The Green Grass of Dover Beach

529 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The failure of American dream

America has always been a land of great beauty and ambitious dreams. The most prominent dream of all is the American Dream: nice house, loving family, steady job. However, this vision is becoming less of a reality, and more of what it’s called, a dream, in this modern era. Through two different forms of art, poetry and music, two people describe their longing for a bit of the old world in this new one. “Dover Beach” is a poem in which Matthew Arnold laments the harsh realism that grips the world, wishing against all hope for romantic beauty to enthrall the world again. In the song, “Where the Green Grass Grows,” artist Tim McGraw expresses his longing for a peaceful, pastoral future, all the while describing his dissatisfaction of working in an increasingly gritty urban setting. The exploration of the effects contemporary society imposes on the beautiful, romantic dreams of the past are the centerpieces of the two different forms of art.
The encroaching of cold, hard reality upon peaceful dreams is the cause of anguish for many people. Again and again, throughout history, there is ...

Show More
Related

  • A Raisin in the Sun vs. The Glass Menagerie

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    America is known around the world as the land of opportunity, a place where you can follow your dreams. No matter how selfish or farfetched ones dream may be, their goal will always be available. Whether it be the pursuit of the woman of your dreams, like that of Jay Gatsby, or the hunt for something pure and real, like Holden Caulfield. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, exhibit the various types of American lifestyles and the aspiration that surface among each character. The dreams between the characters in the two literary works differ in selfishness, and availability.

    Read More

  • Symbolic Interactionism: The American Dream

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to reduce one's struggle, they are forced to conform into dreaming in a foreign culture. This creates confusion, and a reduced sense of comfortability due to the poor hospitality of the

    Read More

  • Country Music: From Backwood to Hollywood

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many Americans, country isn’t just a type of music. It’s a lifestyle. From sippin’ sweet tea on the porch, drinking beer at a tailgate or driving a pick up down the backroads, country music has made its way into the hearts and minds of many Americans. It is one of the only truly home grown American art forms. Its relatability and wide appeal has made country music one of the most commercially successful and popular genres in the United States. Using the work of scholars Tichi, Pecknold, and Ellison, I will show how country music grew from its rural southern roots into an integral part of American culture.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech: The Development Of Country Music

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lyrics of country music reflect people’s lives as times changed. According to "Poetry For The People: Country Music And American Social Change", published by Southern Quarterly in Ebsco Host, country music depicted “the white, Protestant and working-class Southerner”, “addressed their pain, their dreams struggles, beliefs and moral dilemma”.

    Read More

  • Sense Of Fear In Brent Staples's 'Just Walk On By'

    1262 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Staples is “free,” the constant stigma he experiences acts like chains grounding him to constant judgment. Staples consistently causes unsettling thoughts in prejudice minds. The American Dream is the ideal that everyone should have an equal opportunity to attain success and prosperity, through hard work and determination. Staples grew up “one of the good boys” determined to succeed (2). In his twenty’s, he obtained a college degree from the University of Chicago. Staples is deprived from an equal opportunity to achieve the dream because in America’s culture he is perceived as a danger to society. Although Staples is far from a threat, he feels the urge to calm pedestrians near him with the use of soothing tunes. Staples writes, “I employ what has proved to be a excellent tension-reduction measure: I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers”(2). This measure has a positive response and the individuals near Staples join in on the tune. Staples’ American Dream is limited by feeling the need to please those around him. Even though Staples has all that is needed to succeed, he will be forever limited by the color of his skin.

    Read More

  • Gatsby and Hamilton.

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby seeks to highlight the disillusionment of the “American dream.” Fitzgerald voice’s his disenchantment with the whirlwind pace of the post war jazz age. A decade later many art movements attached to unrest with modern American ideals. Pop arts forefather, Richard Hamilton, capitalized on this idea through his artwork as seen in Hamilton’s most enduring piece, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? (1956). Both Hamilton and Fitzgerald mock the modern idea of the American Dream, the prosperity of oneself and the ability to flaunt it by material acquisitions. It even reaches as far as to say happiness and satisfaction is acquired through possessions, be it breathing or inanimate.

