Reflection+on+the+American+Fantasy

The conception of the American Dream is common to us. It is a notion that we have defined so concretely in our minds that we have left no room for our own interpretations of dreams and ambition. Instead we adhere to this particular fantasy of attaining wealth, beauty, the perfect home-- of selfishness, greed and ignorance. "The American Fantasy" represents our conformity in ambition and the blindness and self-interest it proliferates. Additionally though, I wished to present the continual struggle of Americans to attain a dream that is often no more than, as Fitgerald puts it "ineffable gaudiness", a distant light that we many of us may never reach. For the American Dream that all of us strive toward is discriminating in its nature--it glorifies all that is White, rich, straight, Christian, powerful and male. We conform to this vision anyway, always reaching for a dream impossible to embody. I also wish to portray the oppressed in our society and their struggle to attain a share of an exclusive American Dream in the next several walls.

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