Generation Conflict and the American Dream

¶ … Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller, and "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" by Maxine Hong Kingston. Specifically, it will discuss conflict between generations and the "American Dream" in the two works. Both of these works clearly show the conflict between generations that often results from differing views of the "American Dream," the dream that is so elusive to so many of us.

Author Kingston's story is fact, rather than fiction, but the generational differences between her and her mother are still apparent. She remembers, "We'd have to face four- and five-day-old leftovers until we ate it all. The squid eye would keep appearing at breakfast and dinner until eaten. Sometimes brown masses sat on every dish. I have seen revulsion on the faces of visitors who've caught us at meals" Kingston 108). Her life is far different from her mother's, and she is firmly entrenched in the American Dream, calmly ignoring her culture and heritage until her mother dies. Kingston writes thoughtfully, "Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, with what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?" (Kingston 6). This represents the ultimate clash of cultures, and the ultimate in questioning what is important in life. The American Dream is something far different to other cultures, who come here to improve their lives and give their children opportunities they never would have enjoyed in their home countries. Kingston does not dream of big success, she is successful in her field, but she struggles to balance her two cultures. Her American Dream is to be fully an American, not caught between two worlds. Her mother did not influence her dreams nearly as much as her peers, and being caught between two worlds did, but her mother influences her adult life as she comes to understand more about her culture and her mother. Kingston outgrew her mother, but returned to learn from her as she aged, and this is common in children. She had her own American Dream, but found she needed to know more about herself to make her dreams come true.

Willy Loman, on the other hand, has big, big dreams, but not the ability to make them come true. His American Dream is the common dream of wealth, success, and a measure of fame. Sadly, Willy has grown old in a job that no longer has any use for him. He is old-fashioned and passe, and out of touch. He is a failure, and as such, he influences his children, but mostly to become more than their father was, and find their own dreams. Unfortunately, he seems to have influenced them more in his own unsuccessful ways than anything else has. Biff is a high school football hero who never takes his career any further, and Hap is an unprincipled businessman who seems he will never amount to much, either, and in fact, may end up just like his father - old, pathetic, and contemplating suicide. They too dream of success, and they have surpassed their father in many ways, but without the model of a successful businessman, they must muddle along on their own, and the implication is they will never amount to much and will struggle all their lives.