The American Dream Marion Barry Analysis

The American Dream, what is it? A majority of Americans have grown up being told that this is something that they should strive for. People are shown examples of those that have come from nothing, but they were still able to achieve success in their lives despite where they came from. Former Mayor of the District of Columbia, Marion Barry is someone many would consider to have achieved the American Dream. He had endured many hardships from poverty to racism during his life, and through that he was able to become a successful politician, and a respected family man. However much he achieved it was not enough for him; he would betray the trust of his wife, and would be arrested for other deviant behavior. This is not some isolated incident either within the United States. A
person cannot go a day without hearing about someone who was living the dream, yet ruined it due to some type of deviant behavior. Here are individuals that have accepted what they were told to achieve; however, when they did achieve it, they realized this was not what they wanted, and lashed out in a negative way. Does the American Dream led to a sense of false fulfillment which in turn causes individuals to lash out in a negative manner. In The Country Husband by John Cheever, he shows how achieving the American Dream is a false idea created by society to assert control, and by challenging that idea it leads to negative repercussions for all those involved in challenging it. As Francis Weed slowly begins to realize that the life he has built was not the life that he truly wanted, but what everyone said he should have. He begins to lash out against it while it continues to attempt to reinsert it back into his life. At first it starts off small with him wanting to connect with someone he knew from the war, and from there he tries to make a connection with the young lady that did not live in the ideal part of town, but on the other side of the tracks. While he is debating over attempting to make these connections; his social conditioning begins to tell him that he should not be doing that since they are not part of the societal group that he is part of. Since they have not achieved the so called American Dream. Francis then again attempts to be part of this life, but he still yearns to be free from it. Unfortunately for Francis this causes him to lash out verbally against a neighbor, which at the time allows him to feel good about himself at that moment. When he was finally able to break free from what is normally expected of him, and act in the way he wanted to act. Once again, though society pushes back on this action when he is confronted and belittled by his wife for his actions. Then, once again, he lashes out, but this time physically against what society is telling him to do and what he wants to do. At this point he has lost total control, and is attempting to find a way to reinsert his own power back into his life. (Kimmel and Messner) After doing that though he finally attains what he wanted of not being part of what society considered normal; however, he does everything possible to be accepted back due to it being the only thing he has ever known. It is a constant struggle between what societies want from people and what people want for themselves. The constant battle between what societies want with what an individual wants can be perfectly demonstrated in Anne Murchison and Clayton Thomas. They are both considered as outsiders since they are not part of the community, yet there are two different reactions to them by Francis. Anne is idolized by him. Francis yearns to be with her to the point that it becomes an obsession. He sees her as his way out of the life that he has created for himself, yet due to what society has told him he does not act upon it. Which all it does is push him towards wanting to force himself into her world. While on the other hand Clayton is despised by Francis even though he represents the same lifestyle that Anne lives, and that Francis wishes to obtain. It can be taken that all it is that he is jealous of the life that Clayton gets to live the life that he so desperately wants, or is it due to society telling Francis that this is not what he should want due to it not being accepted by society. When it comes down to something that is not accepted by society the most likely result is that society would do everything in its power to get rid of it. Francis sees the young man as if he is above him and does everything in his power to sabotage the young man’s life. Even though Francis has been the one demonstrating deviant behavior; he considers the young man to be a deviant isn’t to him being part, or making any attempt to be part of a socially acceptable society. Once something is seen as not belonging to society, those in society will do what they can to get rid of it. Jupiter, the largest anomaly in the neighborhood that Francis could consider to be a kindred spirit due to them both not truly belonging in the neighborhood.
Jupiter is considered one of the largest annoyance in Shady Hill since he does not conform to the local society standards. Jupiter just lives his life the way he wants to, and it bothers the people in the neighborhood. They do everything in their power to get rid of the dog from cursing all the way up to attempting to harm the dogs by throwing stones at him. Again, due to how they were brought up to see those outside of their structured society they see it as a threat instead of regarding it as part of their society. Due to them believing that once you attain such a high place in society admitting to anything beneath them would just be a repugnant idea. (Weber) Francis at one point even believes that there are plans in place to eliminate Jupiter from the area by poisoning him during his daily activities. Again society is lashing out against something that challenges the status quo. People within the society will continue to lash out against those that are not part of it till they are either gone for good, or decide to become part of
it. Francis Weed is pushed to the point where he seeks help in his dilemma of whether to continue to conform, or to go against it. After seeing the doctor he goes back to his life with just a small change to it by adding a hobby to his life. This shows how dominating the idea of the American Dream is on the lives of the people. (Jensen) It finds a way to reinsert it back into the lives of those that attempt to get away from it. Even though he still questions the society around him he, and he feels as if he does not belong to it. He continues to entrench himself into the life by continuing to stay, and partake in the activities within it. He accepts his part in it despite the falsehood of the idea. It has become so ingrained in his life that he has just come to accept the domination by the idea of the American Dream, and believes he has found an outlet through some other means. The American Dream was once viewed as a sign of hope for those looking for a better life. By following this false idea people can no longer reach or realize their full potential due to them wishing to achieve it. If people are not able to achieve their full potential they will begin to stagnate as a person and fall into the rut that Francis falls into, and ends up hating their own life because they limited what they truly wanted to do in life. So a person must ask themselves if they want to live a sad, pathetic life building wood in their basement like Francis, or go against the idea and make their own mark on the world as they see fit. Even with society trying to stop people from making this decision; people need to find a way to combat it and replace it with what they truly want, if they wish to ever grow as a person.