Immigrants and Their Pursuit of the American Dream - Essay Example

May 16, Immigrants and their Pursuit of the American Dream The Declaration of Independence evokes the fundamental ideas of the American Dream, because it states that “all men are created equal” with “certain unalienable Rights, which among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It portrays an egalitarian society, where people, regardless of their race, gender, and social class, can achieve happiness, freedom, and success. Success is oftentimes measured through material wealth or material possessions, as well as the attainment of college education and a reliable career or business. Eugene O’Neill examines the veracity of the American Dream for an Irish family in his popular play, Long Day's Journey into Night (hereinafter, Journey into Night). This play revolves around the Tyrone family, whose members find their personal and collective dreams crashing, and so their ability to be happy and feel successful is altogether dashed. This essay aims to compare Irish immigrant experiences in the play with those of Italian, Jewish, and Hispanic immigrants. Immigrants share similarities in their pursuit of the American Dream, struggles in achieving it, setbacks from “twoness” and destructive coping mechanisms, and the role of families and ethnic communities in achieving happiness. Millions of immigrants leave their country all over the world, with the firm belief that in America, they can pursue and achieve the American Dream. In Journey into Night, James has become a miser, because he no longer wants to go back to poverty that he experienced as a child and he wants to fulfill the American Dream for his own family. At the same time, his love for one character during his acting days symbolizes his desire for wealth and success. In Act 4, Scene 1, James confesses to Edmund that his acting skills died because of monotonous repetition. James admits that he has become a slave to the part for which he is well-known, and he has felt averse to play other roles, until he unexpectedly discovered that he could no longer act other parts. His complacency resulted to the loss of his talent. Once, he has acted with Edwin Booth, who told him he was a better Othello than he ever was. After James took the money-making part, he no longer took other roles, which ironically led to the death of his acting career. In “Moving Up in Rural America: Economic Attainment of Nonmetro Latino Immigrants,” Kandel et al. explore the economic motives of Hispanic immigration to America. This includes choosing low-paying rural jobs, which still pay more than their original jobs in their homeland. They note that new rural immigrant destinations draw immigrants through employment, frequently in industries that target immigrant workers for jobs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and low-skilled services (Kandel et al. 105). Italian immigrants also find economic success a worthy magnet in American, which Vecchio discusses in her article, “Ties of Affection: Family Narratives in the History of Italian Migration.” She talks about experiences of Italian immigrants who worked in the Wickwire Brothers Wireworks. This company employed the biggest number of immigrant workers of the entire Cortland establishments, which included Poles, Ukrainians, Irish, and Italians (Vecchio 119). These industries provided economic opportunities for diverse immigrants, many of whom have decided to stay in America and take advantage of its freedoms. The American Dream also consists of pursuing a college education, which is a core dream for poor, working-class immigrants. In Act 1, Scene 1 of Journey into Night, James gets into a fight with Jamie. He reminds his son that he tried to help Jamie become an actor when Jamie could not find anything but himself. Jamie, however, broke his dreams because he did not finish college or get a stable job. At the same time, he cannot even hold a job long enough to pay for his rent, which is why he stays with his parents. In essence, for James, his son pitifully reminds him of wasted opportunities in attaining the American Dream. Lemish understands, however, that the public education system also aims to erase immigrant identities through educating immigrants and their children about the English language and teaching them American values, beliefs, and attitudes. Lemish states that many immigrant parents easily embraced the “Americanization” process, even when they later “paid a price for embracing it” (27). These first-generation immigrants did not want mere integration alone, but the fulfillment of the American Dream, which is basically encapsulated in the achievement of middle-class status (Lemish 27). “Do Immigrant Minority Parents Have More Consistent College Aspirations for Their Children?” is an article from Raleigh and Kao. They study the aspirations of immigrant parents for their children’s college education. They discover that for immigrant parents, the preservation of college aspirations acts as an “indicator of whether they see their children’s future as upwardly or downwardly mobile” (1084). These aspirations are critical, since sociological research shows that parents’ educational goals affect and mediate