Boom

"Or does it explode?" -Langston Hughes

 It seems recently that all the stories we've read in English are tragic; that is, the protagonists die without acheiving their dreams. (Perhaps this is meant to reflect the average 11AP student's grades?) The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry seems to be following the same trend.

Walter, so far, appears to be self-pitying. He's full of get-rich-quick schemes and has many grand ideas. He blames his current situation on everyone and everything else: Ruth, Bennie, racism, and so on, making it seem like the whole world is against him. While there is some truth to his claims, he's really just insecure, as shown by his lashing out at Ruth and her eggs. Walter is getting old, and he's beginning to realize this. All he's accomplished is being a chauffeur, and there's not much time left before he's stuck as a chauffeur for life.

Everyone, to some extent, dreams of being successful when they're younger. If you ask around at an elementary school, you're probably not going to find a kid that wants to become a senior grocery bagger when they grow up. However, there are only so many people who can become astronauts. Some people just, well... aren't successful, and there are a variety of methods they use to cope.

In this case, Walter copes by blaming others. "I could be rich if it weren't for this and this and..." A Raisin in the Sun follows Walter through his midlife crisis, and as his hope of a liquor store slowly drifts away, I'm curious as to how he will react.  

 

I Had a Dream

There is a running theme of broken hearts and unfulfilled dreams throughout the Fitzgerald stories we read in class. Both Gatsby and Dexter chase after women, only to realize too late that they've been chasing after an ideal.

Dexter spends most of his life seeking to attain Judy Jones. He doggedly woos her despite her rejections, infidelity, and capricious behavior. We ask ourselves why he doesn't just leave--in fact, even Dexter realizes to some extent that it's a pointless endeavor. When Judy asks Dexter to marry her, "a million phrases of anger, pride, passion, hatred, tenderness fought on his lips," revealing his internal conflict between his dream and reality. Even with all the evidence against Judy, as well as the emotional pain he'd cause Irene, Dexter decides to marry her. To him, she represents the perfect woman. He is completely blind to her faults because he has this flawless image of her affixed in his imagination. He either is unable to or unwilling to give up Judy, because that would mean his life has been meaningless. That is why he is so devastated, years later, when Devlin reveals that Judy is no longer beautiful. Dexter can't deceive himself any longer; his winter dreams are gone, and he realizes "he could never go back any more" (958).

Gatsby's story is very similar to Dexter's. Gatsby, arguably, has the more merciful fate. He doesn't have to go through the painful process of learning to find meaning in life once again. Dexter, on the other hand, is forever changed by his revelation.

These two stories focus on only a few people. Fitzgerald doesn't mention anything about Daisy and Judy's other lovers. If you think about it, how many of them suffered similar fates, chasing after fantasies? The experiences of Gatsby and Dexter aren't unique events. Most people, if not all, have their dreams tested at some point in their lives--and woe unto them if their dreams do not stand up to the harshness of reality.

There is something profoundly sorrowful about the death of a dream.

The Irony of Thanksgiving

The joy of Thanksgiving the settlers experienced came at the expense of the Native Americans. Even though they were the ones who taught the pilgrims how to farm the land, they were soon forgotten in the rush for money and land.

Thanksgiving is meant to be a day of, well, giving thanks. How did the early settlers reconcile their observance of this holiday with their treatment of the Native Americans? It doesn't really make sense, to be partying while stepping all over an entire group of people.

You can still see this mentality today in the Black Friday craze. Americans line up for hours and trample each other for the sake of material wealth. Every year, there are reports of people literally crushed to death by the crowd. You could say Black Friday is the antithesis of Thanksgiving, and yet it takes place the day after. We make the shift from grateful to greedy overnight without seeing an issue. Not only that, Black Friday sales have been gradually taking up more time, starting earlier and ending later, in an effort to boost sales.

This also leads back to the Roaring Twenties. It was a period of lavish spending as the economy soared. Just look at the scale and grandeur of Gatsby's parties--yet, despite all of his wealth, Gatsby wasn't truly happy. The statement "money can't buy happiness" is often ridiculed as something only the poor say, but I believe there's still some truth to it.