledge of cosmic injustices” that she experiences due to identity as a black woman. (Coates p. 65) Coates views the Dream as very negative because he sees it as a mechanism that people “who believe they are white” use to ignore and enforce the broken elements of the United
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Brant’s point of view does not create a dream which one would define as harmful at face value, like Coates’s idea of the Dream. Instead, Brant formulates an idea of the Dream that any reader can support. Brant introduces the reader to a proud member of the United States military, the ideal American. (Brant p. 10) He creates a mother who is inconvenienced by pregnancy but who loves her child so much that she is willing to recreate her life for her. (Brant p. 13) She puts the career she loves on hold, she falls in love with her child’s father and marries him, and she stays home with her child for three years to help protect her. (Brant p. 17) She is by so many counts the perfect American. She loves her family and her country and would put her life on the line, in different ways, for both. By creating an ideal American, Brant forces the reader to be captivated by the destruction caused in her life directly by her country. The pilot’s country destroyers her, giving the reader no ability to create an excuse for the failure and pain caused by the Dream. Going home to her family every night was depicted as a blessing, a way to fulfill the Dream by being a mother who is around to watch her daughter grow up. (Brant p. p. 21) However, this blessing becomes a curse; she has no ability to decompress with her unit, people who are experiencing the war with her. Instead, she returns home to civilians she is not even allowed to consult every night. (Brant p. 48) Additionally, her country does not help her when she becomes a victim of PTSD, observing and then court marshaling her instead. The peak of the pilot’s PTSD begins when she starts to see her target’s car as her car. (Brant p. 45) However, instead of giving her leave or psychiatric support, her Commander has her observed; he watches while her PTSD worsens and arrests her as soon as it distorts her
Brant’s point of view does not create a dream which one would define as harmful at face value, like Coates’s idea of the Dream. Instead, Brant formulates an idea of the Dream that any reader can support. Brant introduces the reader to a proud member of the United States military, the ideal American. (Brant p. 10) He creates a mother who is inconvenienced by pregnancy but who loves her child so much that she is willing to recreate her life for her. (Brant p. 13) She puts the career she loves on hold, she falls in love with her child’s father and marries him, and she stays home with her child for three years to help protect her. (Brant p. 17) She is by so many counts the perfect American. She loves her family and her country and would put her life on the line, in different ways, for both. By creating an ideal American, Brant forces the reader to be captivated by the destruction caused in her life directly by her country. The pilot’s country destroyers her, giving the reader no ability to create an excuse for the failure and pain caused by the Dream. Going home to her family every night was depicted as a blessing, a way to fulfill the Dream by being a mother who is around to watch her daughter grow up. (Brant p. p. 21) However, this blessing becomes a curse; she has no ability to decompress with her unit, people who are experiencing the war with her. Instead, she returns home to civilians she is not even allowed to consult every night. (Brant p. 48) Additionally, her country does not help her when she becomes a victim of PTSD, observing and then court marshaling her instead. The peak of the pilot’s PTSD begins when she starts to see her target’s car as her car. (Brant p. 45) However, instead of giving her leave or psychiatric support, her Commander has her observed; he watches while her PTSD worsens and arrests her as soon as it distorts her