their children’s educational attainment (Raleigh and Kao 1084). They believe that college education constitutes “social capital” that can affect their children’s success in America (Raleigh and Kao 1084). Hence, these immigrants share the same high value placed on college education as critical to their children’s, and sometimes equally, their family’s success. One of the elements of the American Dream is a house with a white fence, which symbolizes the middle-class lifestyle. Mary also wants a house, where she can accept visitors and take care of her family. She represents the ideals of a home-based mother, who wants a suburban life that is simple, but affluent enough to meet both basic needs and some wants. Hispanic immigrants also desire a decent house for their families. Nevertheless, working-class Hispanics find it hard to access affordable housing near their employment. Muzio, in “The Struggle against "Urban Renewal" In Manhattan's Upper West Side and the Emergence of El Comite,” examines the struggles of informal Hispanic settlers in Manhattan's Upper West Side, where they experienced threats of demolition. She notes that Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and African-American residents resided at the worst of the city’s public and non-public housing units, even in the less-segregated neighborhoods of the West Side: The larger and poorer the family unit, the less living space it has, and the more dilapidated the housing. In one typically overcrowded sector of the West Side, for instance, 62 percent of the Negroes (sic) and 42 percent of the Spanish (sic) lived in one or two rooms…. [O]f those Spanish families in one- or two-room apartments, 68 percent had one or more children. (Lyford 6 qtd. in Muzio 113). Puerto Ricans in particular experienced decreased access to public subsidized housing, which worsened with the immense exodus of jobs in manufacturing and light industries from New York City throughout the 1960s (Sanchez 40 qtd. in Muzio 113). They did not experience that aspect of economic success of the American Dream, because their residence alone signified their disenfranchisement from society. Immigrants share the common experience of pursuing the appearance of the American Dream, since it is difficult to achieve it in its entire form. Mary is concerned of her physical appearance, because it is part of her idea of an American Dream. The American Dream revolves around physical beauty, which Mary is afraid to be swiftly slipping away from her. Several times in Act 1, Scene 1, Mary complains about her weight and hair, but her husband and sons keep on reassuring her that she looks better and still beautiful. Mary, nevertheless, is tired of putting up with her husband’s superficial American Dream. She resents her home that does not come close to her idea of an ideal home: Oh, I'm so sick and tired of pretending this is a home! You won't help me! You won't put yourself out the least bit! You don't know how to act in a home! You don't really want one! You never have wanted one – never since the day we were married! You should have remained a bachelor and lived in second-rate hotels and entertained your friends in barrooms! (O’Neill Act 2, Scene 1, Line 114, or 2.1.114). She realizes that because of her love for James, she has neglected her own needs and desires as a woman and human being. She wanted to be a pianist and nun, but when she met James Tyrone, she forgets her initial dreams. Still, because of her husband’s bad investments and stinginess, she feels the misery of the falseness of their lives. They have a home, but they cannot even keep the lights on to save money. They want the American Dream, but only reached a poor semblance of it. Muzio talks about the struggles of ispanics in Hispanic immigrants with incomplete access to the American Dream. They have employment, but their homes and neighborhoods are not emblematic of the American Dream. Oftentimes, they face eviction and lack of access to subsidized or affordable housing. They may be sending money to their relatives who live in their native lands, but in reality, they live as part of the poor working-class of America. The perpetual struggle with “twoness” is a recurring theme for immigrants with different ethnicities. Twoness refers to the struggles of possessing a hyphenated identity, such as being an Irish American, Italian American, Jewish American, and Hispanic American. America pursues acculturation, even to the extent of obliterating the cultural identity of immigrants, because it ensures loyalty to American values and traditions. Jamie often attacks Irish stereotypes, which suggests his difficulties too with his hyphenated life. In Act 2, Scene 2, Jamie fights with his father over Edmund’s need for a sanatorium. Jamie argues that James should stop thinking like an old Irishman that consumption will just go away, because it will not, since it is fatal. He also asks James to not see the proper treatment for Edmund as an unnecessary expense. James gets upset about the Ireland attack and says Jamie should not be ridiculing Ireland, since Jamie is also very Irish, which pertains to his drinking problems. Instead of giving in to his father, Jamie takes one more jab at Ireland by