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The American Dream: Hope or a Mere Vision

The phrase the “American dream” has been frequently used now to suggest
the desire to achieve, what the United States Declaration of Independence on 4
July, 1776 registered as, the “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” for all the citizens of the USA, along with the dream that the African-
Americans saw after Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, but couldn’t realize even after
a 100 years of it.

In his speech, when Martin Luther King, Jr. invokes his “dream,” one may
align a dual nature to it: one, a dream that they saw many years ago, and realized
only in the written law, and not in their physical reality. Thus, dream then signifies
a vision, a mere illusion, and an antithetical to reality. The other view is that, it’s a
living dream, a hope for a better future of attaining “the promised land.”

Almost every African-American writer is preoccupied with this American

dream. Langston Hughes is one such, who is “The Dream Keeper” talking of his
“Dream Variations.” But, this dual nature of dream continues in Hughes as well,
for instance, in his poem “What Happens to a Dream Deferred”: it is said that it
can “dry up/Like a raisin in the sun” due to its constant postponement or else as
the poem ends by saying that it can also “explode” by refusing to abide by, what
King calls, the “drug of gradualism.” What King demanded and what Hughes too
called for was a peaceful demand of civil rights- economic, educational,
professional and social rights at par with the white Americans. Hughes has
somewhere mentioned about his own trouble in finding a job when he was 20:
“Unless a job was definitely marked COLORED on the board outside, there was no
use applying, I discovered. And only one job in a thousand would be marked
COLORED…”

Here, I would like to shift your attention towards a play by Lorraine

Hansberry, the title of which is taken from Hughes’ this very poem itself i.e. A
Raisin in the Sun (1959). It is centered on the hard life of a colored family, the
Younger’s, who had migrated from the South to the North in Chicago’s Southside
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for the hope of social mobility and an emancipated world. Walter Lee is a
chauffeur who wants to become a businessman by opening a liquor factory, his
sister Beneatha wants to become a doctor. They represent the dream of the Black
Americans. However, other than this wishful dream, there surfaces a real need for
a better living condition away from those “ghettos” or “rattrap” (as Walter’s wife,
Ruth calls it in the play). This is not a princess’ dream of a fairyland, but a basic
human necessity for a healthy and respectful life. Thus, Lena, the mother
purchases a house of their dreams in Clybourne Park with the help of the money
she gets from her deceased husband’s insurance claim. But, here lies a
discrepancy between what is proclaimed and what actually is made available for
the colored people. When the Younger’s prepare to leave to their dream-home,
Mr. Karl Lindner, of course a white man, arrives, representing the Clybourne Park
Improvement Association. This, I want you to watch yourself in this clip from the
movie based on this play, made in 1961-

1:31:28 (1 and a half minute long)…. “Common background” not race now.

So the white Americans too have their “dream” but to be fulfilled only at
the cost of the black Americans’ dream. In his speech, King speaks of
“brotherhood” as a solid rock against racial prejudices. But, what the white people
like Mr. Lindner has instead is a crippled form of brotherhood where racism
operates in a humble way, as Beneatha also puts it in the play.

….. Michael Jackson, I’m reminded of his song “Black or White.” In the lyrics
a line goes like this, “Don’t tell me you agree with me when I saw you kicking dirt
in my eye.” So, again we find how King’s notion of “brotherhood” gets misled by
the whites. In the play, Lindner later comments before leaving as his proposal had
been rejected by the Younger’s - “What do you think you are going to gain by
moving into a neighborhood where you just aren’t wanted… You just can’t force
people to change their hearts, son.” In his voice speaks the fear of losing cheap
black slaves and helps and quite clearly the fear of miscegenation and even a
silent way of producing “inferiority complex” among the African-Americans.
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Beneatha later in the play while speaking to her friend, Asagai says that
Independence is not enough. It is not the dream coming true but a “circle” that
continues to imprison them within the trap of racial, economic, educational and
professional segregation. In such a condition any man with self-respect and
“pride” breaks down with bitterness and frustration. Have a look at Walter Lee’s
state:

1: 55:03 (half a minute long)…. But, this is not his final decision.

What King tries to evoke in such a situation, in his speech, is to channelize

and even mould your bitterness and rage into a “creative process” and “soul
force” instead of “physical violence” by maintaining your “dignity and discipline”
and generate a “marvelous new militancy” of peaceful but active protest. (back to
the play) Walter Lee too humbly and peacefully responds to Mr. Lindner- “We
don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes- but we will try to be
good neighbors. That’s all we got to say. We don’t want your money.”

Thus, though King was assassinated before the fulfillment of his dream, but
he spread the spirit in each and every African-American’s heart to dream on, that
“We Shall Overcome.” The night before he was killed, Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered a speech, titled, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” that concludes thus: “…
I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know
tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land.” Fifty more years have
passed now, and many people say that Barrack Obama, as the first black president
of America, is King’s dream come true. Well, that would be discussed later of
course. But I would mention a little, in his Election Night Victory Speech, Obama
himself said that “the dream of our founders is alive in our time” and if anyone is
still doubtful “tonight is your answer.” Thus, I would conclude by saying that hopes
and dreams never carry the promise of fulfillment, but one never stops dreaming.
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