The Pursuit of the American Dream

Shiv Changela

Mrs. Graham

Honors Expository Writing

22 March 2013

The Pursuit of the American Dream

“I think the American Dream says that anything can happen if you work hard enough at it and are persistent, and have some ability. The sky is the limit to what you can build, and what can happen to you and your family” (Weill). The American dream in the mind of a foreigner is longing toward a better life; it is a desire for themselves and their family. Just how Weill writes that the American dream is achievable through hard work, so does Cather. In My Antonia, Willa Cather shows several characters striving for the success of the American dream in the Great Plains of Nebraska. Though the American dream may differ between the characters presented, each of them knows exactly what they are chasing. In My Antonia, Cather uses Pavel and Peter, Mrs. Shimerda, and Lena Lingard to show that the journey to the American dream can often be intervened by hardships.

To begin, Pavel and Peter show that the journey to achieving the American dream often brings hardships. Pavel and Peter are two Russians who move to the Great Plains from Russia. While living in Russia, Pavel and Peter attend a wedding and are attacked by a pack of wolves. To save themselves, they forcefully sacrifice the bride and groom to the pack of wolves in order to save their own lives. Cather writes, “They went away to strange towns, but when people learned where they came from, they were always asked if they knew the two men who had fed the bride to the wolves. Wherever they went, the story followed them. It took them five years to save enough money to come to America” (Cather 49). To them, the American dream means coming to America and starting a new life in the Great Plains of Nebraska. Back in Russia, Pavel and Peter were haunted of their harsh past. But in America, the Nebraskan prairie provided a safe haven from all their negativity of the past. In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster writes geography “can be revelatory of virtually any element” (Foster 166). In this case, the geography around them, the Nebraskan Prairie, signifies a new opportunity to achieve the American dream. They achieved both freedom and happiness in which they never felt before while living back in Russia. Peter and Pavel, as well as Mrs. Shimerda show that the journey to the American dream often brings hardships.

In addition, Mrs. Shimerda shows that the journey to the American dream often brings privation. Mrs. Shimerda is described as a self-centered woman who forces her husband, Mr. Shimerda, to leave the land he loves in Bohemia. She does this in hoping to achieve greater success in America and achieve the American dream. Mrs. Shimerda had one motivation in