saying that he is no longer Irish, since he washes his face. These feelings of twoness, in this case, result to the subjugation of the original cultural identity. Second and third-generation immigrants also suffer from the issue of twoness. Lemish remarks that first-generation Jewish immigrants paid a high price for the American education of their children. Their children learned communication skills, as well as vital skills and knowledge that helped them climb the socio-economic ladder. On the downside, they also learned the virtue of freedom, which includes having the “choice of selecting their identity” (27). In essence, this means that they can choose to no longer be Jews (Lemish 27). Many of the third-generation Jews then chose to isolate their Jewish identity and to emphasize their Americanness (Lemish 28). Twoness can lead to feelings of being invisible in a society that discriminates against minorities. The sense of the hyphenated self can exist when minorities find it hard to attain material wealth. Mary is proud of her husband and tells Jamie about it: It's you who should have more respect! Stop sneering at your father! I won't have it! You ought to be proud you're his son! He may have his faults. Who hasn't? But he's worked hard all his life. He made his way up from ignorance and poverty to the top of his profession! Everyone else admires him and you should be the last one to sneer – you, who, thanks to him, have never had to work hard in your life! (O’Neill 2.1.73) This statement expresses that as an Irish immigrant, James has to work harder than other Americans. He has something to prove to himself, his family, and the American society, that he did not come to the United States to beg for welfare, but to make a living for his family. Still, Mary feels better for others who have had real access to the American Dream. She says: The Chatfields and people like them stand for something. I mean they have decent, presentable homes they don't have to be ashamed of. They have friends who entertain them and whom they entertain. They're not cut off from everyone. Not that I want anything to do with them. I've always hated this town and everyone in it. (O’Neill 1.1.192). Her sentiments demonstrate her envy for those who achieved the American Dream. This dream does not only express material wealth for her, but the access to lasting and meaningful happiness. Lemish focuses on the attempts of Jewish immigrants to pursue the American Dream despite anti-Semitism in America. These immigrants believed that they can access this dream to hard work and integrity. Muzio, however, agrees with O’Neill’s assessment that America is riddled with racism. The irrational fear for immigrants have led to state policies and practices that further discriminate and marginalize working-class immigrants, such as through poor working and housing conditions for immigrants. As a result, Hispanic immigrants may be American in a sense, but they feel estranged from the promise of what an American identity supposedly brings. Twoness is also expressed in the inability to know one’s real identity, because of clashing cultural values. Both Mary and Edmund admire the fog’s ability to hide them. In Act 3, Scene 1, Mary tells Cathleen that she loves the fog, since it cloaks her from the society and society does not see her too. She hates the foghorn, because it blasts her back to reality, which she finds miserable and dreary. In Act 4, Scene 1, as James and Edmund share a drink, Edmund reflects on his love of fog. Edmund thinks that the fog is a sanctuary where he can be alone with himself. Enveloped with the fog, he can find what is true and real in his life. He stresses that the fog makes him feel that he has drowned before, and so he is a ghost of the fog, while the fog is the ghost of the sea. The fog represents their need to feel invisible. If others do not see them, they cannot judge or ridicule them. Mary, however, has lost her identity altogether, which her drug addiction worsened. In Act 4, Scene 1, she looks for something missing in her life: “Something I need terribly. I remember when I had it I was never lonely nor afraid. I can't have lost it forever, I would die if I thought that. Because then there would be no hope” (O’Neill 4.1.237). She has lost understanding of the meaning of her life and the purpose of her existence. She is now merely a Mrs. Tyrone, with no identity of her own. She has lost her identity forever, which means a lifetime of misery for her and her family. Lemish also explains that Jewish immigrants feel the inexplicable clash of their Jewish and American values. As a result, some choose to become American, instead of striving to align their hyphenated identities. Some immigrants developed destructive means of coping in America, specifically through substance abuse. Irish alcoholism pervades the play, where even Cathleen, the maid, drinks. Drinking helps people cope with their different personal problems, especially their broken dreams and painful search for their purposes in life. In Act 1, Scene 1, Edmund says: “Well, what's wrong with being drunk? It's what we're after, isn't it? Let's not kid each other, Papa. Not tonight. We know what we're trying to forget.” He says this