The american dream in the 20 th century's literature

Age of Excess

During the 1980s, the popular notion of the American dream shifted once again: While the traditional notion of success included little more than a family, a home, and a secure means of supporting both, toward the end of the twentieth century the American dream of prosperity became increasingly associated with wealth, fame, and power. Thomas Wolfe captures the timbre of the time in his novel The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), which tells the tale of a wealthy New York bond trader named Sherman McCoy whose mistress runs over a black man while driving McCoy's car. The incident brings out the worst in many of the characters, who each see it as a way to achieve their own personal ends at the expense of others. Wolfe's novel is a clear condemnation of the shallowness and materialism of the 1980s.

REFERENCES

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Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991. Print.

Giles, James Richard. Understanding Hubert Selby Jr. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. Print.

Lederhendler, Eli. New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity, 1950-1970. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2001. Print.

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Selby Jr., Hubert. Requiem for a Dream. Cambridge: De Capo Press, 2000. Print.

Shefter, Martin. “Political Incorporation and Containment: Regime Transformation in New York City.” Power, Culture and Place: Essays on New York City. Ed. John Hull Mollenkopf. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1988. Print.

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Vorda, Allan. "Examining the Disease: An Interview with Hubert Selby Jr." Face to Face: Interviews with Contemporary Novelists (1993): 185-210. Ohio Link. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.