America And I By Anzia Yezierska Analysis

At Disneyland, anyone can receive a Magic Morning pass as long he or she stay at a Disney hotel or pay extra when purchasing tickets. This allows them to be in the park for a longer period of time and, at least in theory, avoid long lines. Every visitor can still have a good time, but the overall experience is more fun for those who have passes for Magic Morning. To receive this benefit, a park visitor has to both know about the offer and have the money to buy it. This same logic applies to the American Dream. America still provides access to the American Dream, but the rich and educated are more successful at achieving it.
Some would argue that the American Dream is unattainable, but this does not mean that Americans cannot be happy. David

Wallechinsky argues in his article “Is the American Dream Still Possible?” that today, “[t]he American Dream is a bygone thing” (21). He gives examples of people who have been gypped from their chance at living the American Dream. Would some consider them failures? Yes. These people, in debt and for the most part under-educated, are unhappy and do not know how to get out of their sticky financial predicament. Yet, in “The Right to Fail”, the reader is told that “failure isn’t bad in itself, or success automatically good” (Zinsser 8). Even though Wallechinsky’s examples do not live the American Dream, their lives are not automatically horrible. Being in debt is not the same thing as never experiencing happiness. Someone can live a happy life and not achieve the picture-perfect archetype of the American Dream. Not all U. S. citizens reach the American Dream, but that does not automatically make them miserable.
Still, the idea that the American Dream is the only way to happiness persists in the minds of Americans, and they fail to realize that American Dream is contingent on education.

In “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” Mary Rommely, an immigrant, holds the belief that, once she came to America, “it’s been much harder” (Smith 82). However, in Anzia Yezierska’s short story “America and I,” Yezierska writes that “[g]reat chances have come to me” (107). How can Rommely and Yezierska both immigrate and yet have two different views of America? Yezierska picked up various skills and education over her years in America, explaining in “America and I” that “[g]radually, I became a trained worker” and “learned the [English] language” (54, 62). Rommely, on the other hand, did not understand the significance of education in America. She didn’t send her “first child to school” (Smith 82). In Jerald M. Jellison and John H. Harvey’s essay “What is Freedom?”, the authors explain that “freedom is associated with making decisions, and that other people sometimes limit the number of alternatives from which they can select” (7). Without an education, Mary Rommely and her children had limited options and thus less freedom to pursue the American Dream. Though she still could have, it was much harder for her than if she had been like Yezierska and picked up skills and knowledge over the years. The American Dream is possible for anyone, but today it is more feasible for the

educated.
The American Dream is also significantly easier for the wealthy to achieve. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katie Nolan asserts to her well-off suitor that “[y]our help will make it so easy” (Smith 470). She knows that money makes everything in America more attainable. As early as the twentieth century, the people of the U. S. have known that it “holds heads above water/makes both ends meet”, as the poem “Money” by Dana Gioia asserts (11-12). Class has consistently made life easier and more meaningful for those who are lucky enough to be elites. In the documentary Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream, the narrator assures watchers that anyone born on the poor side of Park Avenue in New York City is unable to make it to the rich side. Not only is it easier to stay rich than become rich, but it is also challenging to ever leave poverty (Gibney). It is possible, as seen in stories like those of Chris Gardner and even Francie Nolan , but it is nearly impossible and requires extreme effort. The rich have an effortless stroll to reach the American Dream compared to everyone else.
Everyone in the United States dreams of a plethora of excellent opportunities and the ability to truly prosper. Yet, like the Magic Morning passes at Disneyland, only the rich and educated are able to take advantage of the opportunity. Some, like Anzia Yezierska, are neither rich nor educated, and still are able to succeed; however, Yezierska is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the American Dream. The American Dream is accessible to all, but it’s easier for the rich and educated to reach it.