to assert that they all have problems they want to forget, even momentarily. Another instance of abuse is drug addiction. Mary has been back on morphine, which she blames on various reasons, such as her loneliness, James’s always leaving her at home, and Edmund’s sickness that distresses her. In Act 4, Scene 1, Edmund hits Jamie after the latter called their mother a “hophead.” Edmund says sorry for hitting him, but Jamie agrees that he did the right thing. Jamie says that he is so angry with his mother, because he thought that she serves as a role model for her. If she can conquer her demons, this means that Jamie has a fighting chance to fight his inner battles too. Tortajada et al. examine substance abuse problems among Hispanic immigrants in “Perception and Consumption of Alcohol among the Immigrant Population from Latin America in Valencia Region (Spain).” They find out that substance abuse, such as drinking, smoking, and illegal drug use, are prevalent among Hispanic immigrants, as well as immigrants from other countries (2568). In fact, the longer they stayed in the United States, the worse substance abuse tends to become (Tortajada et al. 2568). This indicates that they feel something missing despite being in the Land of Milk and Honey. Mary, at the end of Act 4, Scene 1, finds for something missing, which can refer to the symbolic less of her identity, as she tries to assimilate into the American society. Workaholism is also a repetitive image for working-class immigrants, who work hard to attain the American Dream. James has become a workaholic as an actor and real estate investor, because he wants to ensure the future of his family. Mary stresses several times to her children that their father’s stinginess is a product of his poverty. She emphasizes that they cannot help what their father has become, because of the conditions of his life that made him who he is. James’s constant absence, however, imprints loneliness in Mary’s life. She feels her detachment with what they call as their home: I've never felt it was my home. It was wrong from the start. Everything was done in the cheapest way. Your father would never spend the money to make it right. It's just as well we haven't any friends here. I'd be ashamed to have them step in the door. (O’Neill 1.1.194). It is not only the cheapness that Mary detests, but the underlying absence of deep family relations. In essence, she asserts that their house is not a “home” in its symbolic sense, because they are broken as individuals and as a family. Lemish describes how Jewish immigrants also work hard to earn a living and send their children to school. For them, college education promises the fulfillment of the American Dream. The same goes for Hispanic immigrants, according to Raleigh and Kao. These immigrants earnestly believe that a college education is their ticket to middle-class life and success. They measure their success first through their children’s diploma and achievements, because these accomplishments will earn them economic advantages in life. As a result, they take two or more jobs to provide for their families. Jewish and Italian businesspeople and working-class families also struggled to make ends meet. They open their shops early and close them late to maximize their earnings each day. Family and kinship provide a sense of stability to immigrants. Unfortunately, for Mary Tyrone, she feels disconnected from her family, because of her broken dreams. She often blames others for the sadness and incompleteness of her life, and yet she blames herself the most for the loss of her child and the fracture inside her family: I should have insisted on staying with Eugene and not have let you persuade me to join you, just because I loved you. Above all, I shouldn't have let you insist I have another baby to take Eugene's place, because you thought that would make me forget his death. I knew from experience by then that children should have homes to be born in, if they are to be good children, and women need homes, if they are to be good mothers. (O’Neill 2.2.105). This diatribe depicts her underlying self-guilt. She hates James, because she loved him too much. This love for her made her a bad mother. At the same time, she neglected to cultivate the skills needed to be a good mother. In Act 2, Scene 2, in response to her husband’s cold-shoulder approach, because she is back to her addiction, Mary grumbles that the house does not have a sense of a home, since she is always left alone. She asserts that she should have just stayed in Ireland, because her father gave her a better home than James had. At the end of this scene, she cries out that she is forlorn, but then blames herself of self-deception, since she wanted to get rid of her husband and children. She feels contempt and closes the act by asking: “Mother of God, why do I feel so lonely?” Jamie also experiences being detached from his family, since he failed his parents’ high expectations from him. As a consequence, he feels both love and envy for Edmund. For Jamie, nevertheless, he made Edmund: “You reflect credit on me. I've had more to do with bringing you up than anyone […] Hell, you're more than my brother. I made you! You're my Frankenstein!” (O’ Neill 