Analysis Of American Dream In Goodbye Columbus

The American dream can be many things, it just solely depends on the person interpreting that fantasy. This dream can be just having a regular family, a wife/husband and a couple of kids, or it can be obtaining a level of wealth that you never imagined having. In the novel, Goodbye, Columbus the main character, Neil Klugman, is a twenty three year old guy with a philosophy degree and works at the library. As the story progresses, Neil seems to have an internal conflict about what he’s planning on doing for the rest of his life and trying to find out what is his ideal American dream. While he’s dating his wealthy and beautiful girlfriend, Brenda Patimkin, Neil has to decide is the American dream just about having all these expensive material.

It can be seen in chapter 7 when Neil goes into the cathedral to basically ask god what he should do with his life, He received his answer supposedly exiting the church from fifth avenue stating “Which prize do you think, schmuck? Gold dinnerware, sporting-goods trees, nectarines, garbage disposals, bumpless noses, Patimkin sink, Bonwit teller.” (100) This was the moment that Neil thought that he finally realized what his American dream was and what he had to do to achieve that dream. One thing that is crucial is that Neil was never planning this, he had no vision nor has a vision for his own future and even stated “What is it I love, Lord?” This meant that Neil didn’t know if he actually loved Brenda or if he only loved the perks for showing love towards her. This can be tied to Don Draper’s happiness speech from “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” Mad Men when he states that “Happiness is the smell of a new car and freedom of fear.” And to Neil, gold dinnerware and garbage disposals are his new car smell which is supposed to make him

The most obvious example is Brenda’s nose job, she says that the doctor “fixed” her nose. Plastic surgery is more common for celebrities or people with wealth and it just seems that just wanted to assimilate herself towards that culture and make herself seem like a celebrity. Another example is Ron Patimkin, Brenda’s older brother, He’s your typical all American college basketball star that gets a girl pregnant and has to drop all the sports and school to support the new family. Again you see that Ron is trying to achieve that American dream in every stage of his life. While he was in college he was trying to assimilate to that mainstream American lifestyle of attending a prestigious university and striving in a very mainstream American sport. But now that he’s getting married and having a child he has to readjust from trying to become a gym teacher to a different kind of American dream which is to go into the very wealthy family business and support his family, the same kind of dream that was opened to Neil while he was dating