Comparing A Raisin In The Sun And Death Of A Salesman

The excerpts from A Raisin in the Sun and The Death of a Salesman provide a unique look into the life of an average, middle class worker; like any low income worker, they hope to achieve the American Dream, working their way up to massive wealth. Not only the personal experience tells us of this hopeless, but also a work of literature that is based on facts, “Rebuilding the American Dream in a Global, Networked Economy” by Philip Zelikow. The facts and experience that can be deduced from these sources tell that the American Dream is something that seems impossible to reach, and the pessimism about it makes it that much more unreachable. The excerpt from A Raisin in the Sun by tells us a story of a husband named Walter, who is talking to his

Biff does not feel happy with his financial situation, about which he says “What the hell am I doing, playing around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week!” His friend Happy, who is decently wealthy, is not happy either. It isn’t the financial situation however, it is the fact he is lonely in life. Happy is playing a waiting game, waiting for the next financial position to open up in his job, the merchandise manager. We get a look into the merchandise manager’s life when Happy says that he “built a beautiful estate on Long Island. And he lived there for about two months and sold it.” He tops this off by saying that “he can’t enjoy it once it is finished,” giving us great insight to someone who is actually living the American Dream. The wealthy man has everything the minimum wage workers want, yet still is not content with his life. It is the same with Happy, who is decently successful, but still says he is lonely. Biff is the only one that is closest to happiness, but does not realize it. He describes horses in a beautiful way, calling them “inspiring” and “beautiful.” Biff doesn’t see that he is happy with horses because of the lack of financial success it comes with. If he left horses for more financial success, then he wouldn’t be happy either. Every character mentioned in this excerpt is not happy with their life, even though one of them has achieved great

It kickstarts with statistics from a poll, asking about their financial futures. The results were negative, as 75% of replies stated they aren’t confident their children’s generation will be better off. Over 50% think the growing gap between the top 1% and the rest of America makes the dream seem unachievable. These people who took the poll are not confident in the American Dream, and this group of people have access to take a poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News. This means they had internet, a telephone, or time in their day to go and take a written poll. The most plausible means of taking the poll is phone and online, which means they are able to afford non-essential items. The people not even wealthy enough to access this would spike the numbers up even further, destroying the vision of the American Dream. If people aren’t even wealthy enough to give their input on a wealth question, there is an issue. The people know this, which further taints the vision of great wealth in their heads. The lack of even wealth in society makes the American Dream seem impossible, even to the people that have the best chance of achieving