Mudbound Copy

Mudbound Ain’t We? Post-World War Two, the United States of America really developed “The American Dream”. But, unfortunately this was a false perception (much like it is today). The reality was that some citizens choose not to live the life style of a suburban house, the perfect family, and a new car, while the rest did not have the means to live this dream. The book “Mudbound” by Hillary Jordan is a great example of how for most, this “American Dream” was unachievable. It demonstrates the hardships that people of the United States faced outside the ones living the American dream. It shows the hardships of living in rural areas during these times and the complications of sharecropping. Furthermore, this book gives its readers insight on the race problems that still existed during this time period. During the years after World War Two, most people who were not living in cities or suburbs were living on farms. Most of these farms (primarily in the south) did what was call sharecropping. Sharecropping was in part, a way to keep blacks as slaves. Being a sharecropper was in no way shape or form associated with the American dream. In the book “Mudbound” Hap and his family are sharecroppers for the McAllan family. After the war the McAllan’s purchased a farm with a very ratchet old house on it. Mr. McAllan’s daughters were far from impressed with it. Soon after, they began sharecropping with Hap and his family. They, like most sharecroppers were having a rough time staying debt free. “Working on halves there ain’t nothing left over, end of the year come around and you got nothing in your pocket and nothing put by for the lean times. Start getting into debt with the boss, borrowing for this, borrowing for that, fore you know it he owns you. You working just to pay him back, and the harder you work the more you end up owing him.” (Jordan 113). This quote is a perfect example of how sharecroppers like Hap and his family, who lived in a very old rundown shack, was being

Cited: Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound: A Novel. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin of Chapel Hill, 2008. Print.