The American Dream In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

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In 1931, a man named James Truslow Adams said, “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” He meant that everyone in America could become successful because there are so many opportunities that anyone can be anything. Behind the idea of the picture perfect American dream life: there were many people who endured harsh living and working conditions in the name of hope and who had a false idea of the American Dream in the pursuit of materialism. They took happiness out of the Dream by emphasizing only success. The American Dream is an idea that shows hope and prosperity to Americans and immigrants. But underneath its mask was the terrible…show more content…
In 1906, a journalist Upton Sinclair wrote the story The Jungle. The book told of the harsh and disgusting conditions of the meat packing conditions back then. In an excerpt Sinclair writes, it says, “There were the wool-pluckers, whose hands went to pieces, even sooner than the hands of the pickle men; ... then the pluckers had to pull out this wool with their bare hands, till the acid had eaten their fingers off. There were those who made the tins for the canned meat; and their hands, too, were a maze of cuts.”(Sinclair) He showed the rights of the workers in those factories were terrible and the jobs were very life threatening. America was not the perfect country and the people living there were not enjoying their jobs and living…show more content…
But for all Americans, it wasn’t like that. Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman was about a 60-year-old man named Willy Loman, a salesman who is at the end of his career and not doing very good work. Willy is suicidal and hallucinates about people who aren’t really there, confusing the people around him. He wants to become this famous person who everyone will know and remember. He thinks that people who are good looking and well-liked are successful and can survive the business world. In the play, he tells Biff and Happy, “ Benard can get the best marks in school, y’understand, but when he gets out in the business world, y’understand, you are going five times ahead of him. That’s why I thank Almighty God you’re both built like Adonises. Because the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want. You take me for instance. I never have to wait in line to see a buyer. >>Willy Loman is here!<< That’s all they have to know, and I go right through.”(Miller) He lies to his sons about how great he is so he can impress and give them confidence, but that doesn’t end well for Biff and Happy. But after he told so many, he thinks that it is his reality. He knows that he has a terrible job but doesn’t want to admit it. The American Dream wasn’t successful for some
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