The concept of the american dream in Paul Auster’s “Mr. Vertigo”

Abstract

“People everywhere have hopes, but America is the only nation to claim its own collective dream. Politicians have invoked The American Dream ever since historian James Truslow Adams first coined the phrase in 1931. In his best-selling book, “the epic of America”, he described the dream as the average American’s “star in the west which led him on...in search of a home where toil would reap a sure reward, and no dead hands of custom or exaction would push him back into ´his place`”. The phrase caught on like wildfire and endures still, though its meaning is often vague. To some the “sure reward” is a luxury car. To others it’s a college degree, a steady job that pays the bills, or a house in the suburbs and a family of four `a la Ozzie and Harriet. But the dream is above all America’s own brand of optimism, which was brought over by the first settlers and which presumes no limits to what anyone can have or achieve.”