Disillusionment of the American Dream
10 March 2012
Disillusionment of American Literature
Have you ever had a dream, where you wake up and you are stuck in this strange world? A world where everything you once knew was different; people were dying, or people that were once beautiful, had to wear a mask to make sure that everyone is equal, you may ask what’s left in this world. The answer is disillusion; a sense of loss, or all things hopeless. In the short stories “In Another Country” written by Ernest Hemingway and “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, a sense of loss is all too familiar. “In Another Country” disillusion comes at a cost of lives, and injuries, while “Harrison Bergeron” disillusion comes at a cost of no diversity, and no one allowed to have talents and gifts, and not being allowed to be who they are. “Harrison Bergeron”, and “In Another Country” are about totally different subjects, but they have one thing linking them, and it’s they both have a theme of disillusion.
When a person thinks of the Great War, they might think of great victories, and heroism of the many men that risked their lives, but in truth isn’t what it seems to be. Behind the smoke screen is a scene of disillusionment. “In Another Country” disillusionment is based on the after effects of the Great War. Soldiers have to come home with a new sense of loss. Some soldiers with the loss of having seen their friends killed, or the loss of getting some type of injury, for example throughout the story the main character is talking about his injury that he got in the war. “My knee did not bend and the leg dropped straight from the knee to the ankle without a calf.” (250) During the story there is talk about how the war is still going strong, but they don’t go fight, because they are injured. The narrator explains, “In the fall the war always there, but we did not go to it anymore.” (250) The soldiers don’t go fight because they are injured, which in itself is a disillusion, because with the sense
Disillusionment of American Literature
Have you ever had a dream, where you wake up and you are stuck in this strange world? A world where everything you once knew was different; people were dying, or people that were once beautiful, had to wear a mask to make sure that everyone is equal, you may ask what’s left in this world. The answer is disillusion; a sense of loss, or all things hopeless. In the short stories “In Another Country” written by Ernest Hemingway and “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, a sense of loss is all too familiar. “In Another Country” disillusion comes at a cost of lives, and injuries, while “Harrison Bergeron” disillusion comes at a cost of no diversity, and no one allowed to have talents and gifts, and not being allowed to be who they are. “Harrison Bergeron”, and “In Another Country” are about totally different subjects, but they have one thing linking them, and it’s they both have a theme of disillusion.
When a person thinks of the Great War, they might think of great victories, and heroism of the many men that risked their lives, but in truth isn’t what it seems to be. Behind the smoke screen is a scene of disillusionment. “In Another Country” disillusionment is based on the after effects of the Great War. Soldiers have to come home with a new sense of loss. Some soldiers with the loss of having seen their friends killed, or the loss of getting some type of injury, for example throughout the story the main character is talking about his injury that he got in the war. “My knee did not bend and the leg dropped straight from the knee to the ankle without a calf.” (250) During the story there is talk about how the war is still going strong, but they don’t go fight, because they are injured. The narrator explains, “In the fall the war always there, but we did not go to it anymore.” (250) The soldiers don’t go fight because they are injured, which in itself is a disillusion, because with the sense