From The American Dream To The American Nightmare

As is suggested in the title, Rich Man, Poor Man narrates a story concerning the fateof disappointment and disillusion from which no one can escape, on matter how rich orpoor one is. It once again lays bare the lies of the American Dream. The novel isexquisitely constructed like an envelope sealed at both ends with death, whichconveniently conveys profound messages from the author to his readers. Within it isstuffed with great expectations, ephemeral success and lasting disillusions, all of whichare provoked by the American Dream. The work goes into the depth of reality, presentinga panoramic view of the American society.It is not only a sketch of an age, a fragment of the American immigration history,but also a miniature of the immigration history, an organic concise history of theAmerican Dream. This thesis examines the text against a much more spaciousbackground than the one that it is set in and adopts such approaches as close reading andcultural analysis, to carry out a thematic study of the novel by following the line ofdream pursuing—temporal success—spiritual disillusion. Chapter one is focused on theparents’ movement from the Old World into the New World and their pursuit of theAmerican Dream. Chapter two is mainly about the children’s pursuits and their successin rising from rags to riches. The last chapter probes into the reasons for spiritualdisillusion which follows material success.Even though the American Dream is a relatively old topic, it is forever new at thepen points of writers. Rich Man, Poor Man distinguishes itself from other works aboutthe American Dream by its wide range of concerns. It is not limited to the perspectives ofrace, war or gender role, even though they are all given proper space in the novel. On theone hand, it is highly concerned with the hot issues of the times that it is set in; on theother hand, it has much symbolic treatment of its materials. It is the main concern of thisthesis to analyze the changing implications, roles and impacts of the American Dreamand the changes of the immigrants and their descendents’ attitudes toward it, so as tointerpret the American Dream as an ever-changing process. This thesis is not a simple mechanical repetition of the argument that “TheAmerican Dream is Dead”. Instead, it attempts to analyze in detail the various layers ofthe American Dream as reflected in the novel and the possibilities of achieving them. Itcomes to a conclusion that the American Dream is not a nightmare innately, even if someof its declarations might be lies. In Rich Man, Poor Man, Shaw gives full recognition toits positive roles in stimulating individuals to pursue dreams and to the importance ofindividual efforts in the process of pursuit. At the same time, he criticizes the Americansociety for holding back the development of the American Dream pursuers and rewardingthem spiritual disillusion.