The Disillusionment Of American Dream

The American Dream and the disillusionment of it are important themes of Nathanael West's work which have been reflected by his novels from different angles. At the same time, author's distinct characteristics have also been shown by the specific content of his works, by his attitude towards the American dream and artistic technique. With study of the writing background and motivation and also in-depth analysis of the West's relevant works, the thesis tries to explore the specific content of the disillusionment of American dream and his unique artistic techniques, which will be of critical importance for further understanding his fiction writing.American Dream is a timeless theme throughout the history of American literature. West not only innovatively absorbed the traditional American dream in American literature, but also transcended it. Meanwhile, the poverty and spiritual crisis caused by the Great Depression, which is the main period for West's writing, together with the failure of West's personal pursuit of American dream gave rise to the new character and connotation of American Dream in West's writing. Eventually, all of these factors made direct contribution to West's writing background and motivation.In a loser kingdom which is called "half-world" and created by West in his novels, everyone is a loser, loner and the pain. Though they have never given up pursuing their dreams, they also never made great effort for it, let alone achieve success. Firstly, in Miss Lonelyhearts, the writer tried to show that the deadly blow that Americans were subjected to both physically and mentally led to the devitalization and disillusionment of American Dream by depicting the disillusionment of Miss Lonelyhearts' Christ Dream. Meanwhile he also tried to indicate the great damage caused by a wrong dream. Secondly in A Cold Million, by dismembering the hero Pitkin, West tried to deconstruct the ethics, social justice, western myth, and democracy in American Dream and then entirely denied the American Dream and the American values that it represented. Thirdly, in The Day of Locust, the writer focused on describing how people were cheated by illusory prosperity of Hollywood Dream. By portraying the loser in pursuit of Hollywood Dream, the writer indicated that the Hollywood Dream had negative impact on Americans and American civilization and then denied the American Dream completely.The description of American Dream by West in his novels exhibited the uniqueness of his artistic style. With dark image and symbols, West demonstrated the inevitability of the destruction of the American Dream. By subversive parody of the story about the American Dream, which was composed by the writer Horatio Alger, illogic language and black humor and so on, West exposed the hypocrisy of the American Dream and the harms it caused to people. He subverted the values that the American dream represented and refused to regenerate figures in his novels by using broken Carnival, therefore the American Dream in his novels was doomed to total destruction. All of those made West's writing about the American Dream and its disillusionment unique in the history of American literature.