american Dream
...ve the “American Dream”. ______. The time period in which this document was published affected Jefferson’s ability to thoroughly express his view of slavery. A white man sympathizing for the blacks was simply unheard of in the eighteenth century. He was not able to thoroughly reflect his ideas of equality. He was discouraged from articulating compassion for those enslaved due to the fact that the southern economy was based on slave trade and as a politician it would have only worked against him. So, before stating what he felt was a valid cause, he told the people what they wanted to hear. While stating that “all men are created equal”, he did not suggest that African Americans were included in order to attract citizens to his beliefs (Jefferson, 449). Rather than helping African Americans, he helped himself. Jefferson’s identity as a man who is sympathetic towards those enslaved is compromised by the elimination of passage he wrote, blaming King George III for slavery. Instead of fighting for his beliefs, Jefferson accepted the rejection of this passage by southern delegates. Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal” was written from a different perspective. He wrote of an African-American experience of segregated living conditions in the south. During this time period, the narrator had no choice but to stay strong and endure the racial struggle of a young black man, as did African Americans in the early 1900’s. He got along by taking advantage of his education and being courteous to the “white men of the town” (92). But, this “made [him] afraid that some day [blacks] would look upon [him] as a traitor and [he] would be lost” (92). The narrator felt as if he did not belong with the whites, or the blacks. Ellison also makes implications toward the “American Dream” exploring issues of wealth/prosperity, education, social, gender, racial equality, and search for identity. Wealth is portrayed as part of the struggle of the “American Dream” when the young black men are crawling on the electric carpet in order to collect coins. He discusses, above all, the failure of the “American Dream” with regards to racial equality. The issue of equality is expressed in the narrator’s speech when he makes a Freudian slip of stating “social equality” rather than “social responsibility” (104-105). He claims to have confused his statement, but I believe, he meant to express his thoughts of “equality” rather than “responsibility”. Anyone presented with the opportunity to finally articulate their views would be tempted to state them. The narrator also seems to have difficulty in obtaining an identity. He was seen as being above the other blacks because of his level of intelligence, but still, he was not at the prominent level of the white man. His intelligence was disregarded in that sense, and his c...