Abstract
This paper offers a deep dive into the complexities of the American Dream through the lens of Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Kate Chopin's "The Awakening." It critiques the homogenized notion of success perpetuated by the American Dream, particularly concerning its exclusion of women and marginalized groups.
Through an analysis of the characters in the mentioned texts, this paper travels through themes like trauma, societal expectations, and the quest for personal fulfillment. It also explores the limitations and contradictions revolving around this concept and how there is a much- needed requirement for inclusive understanding and the remembrance of the past.
Introduction
Introduced more than a century ago, the American dream often gets associated with upward social mobility, opportunities and self- made individuals. The earliest use of the phrase can be seen in the 1880s, but it was not until a public speech given by the renowned American politician Woodrow Wilson in, the year 1915, that this phrase first became part of the national discussion. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.”
Even though things are vastly different in today’s era, the American dream, when first introduced, started to have subtle racist connotations rather quickly and no later they lost all forms of subtlety whatsoever. This paper would be making an in- depth exploration of this complexly flawed concept of the American dream with the help of two of the most critically acclaimed texts of their times, Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”. We will also behold how this concept was perceived differently for different people who were not necessarily White, Christian males.
The American Nightmare
“America has been described as a land of opportunity. The shared support of this idea has been a defining part of the American ethos. The American Dream describes a vision where all in the United States, regardless of class or position, can achieve success and enjoy a quality of life better than their parents if they are willing to work hard.” (Wolak, Peterson; 968, 2020) But as opposed to this popular belief, the American dream presents an extremely homogenized notion of successful experience of living in America which falsifies the diverse ordeal that people from various ethnicities have to undergo when they decide to, or are forced to, make the American soil their home.
The American dream is a generalization of the experiences of a capitalist, Caucasian, male that is being used to fabricate the spiel that in America, one can achieve any amount of success irrespective of their caste, creed, race or religion. However, the falsity of this narrative is exposed when we observe the simple fact that despite 247 years of democracy, the country has not seen a single female president. In fact, the women did not get the right to vote as late as 1920s. That’s not all, even today they are fighting for the right to have ownership over their own bodies which the Draconian Laws of the land are denying them; for e.g.: the right to abortion.
Exploring the American Dream through a different Lens
Toni Morrison’s “Beloved”
The story’s protagonist, Sethe, is the embodiment of the struggle against facing one’s harrowing, repressed memories and growing out of them into a better future. “Morrison relocated the arena of racial battle from the streets to the African-American psyche where memories of the atrocities of the past have been buried.” (Bowers, 59) Through Sethe and other characters of the novel, Morrison addresses all those African-Americans who had to pave their ways through the unimaginably gruesome and inhuman experiences of slavery; hence the dedication to “Sixty million and more.”
Sethe and the American Dream
The American dream is sold as a thriving prospect to people who want to financially grow in society. But for Sethe, this materialistic gain means nothing. To her, thriving means to move on into the future without the burdens of the past. She wants to make a better world for her remaining life and especially for her teenage daughter, Denver. She wants to reclaim agency over her own life and be mentally free from the shackles of slavery. But Morrison showcases the reality of this so- called concept of the American Dream by uncovering the limitations and contradictions revolving it. Even after escaping to Ohio, which was a free a state, Sethe is still haunted by her past and trauma of the act of infanticide she committed to ‘save’ her infant daughter before she fell into the clutches of the slave catchers that’s why Stephanie Li (2010, 73) asserts that Morrison has used Beloved in order to depict “the complexities of maternal love” along with “the dehumanizing effects of slavery”.
Time passes when one day Sethe has to face this trauma in the form of Beloved who, as critics say, “is the reincarnation of Sethe's lost daughter.” (Lowe, 2024) Sethe’s struggle is a constant reminder of the shortcomings of the offerings of the American Dream. Through Sethe, this powerful message acts as a torch of reality for the people who were blinded by the American dream and serves as a reminder that people who were born as White and were also Christians can only hope to thrive in this American dream and the rest are left to suffer in this American Nightmare.
