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Home CCSU Theses & Dissertations Dreaming from the Margins:The American Dream Myth in Nineteenth-Century Literature

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Dreaming from the Margins:The American Dream Myth in Nineteenth-Century Literature

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Identifier	Thesis 1770
Author	Provost, Kerri Ana
Title	Dreaming from the Margins:The American Dream Myth in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Publisher	Central Connecticut State University
Date	2004
Resource Type	Master's Thesis
Notes	The American Dream, as popularized by Horatio Alger, Jr., excluded women, immigrants, and ethnic minorities by default, yet today it is Alger's version of the success myth that is typically identifies as the ideal. Literary works produced by Alger's contemporaries showed alternatives to his route from rags-to-respectability. Louisa May Alcott through her novel, Little Women, suggested that while money was necessary to survive, developing one's moral character and remaining loyal to one's family was a far more dignified goal. Alcott expresses these beliefs through her female protagonists, who either attain this kind of success, or gracefully become martyrs through premature deaths. Fanny Fern's works are subversive, as they encourage women to be financially independent. In Ruth Hall, Fern crafts a tale of a woman who has been slandered and abandoned by family, and who must take employment in a traditionally male field. The reader learns of the unique problems faced by women in the nineteenth-century—something that is not addressed in Alger's stories. Finally, Mary Anne Sadlier penned a story for young boys. While the social atmosphere she was living in condemned Irish Catholic immigrants, she wrote against this bigotry. Throughout Willy Burke, Sadlier urges children to remain loyal to their Catholic faith, Irish homeland, and loving families. She maintains that to find happiness and financial stability in America, one must not forsake those three crucial elements. By examining the literary achievements of authors who are routinely marginalized or who have lost popularity over the past century, we get a more accurate sense of what it meant to be an American seeking upward mobility in the middle of the nineteenth-century.
Subject	Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 19th century National characteristics, American, in literature American fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
Department	Department of English
Advisor	Dunne, Robert, 1964-
Type	Text
Digital Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
OCLC number	713734323
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