Comparing The American Dream In Richard Cory And The Lottery By Edwin Arlington Robinson

What’s the American dream to you? In the early 1930’s, the “American Dream” was believed to be achieved by a man who owned a white, two story home with a white picket fence, he had two or three children, his wife was a stay at home mom who cleaned the house and had supper ready when he got home, he owned at least one automobile, and he had money. In other words, it’s a man who’s got it all together. Recently the “American Dream” has added happiness to all of the 1930’s expectations. This paper is going to tell you about three stories; Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory”, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, and Michael Cleary’s “Burning Dreams on the Sun”, and how they relate to the American dream. “Richard Cory” is a very short poem about a wealthy man. The audience of the story is not sure how he has achieved having such a wealthy life style, but according to the story, he is living the American dream. Robinson’s work states “In fine, we thought that he was everything to make us wish that we were in his place” (James 142). The story also says Richard is well liked and thought of in the community he lives in. At the end of the story it says “…one calm summer night, went home,

We can assume that the truck driver has quite a bit of money because of his job. In this story it says, “…kidney’s throbbing again at 3 a.m.?” so we can infer that he is trying to drowned his sorrows in alcohol (James 127). It also says, “Were there too many nights on your hands that hung like chains from the wheel…” which probably means he spends several nights away from his family and house (James 127). In Cleary’s work it says, “…he got cold, shot some balloons with a BB gun and crashed into a power line.” I understand this sentence to say he was not happy so he took his own life. Therefore, even though this truck driver had it all going for him, he still did not have happiness or achieve the American