The Power Of The American Dream: Harlem By Langston Hughes

The American dream
The concept that the only requirement for success is opportunity has long been branded as the “American dream” and unfortunately, its effects have forever altered our society in a negative way. In essence, the U.S. government and businesses have used the American dream as a way to drive people to continually work more, want more, and live beyond their means while they are the ones benefiting economically. The American dream isn't helpful to our society as it pushes the concept that all one needs is to work hard to achieve the dream. However, the masses will be unable to achieve this as we are not all equally prepared, especially in underserved and minority groups.
During the Great Depression era in the 1930s, the American

No matter how hard one worked there was always a next level of success to achieve. There is always another level with more money, more happiness, and more opportunities. With shifting standards the end goal became increasingly challenging if not impossible for many societal groups to achieve their notion of the american dream. The everlasting need for the American dream stems from discrimination, lost opportunities, lacking social structures to even the playing field, and a general concept that their ideals and dreams didn't matter and were insignificant. Even though these groups were being told that their ideas didn't matter they couldn't help but hold onto them. The poem, Harlem, by Langston Hughes has readers questioning what happens to those dreams that they couldn't help but hold onto. Hughes's poem gives many examples of what may happen to these dreams but never suggests that they disappear. After all, they had been such a vital thing in people's lives so, how could they simply just be gone? They simply didn't just die out, but instead, were often just pushed onto the next generation. Parents worked hard so their kids could achieve the dreams that

The idea of this generational fulfillment can be seen in Raisin In The Sun by Ray Bradbury. In this play, we see mama whose dreams were once flourishing and alive but have now been reduced to only a tiny sliver of hope. She shows this rare glimmer of hope when she gets excited about a tiny garden of her own. She also shows how hopeful and excited she used to be at the fulfillment of her dreams when she says “I remember the day me and big Walter moved here. Hadn’t been married for two weeks and wasn't planning on living here for more than a year”. She too once dreamed that they would prosper and move to a larger home with more opportunities. On the other hand, the dreams of her children, Walter and Beneatha are flourishing. Mama gives up her dreams and financial security to see her children be able to fulfill their own dreams, passing the baton of the American dream to them. We can see this exchange happen again when Mama supports Beneatha at the end of her pursuit of George to secure her financial security at the cost of real love. This is likely because Mama understands like many what it's like to forfeit her financial security, goals, and beliefs for another person and doesn't want Beneatha