Romulus My Father

I am going to be giving my speech on human conditions, but constantly refer to the American Dream and how it has been represented in American literature. I will be referencing two texts in my speech, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger.
I would firstly like to talk about the American Dream. What is the American dream?   The term has been thrown around in American culture since the 1930s. The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America, written in 1931. He states “The American Dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”
It has many meanings to the different socio-economic classes within America, but it is generally thought to be embedded in every American citizen’s right to prosperity and success. Owning a home is believed by many Americans to be the American dream, as it separates the middle classes from the poor. It can also be identified in success how working class immigrants seek to join the American way of life, or in certain sports. American citizens feel that they need to uphold this dream and its many contexts. It can result in people becoming obsessed in being as successful as possible, and will stop at nothing to achieve it. This often results in failure.
My first text, The Catcher in the Rye, written in 1951, is considered to be a classic American novel, and is example of someone struggling with what the American dream is about. In this novel we see Holden Caulfield, a troubled teenage boy with some very ideological views on society. Throughout the book we see American society as it is through Holden’s eyes. Holden feels completely alienated from society. He represents a gentle side in his wish to help other kids from falling into the far depths of society. He states: “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and...