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The New American Dreamer
Ruth
Sidel
1.
she
is
the
prototype
of
today
’
s
young
woman
—
confident,
outgoing,
knowledgeable,
involved. She is active in her school,
church, or community. (We can get the character of
today
’
s
young
women should be confident, open, sophisticated,
complicated and active.) She may have a
wide
circle
of
friends
or
simply
a
few
close
ones,
but
she
is
committed
to
them
and
to
their
friendship. (She might
have a lot of friends or few friends, but she will
be loyal to them and their
friendship.)
She is sophisticated about the central issues
(Main issues) facing young people
today
—
planning
for
the
future,
intimacy,
sex,
drugs,
and
alcohol
—
and
discusses
them
seriously,
thoughtfully, and
forthrightly (directly). She wants to take control
of her life and is trying to figure
out
(make clear) how to get from where she is to where
she wants to. (She wants to make decision
about her destiny by herself rather
than hold in the others
’
hands. And she also tries her best to
make clear who she is and her dreams or
aims.) About all, she is convinced (believe
strongly) that
if
she
plans
carefully,
works
hard,
and
makes
the
right
decisions,
she
will
be
a
success
in
her
chosen field; have the material goods
she desires; in time (eventually), marry if she
wishes; and, in
all probability (very
probably), have children. She plans, as the
expression goes, to
“
have it
all.
”
(Modern
young woman want to have
all
—
work, success, family,
and etc. )
2. She lives in
and around (surrounds) the major cities of the
United States, in the towns of
New
England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont,
Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire.), in
the
small
cities
of
the
South
and
Midwest
(California,
Texas,
etc.),
and
along
the
West
Coast
(Seattle, L.A., Washington.). She comes
from an upper-middle-class family, from the middle
class,
from
the
working
class,
and
even
sometimes
from
the
poor.
(These
people
may
be
from
upper
class,
or middle class, or working class and even the
poor.) What is clear is that she has heard the
message that women today should be the
heroines of their own lives. She looks toward the
future,
seeing herself as the central
character, planning her career, her apartment, her
own success story.
Theses young women
do not see themselves as playing supporting roles
in someone else
’
s life
script; it is their own journeys they
are planning. They see their lives in terms of
their
aspirations,
their
hopes,
their
dreams.
3. Beth Conant (representative for the
upper-middle-class, her dream is to be an actor.)
is a
sixteen-year-old high-school
junior who lives with her mother and stepfather in
an affluent New
England college town.
She has five brothers, four older and one several
years younger. Her mother
is a
librarian, and her stepfather is a stockbroker. A
junior at a top-notch public high school, she
hopes to study drama in college,
possibly at Yale,
“
like
Meryl Streep.
”
She would
like to live
and act in England for a
time, possibly doing Shakespeare. (There is
background knowledge about
Shakespeare.
He
also
went
to
London
and
in
there,
he
gained
huge
success.)
She
hopes
to
be
living in New York by the age of
twenty-five, in her apartment or condo, starting
on her acting
career while working at
another job by which she supports herself. She
wants to have
“
a great
life,
”
be
“
really
independent,
”
and have
“
everything
that
’
s
mine
—
crazy (terrific)
furniture,
everything my own
style.
”
4. By the time
she
’
s thirty (
“
that
’
s so
boring
”
), she feels, she
will need to be sensible,
because soon
she will be
“
tied
down.
”
(Restricted) She
hopes that by then her career will be
“
starting to go
forth
”
and that she will be
getting good roles. By thirty-five
she
’
ll have a child
(
“
probably be
married beforehand
”
), be
working in New York and have a house in the
country.
How will she manage all this?
Her husband will share responsibilities.
She
‘
s not going to be a
“
supermom.
”
They
’
ll
both
do
child
care.
He
won
’
t
do
it
as
a
favor
(Child
caring
is
the
responsibility for both father and
mother. So child caring by husband is his
responsibility rather
than doing a
favor to the wife.): it will be their joint
responsibilities. Moreover, if she
doesn
’
t
have the
time to give to a child, she
won
’
t have one. If
necessary, she
’
ll work for a
while, then
have children, and after
that
“
make one movie a
year.
”
5. Amy Morrison (representative from
the middle-class, her dream is to be a surgeon.)
is a
petite,
black,
fifteen-year-old
high-school
sophomore
who
lives
in
Ohio.
Her
mother
works
part-time, and her farther works for a
local art museum. She plans to go to medical
school and
hopes to become a surgeon.
She doesn
’
t want to marry
until she has a good, secure (firmly fixed)
job but indicates that she might be
living with someone. She
’
s
not sure about having children but
says
emphatically (strongly) that she wants to be
successful, to make money, to have cars. In fact,
originally she wanted to become a
doctor
“
primarily for the
money,
”
but now she claims
other
factors are drawing her to
medicine.
6. Jacqueline
Gonzalez (representative from working-class, her
dream is to be a lawyer) is
a
quiet,
self-possessed
(self-control),
nineteen-
year-old
Mexican-American
woman
who
is
a
sophomore
at
a
community
college
in
southern
California.
She
describes
her
farther
as
a
“
self-employed
contractor
”
and
her
mother
as
a
“
housewife.
”
Jacqueline,
the
second-youngest of six children, is the
first in her family to go to college. Among her
four brothers
and one sister, only her
sister has finished high school.
Jacqueline
’
s goal is to go
to law school
and
then
to
go
into
private
practice
(private
lawyer
working
place).
