Adults Alone

Challenging the American Dream

Adults Alone challenges our assumption about the american dream, because Paul

and Elaine pretend to make it seem like they are living “the american dream”. When in

reality they are not. In the story they live in a nice house in the suburbs, have two kids and

a new car. Elaine and Paul both work, but Elaine takes care of the kids more than Paul.

She also does all the grocery shopping and cleaning around the house. Elaine tries her

best to look good, in terms of staying skinny. It is only because she doesn’t like eating, so

she doesn’t have to clean up her mess when she is done. All of these ideas from the story

is what makes them look like they are living “the american dream”.

In the story the best scene that illustrates this challenge would be when Paul and

Elaine decide to take their kids to visit their grandmother in Florida. This scene is

interesting to me because, Paul and Elaine didn’t just take them there to see their grandma

or go on a vacation, but because they wanted time alone. The first thing Elaine did when

they got home was go to sleep, while Paul talked to the kids on the phone. When any

normal married couple would actually go out to dinner or go see a movie. Paul and Elaine

have to get high to remember the idea of being in love again. When Elaine goes to the

store and spends all that money on cheese. She comes home and drinks by herself not

with Paul, he is downstairs playing video games. The kids call and Elaine answered the

phone, it was Sammy crying. He misses his mom and dad and she doesn’t even care that

he is crying. She knows she is being selfish too, but Paul didn’t even bother try answering

the phone. That shows that Elaine care for their kids more. Before Paul and Elaine go to

get the crack they get the idea from an advertisement on the television. This shows that

they didn’t really take much time to think about whether they were doing it or not. Paul

already knows where to get it from, they didn’t have to drive to get it either. Paul and

Elaine just sat in the house and smoked crack. Sitting there high they were both hoping

they would remember the idea of being in love again. The next morning, after they had

come down from their high everything was back to normal. They both knew that they

weren’t in love anymore or maybe had never been in love or actually happy with each other. They just stayed married so it makes them look like they are living “the

american dream”.