Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Dream”: An Unachievable Illusion
The word dream is often used interchangeably with the words aspiration, ambition, goal, hope, wonder, and fantasy. People dream about their future career paths. People dream about winning the lottery or one day owning a luxury sports car. In their sleep, people even dream about flying like their favorite superhero character. For Ta-Nehisi Coates, dream does not mean the same as society typically thinks. In his well-received memoir titled Between the World and Me, which has been called the epitome of contemporary African American literature, Coates presents a difficult concept to grasp called “The Dream.” The Dream is the illusion of the American Dream. This essay argues that African Americans …show more content…
Coates writes, “I have seen that dream all my life. It is perfect houses with nice lawns. It is Memorial Day cookouts, block associations, and driveways. The Dream is treehouses and the Cub Scouts.” (Between the World 11). Coates appropriates his Dream from the American Dream, the belief that America is a beacon of hope for success and equal opportunities. (One could even argue Coates appropriates civil rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.) For Coates, though, the Dream is not simply a perversion of the American Dream. Instead, it is a collective body of people whom he calls “Dreamers.” Patrick Keane writes, “They do not distort the American Dream. For Coates, they are the Dream” (12).
Coates illuminates the misconception of the American Dream and with it, white America’s complacency towards racial injustice. The illusion of the Dream is held by, but not limited to, white America. In fact, Coates labels the trigger-happy African American officer a Dreamer who wrongfully shot and killed Prince Jones, Coates’s friend and a major figure in his memoir (Keane 12-13). Keane argues that African Americans become Dreamers by being “overly concerned with possessions and safety” (13). This position is one that rapper Kanye West mirrors in his song “New …show more content…
They hold onto “an evil fiction that attempts to enslave people, and too often it succeeds” (Lewis 193). For Coates, they are murderers. They are actively pursuing the destruction of black America. They are an “implacable enemy: the plunderers, the destroyers” (Keane 12).
As previously mentioned, Coates’s Between the World and Me is immensely popular and has skyrocketed him to a celebrity status. Coates can attribute a portion of his success to an abundance of positive reviews. In fact, in the first week of Between the World and Me’s release, “more than 100 reviews had been published online in major venues, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Salon, CBS News, The New Republic, and BuzzFeed” (Rambsy II 202). While some were critical, “the overwhelming majority of reviewers praised [the memoir] and commended Coates” (Rambsy II 202).
And to go further, many reviewers have compared Coates and his work to that of James Baldwin. Toni Morrison writes, “I’ve been wondering…who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates” (Rambsy II 201). And Keane even writes that Between the World and Me, a letter from Coates to his son, appropriates James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, a letter to his nephew
The word dream is often used interchangeably with the words aspiration, ambition, goal, hope, wonder, and fantasy. People dream about their future career paths. People dream about winning the lottery or one day owning a luxury sports car. In their sleep, people even dream about flying like their favorite superhero character. For Ta-Nehisi Coates, dream does not mean the same as society typically thinks. In his well-received memoir titled Between the World and Me, which has been called the epitome of contemporary African American literature, Coates presents a difficult concept to grasp called “The Dream.” The Dream is the illusion of the American Dream. This essay argues that African Americans …show more content…
Coates writes, “I have seen that dream all my life. It is perfect houses with nice lawns. It is Memorial Day cookouts, block associations, and driveways. The Dream is treehouses and the Cub Scouts.” (Between the World 11). Coates appropriates his Dream from the American Dream, the belief that America is a beacon of hope for success and equal opportunities. (One could even argue Coates appropriates civil rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.) For Coates, though, the Dream is not simply a perversion of the American Dream. Instead, it is a collective body of people whom he calls “Dreamers.” Patrick Keane writes, “They do not distort the American Dream. For Coates, they are the Dream” (12).
Coates illuminates the misconception of the American Dream and with it, white America’s complacency towards racial injustice. The illusion of the Dream is held by, but not limited to, white America. In fact, Coates labels the trigger-happy African American officer a Dreamer who wrongfully shot and killed Prince Jones, Coates’s friend and a major figure in his memoir (Keane 12-13). Keane argues that African Americans become Dreamers by being “overly concerned with possessions and safety” (13). This position is one that rapper Kanye West mirrors in his song “New …show more content…
They hold onto “an evil fiction that attempts to enslave people, and too often it succeeds” (Lewis 193). For Coates, they are murderers. They are actively pursuing the destruction of black America. They are an “implacable enemy: the plunderers, the destroyers” (Keane 12).
As previously mentioned, Coates’s Between the World and Me is immensely popular and has skyrocketed him to a celebrity status. Coates can attribute a portion of his success to an abundance of positive reviews. In fact, in the first week of Between the World and Me’s release, “more than 100 reviews had been published online in major venues, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Salon, CBS News, The New Republic, and BuzzFeed” (Rambsy II 202). While some were critical, “the overwhelming majority of reviewers praised [the memoir] and commended Coates” (Rambsy II 202).
And to go further, many reviewers have compared Coates and his work to that of James Baldwin. Toni Morrison writes, “I’ve been wondering…who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates” (Rambsy II 201). And Keane even writes that Between the World and Me, a letter from Coates to his son, appropriates James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, a letter to his nephew