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Persuasive Essay On The American Dream

Decent Essays

The forefathers of our great nation established America with the idea that its citizens would be guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What is it to makes oneself happy? The American Dream is represented in many ways and every person lives and chases a different version of the American Dream. In these three stories we will identify with the characters as well as the authors to visualize what the American Dream is to them and if it is bigger than ourselves. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “Babylon Revisited” also by F. Scott Fitzgerald will go in depth so that we can truly understand the purpose. How do these characters know that what they are going is bigger than them? Hurston brings in a scene of overpowering to Delia Jones. Although she is just a washwoman she is already greater then she thinks. People be used to be categorized and put in a small space were people would just accept were they were placed. Masculinity was a big part of why women were scared to step out of their comfort zone and do anything about it. “Then she saw it was the big bull whip on her husband liked to carry when he drove”. (Hurston 516) This is one of the signs we see her husband Sykes has this sense of authority. The bull whip is the symbolic meaning that he has power in the house hold, but is he? Certainly not! It is she who holds it down for both. “Mah tub of suds is filled yo’ belly with vittles more time than yo’ hands filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin’ in it”. (Hurston 518) She is the head of the house hold and this is where she becomes bigger than anything else. Women had no voice and she has stepped up and has done it for herself. She is living her own vision of the American Dream. We can see that because she is working and earning her own money, she is providing rather than her husband, she wants to love a life where she can be herself and no longer live this abuseful life she has long lived with her husband Sykes. Her living and greater being of herself just began as he dies. “She could scarcely reach the Chinaberry tree, where she waited in the growing heat while instead she knew the cold river was creeping up

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