The American Dream In The Glass Castle

The American Dream is aspiring for more than the circumstances in which you were born. This includes: realizing there is more to life than what a person is subject to, realizing that they have more opportunity than those before them, and acting upon these aspirations to any degree. Altogether these concepts make up the American Dream, because the American Dream is more of a mindset rather than a state of being. Someone who does the previously defined things is living the American Dream more than someone who is wealthy and doesn’t strive for something more than what they already have. For this reason, the Walls’ children exemplify the American Dream instead of Siegel children in The Queen of Versailles. So, yes, based on the defined criteria, The Glass Castle does exemplify the American Dream, and this can bee seen can mainly be seen by the character optimistic attitudes towards their futures, and the effort they put forth to make their dreams a reality.
The American Dream is most of the Walls’ children, most noticeably when they plan to move to New York. Towards the end of the book, leading up to this moment, Jeannette, Lori, and Brian have all come to realize that

It is having a sense of purposefulness rather than hopelessness. This theme is seen in The Glass Castle, as well as in the article “Rethinking the American Dream” by Davis Kamp, which supports these ideas. In his essay Kamp talks about how Moss Hart was able to believe in his version of the American Dream the same way the Walls children did. Hart aspired to be more than what those around his would expect, and through his belief in his dream he was able to achieve his dream. In his article Kamp also mentions that fact that some people think that the AMerican Dream is dying, but reveas that this is only because society was becoming hopeless. In The Glass Castle, they steadily remained hopeful which is what allowed for their dreams to come