    Read More

  • A Long Way Gone Symbolism Essay

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I became restless and was afraid to sleep for fear that my suppressed thoughts would appear in my dreams” (70).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Invisible Man By Richard Nathan Wright

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    Apparently, critics can use these two books to argue their point on American dreams and nightmares. Within the American society, there are several cases of invisibility which drive some people to exercise power over others, or to demoralize them while evading the arm of the law. However, such cases have led people to seek refuge, although this act does not help the victims to produce a significant impact. When an individual faces such nightmares, one might try to evade the enemies by retreating to a position of invisibility, but such a person cannot formulate considerable changes to the society. In addition, if an individual shuns from nightmares, such a person loses critical time that is necessary for realizing one's dreams. People should not allow the community’s expectations and prejudices to hinder them from exploiting their uniqueness.

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King Moral Code Analysis

    1419 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the speech “I Have a Dream,” presented in the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr talks about his American Dream. This speech is recognized as one of the best speeches ever given at the Lincoln Memorial. As King gives his speech the reader would notice how the second half of the speech is what the world would see as the American dream. The first half consists of the actual reality, nightmare, of the world the constant state that seems never to change. Throughout the speech a person can hear one of the primary themes, dream, repeated constantly eleven times to be exact. Although King acknowledges the metaphor of reality, he explores the archetypical metaphor of a dream.

    Read More

  • No

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the book, Night, the author conveys the idea that the desire to reach a dream can allow an individual to overcome all their adversity. Whereas, when there is a loss of hope, there is a loss of a goal. Keeping faith and holding on to their dreams are beneficial, for they provide individuals with the strength necessary to keep carrying on all the weight of their pain and sufferings. The desire to succeed is essential if an individual hopes to achieve any dream, whether that dream is as small as passing an exam or as large as surviving in a concentration camp. The power to overcome every adversity lies deep within every individual; one must simply reach inside and grasp it.

    Read More

  • Parasomnia

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fisher, C.J., Byrne, A., Edwards, and Kahn, E. (1970) REM and NREM nightmares. In E. Hartman (ed), Sleep and Dreaming. Boston : Little Brown

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, a psychologist named Sigmund Freud welcomed the new age with his socially unacceptable yet undoubtedly intriguing ideologies; one of many was his Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams. Freud believed that dreams are the gateway into a person’s unconscious mind and repressed desires. He was also determined to prove his theory and the structure, mechanism, and symbolism behind it through a study of his patients’ as well as his own dreams. He contended that all dreams had meaning and were the representation of a person’s repressed wish. While the weaknesses of his theory allowed many people to deem it as merely wishful thinking, he was a brilliant man, and his theory on dreams also had many strengths. Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind enabled him to go down in history as the prominent creator of Psychoanalysis.

    Read More

  • Dreams Deferred in William Faulkner´s The Sound and the Fury and Sandra Sineros The House on Mango Street

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tragedy is an ever present part of life, whether it be illness, inability, death or anything else, it takes its toll on everyone. A very common tragedy found in literature and daily life is the loss of dreams, in Langston Hughes’s poem “A Dream Deferred” Hughes poses the question of what truly happens to a deferred dream: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up… Or fester like a sore… Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over...Or does it explode?” The outcome of lost dreams differs for each individual and their attitude. This is seen throughout America and also in The Sound And The Fury by William Faulkner and The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech on Dreams

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    IV. (Preview Main Points) Although we have experienced countless dreams in our lifetime, do we ever stop to think: how dreams occur? How dreams affect our lives? Do dreams even mean anything? Today in my informative speech about dreams, I hope to enlighten you about dreams forming in our minds, the importance of dreams, and lastly the interpretations of dreams.

    Read More

  • Sleeping and Dreaming

    4847 Words  | 10 Pages

    In 2004–2005, the Penn Humanities Forum will focus on the topic of “Sleep and Dreams.” Proposals are invited from researchers in all humanistic fields concerned with representations of sleep, metaphors used to describe sleep, and sleep as a metaphor in itself. In addition, we solicit applications from those who study dreams, visions, and nightmares in art or in life, and the approaches taken to their interpretation. We also welcome proposals about the effects of dreaming on the dreamer, and the resulting emotions, behaviors, and actions taken or foregone in response to dreams. In this Forum on Sleep and Dreams, we will see how the diversity of academic disciplines can help answer important questions about sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the basis of human intellect.

    Read More

More about The Green Grass of Dover Beach

Open Document