Denver, the torch bearer
Sethe’s teenage daughter Denver is the ‘moral agency’ in this novel. As critic Susan Bowers states that Morrison does not think of Christ as the redeeming quality but the humans, making Denver the prime example. In the novel, Denver is part of the generation which was born free, at least physically, but mentally, she is also bound by the racial memories of her people. Morrison has shown an active resistance on Denver’s part to connect with anything that belongs to the time before she was born. She was also not much interested in her mother’s past stories before her birth.
But as one reads on and the story is in the midst of its climax, it is Denver who sees the need to help, to save her mother from the life- sucking clutches of her supposed daughter Beloved. It is Denver who leaves the house and the yard, both literally and figuratively, to seek help from the community which leads the women of the neighborhood to perform the exorcism on Beloved and rescue Sethe. This action of Denver reintegrated both her and Sethe with the community which gives the story’s protagonists a much- needed hope to have a life in the future. “Pamela Barnett, for instance, argues that the characters in the novel are forced by Beloved (the ghost of Sethe's child) to confront traumatic memories. This confrontation in turn begins the process of healing” (Heffernan, ’98)
Through Denver, Morrison has passed a message regarding the requirement of the oral tradition which will become necessary for the passing on of this story. Morrison has portrayed the fact that humanity cannot afford to have actions like slavery or the holocaust etc., again and the only way one can assure their never- returning is through the passing on this story (so the horrendous actions committed shall not be passed on). Morrison has put profound emphasis for the need of awareness of one’s history and not looking at their history as just mere collection of facts rather a shared past.
Paul D’s tormented, tobacco tin heart
One of the prominent characters in the novel is Paul D who himself was a former slave. Paul D is the best example of how slavery can extinguish a person’s dignity, their self- worth, and their hope. Paul D is also an example of the fact that slavery, as an institution and as a practice, was equally corrosive for men as well as women. Just because Paul D is a man, does not mean he has somehow escaped the dire consequences in the world of slavery. The American dream put forth the façade of offering equal opportunities to the people who settle on its soil, but truth of the matter was it only opens its opportunistic gates for the people who were from the English- European background and travelled there via their own freedom. But for the slaves, it was a whole different encounter. For them this was a vast and open prison where they were subjugated to physical and mental torture just for the easement of someone far, far away.
The character of Paul D is an amalgamation of the people whose humanity were shrunken to such minute pieces that they started to count their worth in nothing but in terms of money. “He [Paul D] had many memories after Sweet Home that were way worse to an entire degree. Yes, slavery is horrible but Paul D’s torture didn’t come close to what happened to other people; he was a prisoner of the chain gang. That was torture alone.” (Unknown) Paul D struggles to remain at one place due to his trauma and memories he carries from his past as a slave. Due to his experiences of immense suffering and loss, Paul D has been left with deep emotional scars that continue to haunt him, making it difficult for him to settle down and find peace. So, to deal with this trauma, Paul D started to shun away and repress his memories in his heart which he made it equivalent to a tobacco tin to store all those horrors. “It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, Schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers, Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one by one, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world could pry it open.” (Morrison, 121)
Paul D is so diffident in his own mind that he becomes so astonished to hear a rooster named Mister. He is left baffled because he could never imagine being called mister himself. This instance becomes a depiction of how a slave’s worth was considered beneath to even that of a rooster. “Paul D doesn’t tell Sethe anything more about the experience of having the bit. He keeps the rest of the story in “that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be.” He resolves to keep the pain of his past locked up there and not let Sethe know that he has lost his heart.” (Morrison, 80)
Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”
Considering the era during which it was written, this text was initially praised but no later it became highly controversial due to its radical ideas and beliefs. “Chopin anticipated a warm reception for her novel. A month before its release, Book News had run a positive review praising the novel as “subtle and a brilliant kind of art.” To say that the novel was not received well is an understatement.” (Bracken, 2024) “Critics all over the United States condemned the novel as “morbid,” “unhealthy,” “not wholesome,” “vulgar,” “repellent,” and even “poison.” Edna’s character was described as “sensual and devilish” and “not good enough for heaven, [but] not wicked enough for hell.” (Bracken, 2024) The novella was largely forgotten until the mid-20th century when it was rediscovered and recognized as a significant work of feminist literature due to its exploration of female sexuality and its questioning of traditional gender roles.
