Question

According to the play Our Town, what does the "American Dream" consist of? Give at least one direct quote.

Accepted Answer

In Our Town, the American Dream is achieved through small-town normalcy, ordinary stability, and savoring the small moments in life. As Mrs. Gibbs says,

. . . choose an unimportant day. Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.

Our Town is a celebration of small-town normalcy in Grover's Corners, in a white America settled by pilgrims. It is a hymn to places where dogs can sleep all day in the street undisturbed and everyone knows everyone else.
Soldiers from different wars are buried in the cemetery in Grover's Corners. We learn, too, that the American Dream was actualized by Union soldiers who went to fight in the Civil War because it was self-evident that holding the United States together was the right thing to do:

All they knew was the name, friends—the United States of America. The United States of America. And they went and died about it.

Wilder's vision of the American Dream in this play is different from the dreams exemplified in other works of American literature. It is not a dream of remaking the world afresh in your image or of finding a source of easy wealth. It is most similar to the simple dream that the characters in Of Mice and Men long for: a house, an ordinary life, some independence, and some roots in a community.

Our Town

According to the play Our Town, what does the "American Dream" consist of? Give at least one direct quote.

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Related Questions

How is Our Town a modern American play?

What role does the Stage Manager play throughout Our Town?

In the play "Our Town", during the flashback in Act II, where does George take Emily after she accuses him of being stuck up?

Thornton Wilder's Our Town addresses expectations of normalcy in terms of a historically oriented American Dream. What modern day cultural texts do the same thing?

According to the play Our Town, what does the "American Dream" consist of? Give at least one direct quote.

Expert Answers

Unlock This Answer Now

Related Questions

How is Our Town a modern American play?

What role does the Stage Manager play throughout Our Town?

In the play &quot;Our Town&quot;, during the flashback in Act II, where does George take Emily after she accuses him of being stuck up?

Thornton Wilder's Our Town addresses expectations of normalcy in terms of a historically oriented American Dream. What modern day cultural texts do the same thing?

In the play "Our Town", during the flashback in Act II, where does George take Emily after she accuses him of being stuck up?