Is the “American Dream” only a dream?

Within Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides, the idea of the “American Dream” is introduced early in the novel. Cal’s grandparents, Lefty and Desdemona Stephanides, are forcibly removed from their village in Greece. The Greek-Turk wars included a great fire of Smyrna devastated their village and forced the pair to seek refuge in the elusive United States. They wish to start a new life together, as husband and wife, and pursue the American Dream.

The “American Dream” is defined as a set of ideals of the US that promotes democracy, equality, and prosperity. Often, immigrants, looking for a better life, often looked to the US to get this better life. The American Dream has been a motif that is within various pieces of literature. Most noticeably, this is presented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This novel portrays this ideal as an aspiration that has a terrible dark side. The American Dream seems to be only a dream to titular character Jay Gatsby, when in reality, the American Dream does not exists. Nick Carraway and Gatsby experience how unattainable and undesirable the underside of this ideal can be.

Unfortunately, Lefty and Desdemona experience the darker side of America. When they first arrive, they fear for any illness that may cause a denial of entrance into Ellis Island. A simple illness can exile them back to the chaos of Greece, which is contrary to the safe haven American is coined as. When Lefty is given a job at the Ford Motor Company, his associates try to Americanize him, as with the nightly English classes. This “melting pot“ of various ethnicities would be expected to be accepting of different nationalities. But Lefty is forced to learn English and assimilate into the American way of life.

Lefty also sees the corruption in America during this time through Lina’s husband, Jimmy Zizmo. When they arrive, Zizmo is relatively successful in his American life; he has a job, a place of residence, and a wife. To an extent, Lefty wishes to have a life similar to this. But it is later revealed that Zizmo is a bootlegger, as this is during Prohibition, and is involved with illegal activities. Lefty is soon drawn into this business and later inspires him to open up a speakeasy in his home. Lefty gives up this dream of a wonderful life in American and partakes in illegal activities just to survive with Desdemona and his two children.

For the Stephanides, the American Dream is not possible. The only way to come close to achieving this goal, is to participate in darker activities which do not align with the ideal of the American Dream. As shown with other novels, the American Dream seems to be only achievable within a dream.