The American Dream In The Lesson By Toni Bambara

The American Dream is a term many use to describe what they want out of America. The dream varies from person to person; however, there are many basic conditions that are generally accepted as parts of the American dream. Depending on the individual, the dream may or may not include these basics: a happy wife, two children, and a dog, who gather around a dinner table at six o’clock to stuff their faces while the dog waits patiently for table droppings. For some, the dream is to be a homesteader in a tiny home, but this dream is rare, as an individual can see by looking at the ratio of homesteaders to suburbanites and urbanites. While for many, the dream is becoming plagued with material things as time goes on, like a big house in an overdeveloped …show more content…
In her essay “The Lesson,” Toni Bambara relates to an experience a girl named Sylvia had as a child when her teacher took her class to an expensive toy store where primarily whites shopped. All of the students were amazed by the prices of the goods. At one point Sylvia, the narrator, and her group of friends noticed a fiberglass sailboat. The sailboat was being sold for one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars (Bambara 256). Sylvia then said “Unbelievable.” as she reread the price tag. Later on, her teacher asked what the students had learned that day, and one of Sylvia’s friends named Sugar took a stab at it. She said “I think, this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, don’t it?” (Bambara 258). Overall, the trip to the store led to envy from the children. Sylvia herself said “Who are these people that spend that much for performing clowns and $1,000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it?” (Bambara 258) as she was looking at the clown toy. By the way all of the children were looking at the toys and envying them, it was easy to tell that some of them, such as Mercedes, were jealous of the kids that could afford those toys. Mercedes said that she would go back to the store once she got money so then she …show more content…
People who work in lower class jobs that make minimum wage, or close to it, often have to work more than one job. Working more than one job means that most of that individual’s day will be spent working. From there it is like a non-stop routine, since minimum wage jobs often do not have vacation days, and taking off when sick means no pay for that day. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Serving in Florida” decided to attempt to live off working class jobs. First, she worked in the extremely stressful and fast-paced environment of a restaurant that she calls “Jerry’s” throughout the narrative. This environment was an unhealthy environment to work in. The workload was six to eight hours per day and their bathroom was constantly missing soap, paper towels, and even toilet paper, posing sanitary hazards for not only the employees, but also the customers. Also, all of the food is unhealthy, the “fat person’s hell” as Ehrenreich calls it. And then on top of all of that, most of the workers there smoke cigarettes. The workers at “Jerry’s” are so deep into their routine that they work in unhealthy conditions and have to smoke to be able to push through it, creating more health problems and stress, and also polluting the air inside the restaurant even more. Then after her shift she has muscular cramps and muscular soreness, so Ehrenreich takes some ibuprofen to get rid of the pain, another unhealthy practice if performed in routine.