American dream

1.2 The theme of the "American dream" in the literature of the United States of the twentieth century.
The theme of the “American dream”, so characteristic of US literature, has changed significantly, which was clearly voiced in the literature of the 19th century and was further developed in the literature of the 20th century. Now the optimistic faith in America's prosperity and the happiness that comes from wealth is being challenged.
The relationship between the concepts of "American dream" and "American tragedy" was outlined in Russian American studies by A.M. Zverev. In the section “American Tragedy” and “American Dream” in the book “US Literature of the 20th Century. The experience of typological research" he explored the artistic interpretation of these phenomena by American writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. A.M. Zverev wrote: “... the “American tragedy”, no matter how typical in essence it may be for any bourgeois society, should be studied as a phenomenon that has a peculiarity characteristic of America, as a phenomenon inextricably linked with the “American dream”, and in to a large extent and generated by those ideals, collisions and contradictions that open up behind this concept. "This has not lost its relevance today.
As Zh.G. Konovalov, “the American dream” is one of the most important components of the mentality, culture, history, social and political life of the United States; the myth, which is deeply rooted in the mass consciousness, predetermined the perception of the world by Americans. The American Dream played a crucial role in the formation of the American state and nation, had a decisive influence on the formation of the American national character, and determined the relationship of the United States with the outside world .
The original version of the American Dream was widely replicated in numerous cheap novels by Horatio Alger, one of the most popular prophets of the success gospel. The popularity of Alger's novels dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the class contradictions of American capitalism had not yet received explicit antagonistic expression and the myth of a society of "equal opportunities" still retained the illusion of reality.
However, already in the era of economic "prosperity" for many American artists, the vices of capitalist civilization became obvious.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald reflected the fate of the "American dream" in a peculiar way. In his novels, Fitzgerald vividly and vividly captured the spirit of the 1920s, a decade that he himself defined as the "Jazz Age". For America, the 1920s were a boom period, an era of temporary economic stabilization. During these years, official propaganda widely advertised the ideas of "prosperity", unlimited accumulation and consumerism. "America's business is business," said then-President Coolidge.
This atmosphere of the period of the 1920s is beautifully conveyed in one of Fitzgerald's best novels, The Great Gatsby (1925). There is no need to retell the content of this widely known novel. Let us recall only the lyrical digression at the end of the book, where the author looks at America through the eyes of the first Dutch settlers: “And as the moon rose higher, erasing the outlines of unnecessary buildings, I saw the ancient island that once arose before the gaze of Dutch sailors, the untouched green bosom of the world . The rustle of its trees, those that then disappeared, giving way to Gatsby's house, was once the music of the last and greatest human dream; for one brief moment man must have held his breath in front of a new continent, involuntarily succumbing to the beauty of the spectacle, which he did not understand and did not seek, because history for the last time brought him face to face with something commensurate with his capacity for admiration. .
This image of the “American dream”, which arose before the hero of the novel in the moonlight, was seen by the millionaire Gatsby, who believed in the all-powerful American idea of success ...
“It probably seemed to him that now, when his dream is so close, it is worth stretching out his hand - and he will catch it. He did not know that she was forever left behind, somewhere in the dark distances beyond this city, where the boundless lands of America stretched under the night sky.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the light of incredible future happiness, which is pushed back every year. Let it slip away today, it doesn't matter - tomorrow we will run even faster, we will stretch our hands even further ... And one fine morning ... "
The Soviet literary critic A. N. Gorbunov noted the commonality of the novels The Great Gatsby and The American Tragedy by T. Dreiser, the mental and emotional commonality of their characters, the tragic commonality of their destinies. “For the first time in The Great Gatsby, the unique originality of his talent was fully revealed, Fitzgerald created his original version of the“ American tragedy ”, expressing many thoughts about modern America no less profound than those of Dreiser.”
To this fair assessment, we can only add that the ideological commonality of Fitzgerald and Dreiser, despite the absolute difference in their artistic methods and style, is explained by the similarity of their attitude to the "American dream".
In one of his letters from this time, Fitzgerald wrote: “America's greatest hope is that something must happen here, but you soon get tired of guessing, because nothing happens to Americans except that they grow old, and to the American nothing happens in art either, because America is the story of the moon that never rose.”
2. "AMERICAN DREAM" IN "AMERICAN TRAGEDY" by T. DREISER