Solution Or Illusion: The Jewish Pursuit Of "American Dream" In The Promised Land, The Assistant, And American Pastoral

This dissertation tries to address the theme of"American Dream"by concentrating on one group of the"American dreamer"—the Jews. Following the struggles of generations of the American Jews on their way to their dreams, the study attempts to find out whether the Jewish pursuit of the"American Dream"is a realistic solution or an imagined illusion, based on the exploration of the three novels written by three American Jewish writers—Mary Antin, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth, each representative to her or his own generation.The three novels under discussion as a whole present four generations of American Jewish immigration, with each book one generation further into the American society: Antin's The Promised Land describes the joys and sorrows of the first generation immigrants; Malamud's The Assistant concentrates on both the first and second generations; Roth's American Pastoral tells about the rise and fall of a Jewish family across its second, third, and the fourth generations of family members. The exploration of Jewish pursuit of the"American Dream"in this dissertation focuses on what happens to Jewish immigrants of different generations when they are after their"American Dream"in the above mentioned three novels. The exploration will revolve around such aspects as the contents of the Dream for different generations, the essence of the Dream, the driving force behind the Dream in different historical phrases, how and why they succeed or fail in their endeavor, the costs they pay for and the benefits they get from the Dream.Following a chronological sequence, the dissertation in three chapters discusses the above mentioned books successively. Chapter one deals with the interpretation of The Promised Land, which gives account of how the"American Dream"comes true after a Jewish little girl settles down at this"Promised Land", and how her spirit of regret and ambivalence runs parallel to her optimism about assimilation. Chapter two centers on the discussion of The Assistant, which tells a story of a Jewish grocer and his assistant, illustrating that the conflict between the morality-oriented Jewish principles and the success-centered American values thwarts the pursuit of the"American Dream"for both the first and second Jewish generations. Chapter three devotes its attention to American Pastoral which depicts the rise and fall of a three-generation Jewish family, focusing on the inevitability of tragedy once the Jews try to achieve the"American Dream"of becoming perfectly assimilated into the Wasp society at the cost of their Jewish roots.Based upon these discussions, the dissertation concludes that different from the general Wasps'"American Dream"primarily built upon the desire for a richer life, the Jewish"American Dream"nurtures itself on the ideal for a better life measured not only by externally material wealth but by internally spiritual fulfillment. This spiritual satisfaction distills down to two aspirations: the Jews'wish to be seen as members in the majority, and their desire to preserve their Jewish identity as a minority. Since they are intrinsically contradictory, the answer to the title question is that the Jewish"American Dream"has to be an unreal illusion rather than a realistic solution. The incompatibility of the fundamental principles in Jewish beliefs and American values predestines the eternal perplexity that the Jews'wish to get integrated into the mainstream American culture stands at odds with their intense desire to keep intact the Jewish legacy.