A Journey of Awakening: Reimagining the American Dream
The story is set in the late 19th century, during a period of significant social change and the emergence of the women's rights movement. During that period of time, the American dream was associated with individualism, personal fulfillment, and the pursuit of happiness, but what it did not disclose directly was that all of this was to be done within the constraints of societal norms and expectations. Even though the concept had to offer so much, it becomes clear to one that women were always shunned away from growth and prosperity. They were only bound by and defined by their domestic life and were expected as much; nothing more, nothing less. If a woman was to cross these social boundaries, they were either faced with isolation, madness or worse, death. Just like Sethe, Edna too rejects the materialistic pleasures around her and actively seeks deeper spiritual and emotional fulfilment. Her dissatisfaction with the superficiality of her upper-class lifestyle reflects a critique of the materialistic aspects of the American Dream, suggesting that true fulfillment lies beyond material wealth and social standing.
The novella showcases the audiences the difference between an ‘ideal’ woman and a ‘flawed’ woman. It shows how there are only a certain type of women which are accepted in society, e.g., Madame Ratignolle, and the ones who do not conform to societal expectations and speak out about what troubles them, succumb to isolation and madness, e.g., Madame Reisz and Edna. “I would suggest that what Edna achieves in The Awakening is not so much a rebellion but a prologue to rebellion. She achieves the necessary first step towards making herself into the kind of woman capable of rebelling.” (Urgo, 01) The awakening exposes the limitations of the promise of The American Dream about social mobility and equality, the belief that individuals can rise above their circumstances through hard work and determination. Women and the marginalized groups used to face discrimination of the utmost level and regardless of being born in the upper society, the women, like Edna, did not have any way to earn their own money. The only way for women to have any sort of upward social mobility was through marriage which made marriage their ultimate economic prospect.
Despite her efforts to assert her independence and pursue her own desires, Edna faces social banishment and ultimately tragic consequences, highlighting the barriers to social mobility and equality in the patriarchal society of late 19th-century America. “Nineteenth-century realistic literature, the so-called bourgeois novel, that not only showed a particular preference for the theme of adultery but also revealed a particular interest of the authors in female sexuality and female sexual transgression.” (Mikolchak, 30)
Women in fiction and the American Dream
Like the protagonists of the aforementioned texts, women in stories and also in real life were the beneficiaries and victims of the American Dream. Female characters in fiction often face unique challenges in their pursuit of the American Dream. Historical and societal constraints, such as sexism, racism, and class barriers, can hinder in their hope and progress towards a healthier future. Some works of fiction subvert traditional societal norms of the American Dream by portraying women who reject conservative paths of the social order, Edna Pontellier.
Works like “Beloved”, "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, etc., explores how race, class, and gender intersect to shape women's experiences of the American Dream. Almost all women-centric texts have notions of empowerment, agency and solidarity and because women are always subjugated, it becomes necessary for them to learn about their own freedom, their own voice through someone else’s writing.
Conclusion
Both the works of Morrison and Chopin offers a critical examination of the prospects of the American Dream and its limitations, particularly concerning women and marginalised groups. Through Sethe and Edna Pontellier, these works challenge the very concept of the American dream and its aspects about upward social mobility, equality and opportunities revealing its limitations and complexities as one reads on the texts.
The one common aspect between the two novels is their portrayal of its women struggles against a system of oppression and ultimately succumbing one’s loss of peace and mind. these texts call into question the homogenized notion of success associated with the American Dream, urging for a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of prosperity and fulfillment in American society.
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