A Cool Million: Subversion Of The American Dream

Nathanael West (1903-1940), a Jewish American writer, was honored as the precursor of Black Humor. Though he was once regarded by the critics as one after Herman Millville who was neglected while living, his works are now on the list of classics. As a voice of America of the 1930s, his incisive assault on the American society secures him a unique position in American literature. Personally West was intimate with Scott Fitzgerald and literally he was a competitive rival when the theme of American Dream was concerned, differing in the fact that West endured as a melancholia writer during the Great Depression whereas his friend lampooned the roaring 1920s while enjoying it.West is one of the few American writers who establish their literary reputation with small literary output. West's four novels create a body atrophied by the American Dream. A Cool Million is hailed as the first complete disavowal of the American dream of success because it launches an unprecedentedly direct and profound flog on the national myth. Focusing on the salient theme of the American Dream, this thesis attempts to probe into the deep causes of West's relentless subversion of the American Dream. In Chapter One, discussions will be dealt about West's family background, his identity as a Jew and his experiences: Chapter Two is concerned with how West "dismantles" the protagonist, Lemuel Pitkin. By means of parody, West not only reverses the expectation of the readers about Alger hero but also subverts the American Dream. Chapter Three is centered on Whipple Shagpoke, another important archetype of Alger's. To unveil the emptiness of the American Dream, West creates the character of Whipple as a successful dreamer, who is endowed with the personality of the former President Calvin Coolidge and Adolf Hitler.A Cool Million is an important work with its own merits for it deals a sensitive and revealing treatment of the social realm of American life, exploring and exploding the concept of the American Dream.