America is known as the country full and abundant of opportunity and freedom, where anybody can come and have a fair chance at achieving the desired goal commonly referred to as “The American Dream.” James Truslow Adams describes The American Dream as a “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.” Certain people however, more easily achieve this Dream over others even though America prides itself on being the land of “freedom” and “equality.” The truth about how American society is as diverse and wonderful as many others see it is false. According to the United States census Bureau, people of color are twice as likely to be poor compared to
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For instance, the protagonists of the text, George and Lennie, suffer from incredible poverty. They dream of owning a farm that would allow for them escape this poverty. Lennie says on page 57 “We could live offa the fatta the lan” meaning that once they get their own land, they could sustain themselves and have protection from the inhospitable world. But due to Lennie’s disability, their journey awakens George to the impossibility of this dream and that such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world leaving him impoverished and alone. Crooks, a black man who works on the farm, has a dream of hoeing a patch of garden on George and Lennie’s farm one day and to be accepted in his environment, but due to the color of his skin, he is crudely treated by his peers. He shows his anguish in page 68, saying to Lennie that "Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black." Candy also latches on to the vision of helping George and Lennie on a farm of their own but out of fear of being put out of his job on the ranch due to his age and his physical disability. Previous conflicts have robbed most of the characters of these wishes whether it is because of their age, race, or disability. What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for true happiness and for the freedom to …show more content…
Race determines the Younger family's social status to a large degree, which leads directly to the class and poverty issues in the play. Hansberry shows an example of this institutionalized racism through Lena's search for housing in Chicago because of how racist laws made leaving the slums much more difficult for African Americans. The climax in the story is when Lena buys the house in Clybourne Park, a neighborhood where people of color were not approved of. A man by the name of Karl Linder comes to visit the Younger’s to ask them not to move in. This is the most significant scene that openly portrays racism. Although Karl Linder does not identify himself as racist, and although his tactics are less violent than some, he reveals himself as the antagonist by wishing to live in an all-white neighborhood telling the family, “What do you think you are going to gain b moving into a neighbor hood where you just art wanted and where some elements-well-people can get awful worked up when they feel that their whole way of life and everything they’ve worked for is threatened.”
For instance, the protagonists of the text, George and Lennie, suffer from incredible poverty. They dream of owning a farm that would allow for them escape this poverty. Lennie says on page 57 “We could live offa the fatta the lan” meaning that once they get their own land, they could sustain themselves and have protection from the inhospitable world. But due to Lennie’s disability, their journey awakens George to the impossibility of this dream and that such paradises of freedom, contentment, and safety are not to be found in this world leaving him impoverished and alone. Crooks, a black man who works on the farm, has a dream of hoeing a patch of garden on George and Lennie’s farm one day and to be accepted in his environment, but due to the color of his skin, he is crudely treated by his peers. He shows his anguish in page 68, saying to Lennie that "Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black." Candy also latches on to the vision of helping George and Lennie on a farm of their own but out of fear of being put out of his job on the ranch due to his age and his physical disability. Previous conflicts have robbed most of the characters of these wishes whether it is because of their age, race, or disability. What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for true happiness and for the freedom to …show more content…
Race determines the Younger family's social status to a large degree, which leads directly to the class and poverty issues in the play. Hansberry shows an example of this institutionalized racism through Lena's search for housing in Chicago because of how racist laws made leaving the slums much more difficult for African Americans. The climax in the story is when Lena buys the house in Clybourne Park, a neighborhood where people of color were not approved of. A man by the name of Karl Linder comes to visit the Younger’s to ask them not to move in. This is the most significant scene that openly portrays racism. Although Karl Linder does not identify himself as racist, and although his tactics are less violent than some, he reveals himself as the antagonist by wishing to live in an all-white neighborhood telling the family, “What do you think you are going to gain b moving into a neighbor hood where you just art wanted and where some elements-well-people can get awful worked up when they feel that their whole way of life and everything they’ve worked for is threatened.”