The American dream in "Them", by Joyce Carol Oates

Thèmes abordés

Them, Joyce Carol Oates, Maureen Wendalls, Loretta, Jules, American dream, The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams, working class family

Résumé du document

"Them", written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1969, is a naturalistic novel which depicts the life of the Wendalls, a working class family. Even if it is a fiction, it has been written thanks to Wendall's account of her life. The story starts in 1930's with the Great Depression and ends in 1960's with the race riots ; most of it takes place in Detroit. It tells us about the everyday life and struggles of three main characters : Loretta and her children Maureen and Jules who are trying to live The American Dream.

Extraits

[...] She tires to improve her condition and live the American Dream through work but also marriage. Her main goal is to earn enough money to be able to enjoy life. Jules has almost the same expectations about his life : he wants to became an independent and wealthy man. As soon as he became a teenager he started to work in order to earn money. He quit school and when he get enough money to leave the family home he gets his own place, which shows how much his autonomy from his family and origins is important for him. [...]

[...] What couldn't he make out of himself? On the other hand, Maureen was quite different from her brother or her mother when she was young. She is quite studious, goes to the library very often and lives at her mother's home even if she would like to leave this place. But she seems very passive about it. Actually, at the opposite of her brother who is always dreaming about far-off lands, she just waits for change instead of looking for it. [...]

[...] The American dream in "Them", by Joyce Carol Oates Them, written by Joyce Carol Oates in 1969, is a naturalistic novel which depicts the life of the Wendalls, a working class family. Even if it is a fiction, it has been written thanks to Maureen Wendall's account of her life. The story starts in 1930's with the Great Depression and ends in 1960's with the race riots ; most of it takes place in Detroit. It tells us about the everyday life and struggles of three main characters : Loretta and her children Maureen and Jules who are trying to live The American Dream. [...]

[...] Loretta and Jules seem to be stuck in their lives and reality is always catching up to them. Maureen is the only character who will have a brighter and happy future. Nevertheless, Joyce Carol Oates herself comes from a working class family. Indeed, she lived in a farm and her father worked in an automobile company. But thanks to her studies and the fact that she devotes her time to writing novels, she managed to live The American Dream. Bibliography : Them, (1969) by Joyce Carol Oates, Modern Library Classic edition. [...]

[...] We can find the ethos of the American Dream in some famous American novels. For example in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, or in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which mocks the materialism that can be linked to the pursuit of the American Dream Is it the case for Them as well? p.214-215 in The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams In this essay we will ask ourselves the following question : what is the place of The American Dream in Them? [...]