While
she
sees
herself
as
eventually
married
with
“
one
or
two
children,
”
work,
professional
achievement,
and
an
upper-middle-class life-
style are central to her plans for her future.
7. If in the past, and to a
considerable extent still today, women have hoped
to find their
identity
through
marriage,
have
sought
to
find
“
validation
of
?
[their]
uniqueness
and
importance
by
being
singled
out
among
all
other
women
by
a
man,
”
the
New
American
Dreamers are setting out on a very
different quest for self-realization. (In the
past, and even to a
considerable extent
today, women get their identity through man, more
exactly speaking through
the marriage.
They would be validated by men. Men think you are
unique that you are unique, and
they
think
you
are
important
that
you
are
important.)
They
are,
in
their
plans
for
the
future,
separating identity
from intimacy, saying that they must first figure
out who they are and that then
and
only
then
will
they
form
a
partnership
with
a
man.
(In
the
future,
they
want
to
get
their
identities by
themselves rather than men. Therefore, they must
know their own quite well and then
they
can cooperate with a partnership, that is to say,
to be equal with them.)
Among the young
women
I
interviewed,
the
New
American
Dreamers
stand
apart
in
their
intention
to
make
their
own way in the world
and determine their own destiny prior to forming a
significant and lasting
intimate
relationship.
(The
New
American
Dreamers
take
control
of
their
lives.
They
will
determine their own destiny.)
8.
Young
women
today
do
not
need
to
come
from
upper-
middle-class
homes
such
as
Beth
’
s or middle-
class such as Amy
’
s or
working-class homes such as
Jacqueline
’
s to dreams
of
“
the good
life.
”
Even young women with
several strikes against them see material success
as
a
key
prize
at
the
end
of
the
rainbow.
(Even
young
women
with
several
hits
regard
material
rewards
as
a
major
prize
after
difficulties.)
Some
seem
to
feel
that
success
is
out
there
for
the
taking (Some people
think that success from those person, such as
Beth
—
her dream is to be an
actor, Amy
—
her
dream is to be a surgeon, and
Jacqueline
—
her dream is to
be a lawyer, is quite
natural.
Because
for
those
profession,
people
can
easily
earn
money
and
also
gain
fame.).
Generally,
the
most
prestigious,
best-paying
careers
are
mentioned;
few
women
of
any
class
mention
traditional
women
’
s
professions
such
as
teaching
or
nursing.
A
sixteen-year-old
unmarried
Arizona mother of a four-and-a-half- month-old
baby looks forward to a
“
professional
career either in a bank or with a
computer company,
”
a
“
house that belongs to
me,
”
a
“
nice
car,
”
and the
ability to buy her son
“
good
clothes.
”
She sees herself
in the future as dating but
not
married.
“
There
is
not
much
stress
on
marriage
these
days
(These
days,
the
stress
from
marriage is lighter than
before.),
”
she says.
9. Yet another young woman,
a seventeen-year-old black unmarried mother of an
infant,
hopes to be a
“
professional
model,
”
have
“
lots of
cash,
”
be
“
rich,
”
maybe have
another
child. When asked if a man will
be part of the picture (free thought about the
future), she responds,
“
I
don
’
t
know.
”
10. An eighteen-year-old Hispanic
unmarried mother hopes to
“
be my own
boss
”
in a
large
company, have a
“
beautiful
home,
”
send her daughter to
“
the best
schools.
”
She wants,
in her words, to
“
do it, make it (be
successful), have money.
”
11. These young women are
bright, thoughtful, personable. And they are
quintessentially
American: they believe
that with enough hard work they will
“
make
it
”
in American society. No
matter what class they come from, their
fantasies are of upward mobility, a comfortable
life filled
with
personal
choice
and
material
possessions.
(These
young
female
are
smart,
thoughtful
and
well-behaved. They are typical
Americans who think that if they work hard, one
day they will be a
successful person.
No matter what class they come from, they always
have upward mobility and
make
their
own
choice.)
The
upper-middle-class
women
fantasize
a
life
even
more
upper-
middle-class;
middle-class
and
working-class
women
look
toward
a
life
of
high
status
in
which they have virtually everything
they want; and some young women who come from
families
with significant financial
deprivation and numerous other problems dream of a
life straight out of
“
Dallas
,
”
“
Dy
nasty,
”
or
“
L.A.
Law.
”
(People
have
nice
life
who
wants
to
live
a
more
wonderful life. And
people from the poor will form their life aim
through movie.) According to
one young
woman, some of her friends are so determined to be
successful that they are
“
fearful
that
there will be a nuclear war and that they will die
before they have a chance to live their lives.
If there is a nuclear
war,
”
she explained,
“
they
won
’
t live long enough to be
successful.
”
(It
is used to show their desire for
success.)
12.
Young
women
are
our
latest
true
believers.
They
have
brought
into
the
image
of
a
bright future. Many of
them see themselves as professional women, dressed
in handsome clothes,
carrying
a
briefcase
to
work,
and
coming
home
to
a
comfortable
house
or condo,
possibly
to
a
loving,
caring
husband
and
a
couple
of
well-behaved
children.
How
widespread
is
the
dream?
How realistic is it?
What is the function of this latest American
dream? What about those who feel
their
dreams
must
be
deferred
(postponed)?
What
about
those
with
no
dream
at
all?
And
what
about those who
“
share the
fantasy,
”
as the Chanel No.
5 perfume advertisement used to say,
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