4.1.198). He says this because no matter how much he envies his brother, he knows that he wants him to succeed in life and have a long life. Immigrants also feel the same loneliness and frustrations, when they have detached from their families and ethnic communities. Muzio underscores the difficulties of Hispanic immigrants in establishing themselves in America, when they are isolated from the strong kinship that they once got from their ethnic communities. A sense of community is critical to developing a strong identity for immigrants. Vecchio stresses the importance of Italian communities to the continuity and adaptation of Italian immigrants (Vecchio 117). Having Italian neighbors ensured the preservation of their language and cultural beliefs and practices, while they also align their American and Italian identities. In “Community and Subcommunity in Small-Town America, 1880–1950,” Weissbach studies the role of community and sub-communities for Central European Jews who came to America during the mid-1890s. She notes that by early twentieth century, East European immigrants settled in older small communities or in newly established ones (109). However, she remarks that these people created a unique form of adaptation and resilience to assimilation: East Europeans were generally able to fashion a rather distinctive cultural life for themselves. All across America, in just about every small city where the local Jewish population rose beyond a handful of families, these Jews established their own social milieu and constructed their own communal infrastructure. (Weissbach109). Immigrant Jews in small communities used Yiddish as their everyday language, which strengthened their ethnic identity and kept them connected with one another (Weissbach 110). An example is a man who grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, in the 1920s and 30s provided testimony that the people with whom his parents related all spoke Yiddish and were frequently unwilling to use English (Weissbach 110). He says: “Only at home in our circle of Jewish friends and at the synagogue did [my parents] speak all out . . . and it was always Yiddish” (Weissbach 110). Another example is a woman who grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in the interwar period. She remembered that as a young child, Yiddish was used at home and that she struggled when she started school because “her English was so poor” (Weissbach 110). They resisted the English language, because they felt it will make them loose their original Jewish identities. These are strong examples of how immigrants resisted isolation and loneliness in American society, which unfortunately, the Tyrones did not have access to. Long Day's Journey into Night suggests the long struggle of immigrants to fit into American society, so that they can achieve the American Dream. Instead of the symbolic day, they get a long journey into the night, or the darkness of immigration and experiencing hyphenated identities. The play indicates that immigrants from different countries share similarities in their pursuit of the American Dream, struggles in achieving it, and issues of “twoness” and destructive coping mechanisms. Nevertheless, O’Neill also asserts the role of families and ethnic communities in achieving happiness, even without financial success. In addition, the play underlines that the essence of the dream is the freedom to find and nurture one’s identity. Successful immigrant stories depict immigrants who did not forsake their native identities and managed to balance their pursuit of happiness and material success. These are pictures of simple American dreams, which sadly, the Tyrones have not experienced, due to their broken self-identities. Works Cited Cavaioli, Frank J. “Patterns of Italian Immigration to the United States.” The Catholic Social Science Review 13 (2008): 213-229. Web. 12 May 2012. . Kandel, William, Henderson, Jamila, Koball, Heather, and Randy Capps. “Moving Up in Rural America: Economic Attainment of Nonmetro Latino Immigrants.” Rural Sociology 76.1 (Mar. 2011): 101-128. Print. Lemish, Peter S. “Hanukah Bush: The Jewish Experience in America.” Theory Into Practice 20.1 (1981): 26-34. Print. Muzio, Rose. “The Struggle against "Urban Renewal" In Manhattan's Upper West Side and the Emergence of El Comite.” Centro Journal 21.2 (2009): 108-141. Print. O’Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey into Night. New York: Yale U P, 1987. Print. Raleigh, Elizabeth and Grace Kao. “Do Immigrant Minority Parents Have More Consistent College Aspirations for Their Children?” Social Science Quarterly 91.4 (2010): 1083-1102. Print. Tortajada, Silvia, Llorens, Noelia, Castellano, Miguel, Alvarez, F. Javier, Aleixandre-Benavent, Rafael, and Juan Carlos Valderrama-Zurian. “Perception and Consumption of Alcohol Among the Immigrant Population From Latin America in Valencia Region (Spain).” Substance Use & Misuse 45.14 (2010): 2567-2578. Vecchio, Diane. “Ties of Affection: Family Narratives in the History of Italian Migration.” Journal of American Ethnic History 25.2/3 (2006): 117-133. Weissbach, Lee Shai. “Community and Subcommunity In Small-Town America, 1880–1950.” History 15.2 (200): 107-118. Print. Read More