The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun

Starting from the beginning there is an immediate difference betweenthe novels A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby. A Raisin in the Sun takes place in the 1950’s while The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920’s. Although their time differences are far apart, the characters in the novels share a similar perspective on the American Dream. Both books seem to center their American Dream on money.

In A Raisin in the Sun, it is almost impossible for the characters to make their American Dream happen because of their race. Walter’s goal is to run his own liquor store even when Mama and Ruth are against the idea. Walter’s American Dream is mainly centered on the thought of owning lots of money. He wants lots of money to be able to afford whatever he wants and not be part of the lower class. He seems to think that money and only money is the solution for all the problems that he has. Mama and Beneatha didn’t exactly see money as being part of the American Dream. Beneatha knows she needs money in order to have the education she wants but relies on the money she inherits to help her American Dream come true.  On the other hand Ruth looked up to money because she thought that it was the only way to keep a stable house. At the end of the book Mr. Linder helps Walter revise his interpretation of the American dream, the dream that is split into justice and equality over the money. In this book they seem to try to figure out what to do with the money they received and not really care about where it came from. While in The Great Gatsby the theme is a difference between “old money” and “new money.”

In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby has the money for everything he wants but he doesn’t realize that his money cannot buy him love or happiness. He is stuck in the thought that his material possessions are the key for his happiness.  Money seemed to play different roles between both novels because of their class in the book. For example, Gatsby he wanted to maintain his money and once he had met that goal he tried to make it seem like he was from “new money.” Daisy and Tom were different because their wealth was inherited and didn’t really need to obtain it in such ways. Hence, they just looked down at the people that didn’t have enough “old” money and they made sure that they never interacted with one another socially.

Although characters in both novels seem to do the best they can to reach their American Dream, I think that  Lorraine Hansberry presented a better display of the American Dream. In A Raisin in the Sun the family is poor but yet make the best of what they have while in The Great Gatsby mostly everyone is rich and living the life they wanted but with no love nor happiness. Gatsby bootlegged and did illegal things in order to get his money in hopes that he’ll someday win Daisy back. Beneatha wanted an education to live her dream of being a doctor, Ruth was willing to give up her time to do extra work just to make more money for her family, Mama just wants to have a loving and happy family, and Walter wanted to run his own business in a liquor store. Overall, both books show that money isn’t everything yet it can bring different types of outcomes to the different types of people.  (599)

The American Dream in Pilsen

            Before my investigation I used to think that only immigrants had an American Dream. I learned that even though many people have a similar American Dream, no one wishes for the same one because they all dream about something different for themselves and/or others. My community is Pilsen, the heart of Chicago, and the people living here are mostly Hispanics. The people I interviewed had similar American Dreams but they all have different approaches in order to meet them. Although my ideas of the American Dream ideas were very close to the ones that my neighborhood people had, I learned more about the ideas that other have about the American Dream. From my interviewees’ perspective, living the American Dream most of the time comes from luck. Sometimes even with all the hard work one makes, some won’t truly live their American Dream because they’ll always have something missing. I had never thought of that before but now I know that no one can really have exactly what they want their American Dream to include.  Their American Dreams were all summed up because of the bad events they lived in their past. The American Dream in my community sums up to not having the lack of money. The American Dream consists of having money in order to accomplish living it and without the sufficient money the Dream will not be lived.

            The hardest challenge of this project was the interviewing. Although I interviewed people I already knew it was still hard to make them answer my questions. My father is a very talkative person and when I asked him questions that needed elaborate answers, he just answered them in a sentence or two. I managed to make him talk to me by reading his mind and putting myself in his shoes. In other words, I asked him question after question to make up the details for one question. In the other hand, my neighbor Cristina talked way too much. She wouldn’t go straight to the point that I wanted her to get to. I would ask a simple opinion question but she would go on talking about herself as a teenager and aside from that her voice was a little scratchy and it made it a bit hard to understand her. The person that I actually enjoyed talking to out of the three was my neighborhood’s hairstylist Alexxis. She answered my questions brief but in depth and I understood exactly what she meant but at times had trouble understanding her accent. 

Protest Song Blog Post

War: Bob Marley and The Wailers

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior 
And another 
Inferior 
Is finally 
And permanently 
Discredited 
And abandoned - 
Everywhere is war - 
Me say war. 

That until there no longer 
First class and second class citizens of any nation 
Until the color of a man's skin 
Is of no more significance than the color of his eyes - 
Me say war. 

That until the basic human rights 
Are equally guaranteed to all, 
Without regard to race - 
Dis a war. 

That until that day 
The dream of lasting peace, 
World citizenship 
Rule of international morality 
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, 
But never attained - 
Now everywhere is war - war. 

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes 
That hold our brothers in Angola, 
In Mozambique, 
South Africa 
Sub-human bondage 
Have been toppled, 
Utterly destroyed - 
Well, everywhere is war - 
Me say war. 

War in the east, 
War in the west, 
War up north, 
War down south - 
War - war - 
Rumors of war. 
And until that day, 
The African continent 
Will not know peace, 
We Africans will fight - we find it necessary - 
And we know we shall win 
As we are confident 
In the victory 

Of good over evil - 
Good over evil, yeah! 
Good over evil - 
Good over evil, yeah! 
Good over evil - 
Good over evil, yeah! (fade-out)

In Bob Marley’s song War he protests violence and war.      It was song against colonialism in Africa and it was on the search for peace, equality, and for the end of racism.  When Marley address to, “Until the philosophy  which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned- everywhere is war,” in the beginning of his song, he says that as long as people get discriminated because of their race, there will always be war. He also says, “That until there no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation,” in which he refers to the judgment of people with less money than others.

I personally like Bob Marley. He inspires me because he did what he thought was right and people respected him for it. Every word he says in his song is completely correct. There is war everywhere because there are people that are discriminated because of their color as well as because they are poor. What the world needs is equality and peace. This is significant to me because my grandparents had moved her to the US before I was born and they were discriminated because they were Mexicans and poor. I didn’t think it was fair because they had gone through so much just to see my mother give birth to me and disrespect was their reward. It somewhat makes me feel a bit ashamed that I was born into a place where humans don’t accept other humans because of their color and judgment on how much money they carry in their wallets but I also feel inspired on the way that even though Marley lived in a poor place in Jamaica and was discriminated, it didn’t stop him from making songs about what he thought. The world he lived in was his inspiration for his attempts to changing it and making people realize war will not stop until there is equality.