America And I By Anzia Yezierska Summary

Huong M Phan
Professor David Miller
ENGL 1302
Nov.30th, 2015
American Dream Is Not for Everyone
“The Epic of America” stated that the American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (James Truslow Adams). This was what people from other countries always said when they talked about America. However, each country had the same issue between rich and poor people included America. “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and “The Subliminal Man” by Ballard J. G. are short stories that talked about how they feel about America. These short stories will show the American Dream is not for everyone. “America and I” and “The Subliminal Man”
She emigrated with her family from Poland, was a part of Russia back then, to New York’s Lower East Side when she was about fifteen. Her novels and short stories mostly talked about how poor people survived. She has been live through the hunger life, so she knows how those people feel like, and it was not easy for them. “America and I” is a short story about the hard time that she has when she first came to the United States. At first, Anzia Yezierska thought “America was a land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire.” She came to the United States with hopes of building a new life. The kind of life that she and her ancestors were unable to achieve in Russia. She was so excited when she arrived here. She had no doubt that her life would be difficult in the golden land. She always thinks that this golden land will give her plenty of chances to have an easy, happy life. Her first job was as a servant in an Americanized family. Although they did not tell her how much she will be paid, she still works hard for the family, grateful to have the chance to live with Americans. When Anzia Yezierska asked them for her
G." Ballard was born in Shanghai China. He is an English novelist and short story writer. His is really creative and has a very good imagination about his works. His stories have a big influence about the readers who inspired of the author transmission of acknowledge. In addition, the trend in his writing becomes deeply familiar with the different styles of narrative ways and illusion. His passion on writing is endless. “The Subliminal Man” is a short story written about a future in which capitalism has been pushed to an extreme. It displayed with a tragic view of the future, a view in which human's behavior is controlled by subliminal messages. The story began with Hathaway, a beatnik, tries to convince Dr. Franklin of the subliminal messages being forced upon the general public to consolidate the consumerist values of society. Hathaway could see the subliminal messages sent through advertising. He asked for Dr. Franklin’s help in stopping the spread of these messages. Hathaway reasons that the messages were intended to enforce consumerist society. Dr. Franklin did not believe in him; He thought that Hathaway was just overthinking about those signs. It showed in these lines, “‘Your trouble is that you're thinking too much,' Franklin told him. 'You've been rambling about these signs for weeks now. Tell me, have you actually seen one signaling?’” (J.G. Ballard). He felt that Hathaway was just so annoying about those usual signs. Since subliminal advertising