Zack's grade 12 English Lit American Dream Assignment

The American Dream

            The American Dream by Edward Albee demonstrates how people misconstrued “the American Dream”, and how they will go to any length to achieve this false idea in their heads, thinking happiness will arrive once they achieve the “picture perfect” life. He shows how twisted this thinking is, how the reality of it is so far from a dream. The “American Dream” is family values, wholesome love and the idea that hard work can get you anywhere. The family in this play is trying to achieve this, trying to move forward but is actually moving in the opposite direction. They kill a child in the name of the “American Dream”, and treat each other with immoral passion. The wife is constantly talking down to the husband who is ridden to a wheelchair, then justifying it to herself; “… or a husband who sat in a wheel chair all day… OOOH! What have I said? What have I said?” not only is the husband verbally assaulted by the wife, but the grandmother is as well; “Now, you be good grandma, or you know what will happen to you, You’ll be taken away in a van.” As made evident by this play, one can see that this disillusioned idea of the “American Dream” only breed’s dysfunction and hatred toward one another.