FEI PAN
Langston Hughes’s poem to starts off A Raisin in the Sun. It explores the different possibilities that can happen when dreams are laid to rest for a while, and having to postpone one's deepest desires can lead to destruction. It is similar to the theme of In Cold Blood, which reveals an important dream or goal that must be delayed can have serious negative affects.
Herbert Clutter served on the Federal Farm Credit Board under President Eisenhower. He is always the community leader, getting involved with many organizations. He possesses a harmonious family with his beloved wife—Bonnie, two older daughters who have moved out, and Nancy and Kenyon. His large property, River Valley Farm, keeps him moderately wealthy. Starting with little, he has built up a large, successful farm. He reaped harvest of his constant hard work. However, his achievements were completely dried up like a raisin in the sun— hard and impossible to eat. No matter how much he attained and gained, his whole life was ended by two robbers who were discontented with the social society and their miserable plight.
Many of us believe that a man without an education is an unfortunate victim of adverse circumstances deprived of one of the greatest opportunities. Neither Perry nor Hickock get that precious opportunity. Perry’s dream festers like a running sore. He wants very much to be educated, and he considers himself quite intelligent and artistic. His childhood was lonely and disorganized. He wanted to get love from his divorced parents and shattered family, but family members’ attitudes toward him made his sore infected and no longer able to heal. He is disgusted with society and wanted to avenge those lucky fellows with fortune. His criminal record seems to be a natural extension of the strange environments in which he grew up, striking back at those who are deferring the dreams.
Hickock, another ruthless murder of the Clutter family, was jailed for passing bad checks. He used to earn wages to support his family in a legal way, like other good citizens who observe disciplines and obey laws. However, he was not satisfied with his ordinary life, with his limitless efforts, and he could not make his ends meet to afford his heavy expenses by his thin-paid work. In other words, since his dreams were not realized in a timely fashion, he lost patience and went to an extreme, which made his dreams like rotten meat giving off horrible odors.
All in all, almost all main characters’ dreams exploded, like bombs explode and cause great destruction. If all the other possibilities of a deferred dream are bad with some worse than others, then the last possibility is the worst. If the person whose dream is deferred loses all hope, he might “explode” with his despair. He might commit suicide, homicide—or both. However, I maintain that both Hughes and Capote want us to give positive motivation and attitude to achieve, to realize our dreams in our real life. Finally, all people must believe in their dreams and do the possible to achieve them because there is no life without dreams.
Showing posts with label In Cold Blood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In Cold Blood. Show all posts
Monday, May 4, 2009
A Dream Deferred
Jack Badger
In Cold Blood incorporated an interesting blend, or versions, of the American Dream through its composition of vastly different characters. Herb Clutter, a picture perfect representation of contentedness (a synonym in my opinion for the American Dream concept, at least during this time period) was robbed of his dream the very second his world was invaded by Perry and Dick.
Al Dewey’s dream was essentially to obtain a life similar to Herb Clutter’s before his untimely death. Instead of working a job that removed him from the sanctuary of his family, he often fantasized about purchasing a many acre property and retiring to the personal rural scene, much like the Clutter family found themselves accustomed to. Coincidentally enough, Dewey’s dream was stolen the very same night of the Clutter family massacre, for his wife could never live in an isolated region after the security blanket covering the Clutter household was destroyed.
Dick’s adaptation of the American Dream had always been deformed and juvenile. His exploits being chronicled in Capote’s novel are a testament to that. Always craving a life that was out of his reach, and thinking that there had to be a shortcut to achieving life on easy street, Dick never grasped what the American Dream truly represented. If he wanted pointers, he could have asked Herb Clutter, who would have explained to him that hard work and an optimistic, motivated personality would carry him to the Promised Land he so desperately sought, but never really wanted to work for. Instead, he chose to steal it from Herb, a futile action because a Dream can never be taken, especially by force.
It’s difficult to decipher what Perry would consider his American Dream, for his childhood (the time when we learn how to dream) was so full of nightmare, distrust, and evil that derailed his subconscious development, leaving it disfigured and stationary. The rest of his life was spent trying to run away from his past, a quest effectively embodied in Capote’s retelling of the days following that fateful night in the Clutter household. One could relate the events of that night with Perry’s adolescence, both being full of horrors and sins few of us have ever dreamed of.
And, like the life Perry had before the Clutter murders, and the life he had immediately thereafter and up until his execution, each expansive period was characterized by Perry trying to outrun events that would never really leave him. Perhaps his American Dream was to finally, and permanently, evade his past, a feat that ultimately came true in the unfortunate form of his execution.
Langston Hughes’ poem, although in his eyes pertaining to the racist aspects of American society (as the prompt describes), can be juxtaposed to the dreams of the four aforementioned characters of In Cold Blood. Hughes ruminates over the fate of a deferred dream, and in what manner it meets it fate. What this novel explains to us, through the lives of these four characters, is that the American Dream, and realistically any dream in general, can be taken from us without a moments notice, or without a fair opportunity to fight for it. This is what makes a dream so fragile, so delicate, and so worth preserving at all costs.
In Cold Blood incorporated an interesting blend, or versions, of the American Dream through its composition of vastly different characters. Herb Clutter, a picture perfect representation of contentedness (a synonym in my opinion for the American Dream concept, at least during this time period) was robbed of his dream the very second his world was invaded by Perry and Dick.
Al Dewey’s dream was essentially to obtain a life similar to Herb Clutter’s before his untimely death. Instead of working a job that removed him from the sanctuary of his family, he often fantasized about purchasing a many acre property and retiring to the personal rural scene, much like the Clutter family found themselves accustomed to. Coincidentally enough, Dewey’s dream was stolen the very same night of the Clutter family massacre, for his wife could never live in an isolated region after the security blanket covering the Clutter household was destroyed.
Dick’s adaptation of the American Dream had always been deformed and juvenile. His exploits being chronicled in Capote’s novel are a testament to that. Always craving a life that was out of his reach, and thinking that there had to be a shortcut to achieving life on easy street, Dick never grasped what the American Dream truly represented. If he wanted pointers, he could have asked Herb Clutter, who would have explained to him that hard work and an optimistic, motivated personality would carry him to the Promised Land he so desperately sought, but never really wanted to work for. Instead, he chose to steal it from Herb, a futile action because a Dream can never be taken, especially by force.
It’s difficult to decipher what Perry would consider his American Dream, for his childhood (the time when we learn how to dream) was so full of nightmare, distrust, and evil that derailed his subconscious development, leaving it disfigured and stationary. The rest of his life was spent trying to run away from his past, a quest effectively embodied in Capote’s retelling of the days following that fateful night in the Clutter household. One could relate the events of that night with Perry’s adolescence, both being full of horrors and sins few of us have ever dreamed of.
And, like the life Perry had before the Clutter murders, and the life he had immediately thereafter and up until his execution, each expansive period was characterized by Perry trying to outrun events that would never really leave him. Perhaps his American Dream was to finally, and permanently, evade his past, a feat that ultimately came true in the unfortunate form of his execution.
Langston Hughes’ poem, although in his eyes pertaining to the racist aspects of American society (as the prompt describes), can be juxtaposed to the dreams of the four aforementioned characters of In Cold Blood. Hughes ruminates over the fate of a deferred dream, and in what manner it meets it fate. What this novel explains to us, through the lives of these four characters, is that the American Dream, and realistically any dream in general, can be taken from us without a moments notice, or without a fair opportunity to fight for it. This is what makes a dream so fragile, so delicate, and so worth preserving at all costs.
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