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A**S
The Soured Version of 'The American Dream'
We Americans are taught that America is a country that is basically made up of philosophical and material substances shiny and valuable as pure gold, attainable through sacrifice, sweat equity and desperate risks if we are not lucky enough to born rich. However, for many of us, the Statue of Liberty is actually a whore who we've gussied up and on whom we've projected hollow grand themes and wishful dreams. Even if we believe this is truth, we feel hopeful by any means possible - religion, customs, repeated 'truisms' and platitudes without any validity. That we are undeniably more comfortable than many other countries because of our technological and political infrastructure (indoor plumbing, electricity, food, healthcare, democratic institutions) hides the impoverished suffering of millions of people because of ignorance and lack of equal opportunities, and that two sets of legal systems exist - enforced against you if you are poor, but not bothered about if you are rich.The truth about America is not as simple as it's national image is generally understood.America really is a great country. However, there are huge beautiful wild spaces almost empty of human life as well as vast despoiled wastelands abandoned after everything of value has been mined or destroyed. There are walled and guarded mansions within exclusive manufactured parks built by the wealthy, as well as rotting hovels built on poisoned land not much different from contaminated garbage pits, where the poor must live. There are people who work from dawn to dusk at back-breaking labor for all of their lives who end up in cheap coffins after death, leaving behind mountains of debt, as well as multiple generations of rich families who have not ever worked a day in their lives for centuries or needed college beyond art appreciation degrees. Yet, we speak loudly and often of a national equality between all classes, which in fact does not exist, although the majority of us believe it does.What we do have is a much greater possibility of moving between classes of society not available elsewhere because of many more chances to make or marry into money. We have fewer social taboos that restrict class change, although there may be pockets of social disapproval; for example, a person of Jewish faith can marry a Muslim without either losing their jobs, or house and property or much loss of face. We have opportunities for a basic 'free' education up to age 18. We have a secular government. We have a generally comfortable baseline lifestyle based on socialistic government programs and a widespread technological infrastructure built by private enterprise through government-sponsored activities. (Another thing most Americans ignore or don't know is how much of America's 'greatness' is due to political socialism, not capitalism. In fact, most Americans believe it's the other way around.) Most of us obey most laws and pay taxes without enforcement. The various military entities are forbidden access to private property or organs of governance, and are under the command of secular, non-military elected officials, which in turn are under the threat of losing power through the votes of ordinary citizens and a powerful judiciary, who in turn are also elected or appointed by elected officials. We have a comparatively free media, although they work under many government and corporate restrictions and the threat of damaging and expensive lawsuits by ordinary people. Competition excites and energizes, and the government is under strict rules to promote competition whether by business, sports or private individuals. These things are actually what make America great, in my opinion. It's messy, loud and error-prone, and frequently we take one step backwards for every two steps forward. But so far, it is a system which seems to work best in the Western World.But there are social problems undermining the gains. In reality, an alcoholic or addicted wealthy individual who has never worked a single day or attempted college may live without experiencing much social condemnation or money worries or any assumption of religious damnation or guilt, while a similar alcoholic or addicted poor individual who has never kept a job or had the money or education to go to college because of attending public schools without resources and having had poor and abusive parents may live under a torrent of open judgmental religious and social shaming, punishment and blame, sometimes undermining all chance of personal success or teaching their children successful habits.I am mystified why some people believe now and many more believed widely throughout many societies in past centuries that intense long beatings and abuse of young toddlers and children will instill the 'good' obedience and religious morality needed for a future to become rich on earth and upon death go to a heavenly reward. 'Good' habits placed in a child's mind through the agency of severe pain and punishment, barely survivable deprivations, purposefully caused emotional loneliness through shunning and disapproval, fear of constant death, violent hate spite and revenge directed at the small helpless child, denial of affection and the abandonment of parent approval and love have never created a well-adjusted adult. Many many many rich people have never had to live a moral life to stay rich, or be acceptable in society or be successful in business, educated or not, and many of these folks have complete confidence they are going to heaven, as well. Extreme punishments and beatings have no direct effect on whether they keep or lose their wealth. Market conditions and the hiring of a good finance manager or company does. Yet many people, the majority of whom are in the poor- or middle-classes, believe intense unjust punitive beatings and humiliations will create a magnificent, if cowed silent and obedient, normal human being destined for wealth, generosity, and humility, plus heaven.Even though 'The Big Rock Candy Mountain' is set in 1900's America, taking place in the vast and empty western and central land areas of North America and Canada, many of the same social issues in the novel are still existent. Stegner delights the reader reminiscing about this vanishing lifestyle in the wild spaces with his deservedly Pulitzer winning talent, but the book is also a microscopic examination of an America shaped by socially created illusions and delusions of what can be accomplished with hard work, optimism and ambition. We currently have family cruelties practiced in the name of teaching manners and strength, with general social approval or a reluctance to interfere today, accepting the physical and psychological damages that result by attributing them to personal faults and failures. We also often ignore the observable differences in any animal treated with torture and abuse and one with affectionate concern. It was made clear how these impoverished woods and farm families casually toss and cage broken-legged or hurt wild animals without a single thought to ending or reducing their pain in the book. I understand the casual nonthinking about the handling of creatures one must kill to eat day after day, or animals who must be destroyed to save food crops, but in the dysfunctional Mason family these trapped wild creatures reflected the treatment the children Bruce and Chet experienced. Elsa was the kindest and gentlest mother one could wish to have, but while she protested and spoke against Bo's displaced rage and, if you ask me, undiagnosed ADHD, she simply gave in to her passion for Bo and allowed him the authority to rule the family despite his cruelties and poor parenting. She could have chosen a safer father and a more moderate life. The opportunity for moderation and safety came up three times, but she chose Bo over and over. Her kids paid the price far more than she did. Bo wasn't evil, but he definitely was a product of his environment, lack of education, and damaged thinking. Meaning well does not often result in children who grow up able to forgive, forget or love against the tide of remembered self-centered and selfish parenting, especially if neglect and unjust punishments were inflicted primarily to relieve a parent's inner demons.While all classes sometimes indulge in the unnecessary torture and humiliation of their children in the name of morality, poor people do it in far greater numbers and far more openly with more social acceptance because of religious beliefs or customary family traditions throughout generations (I.e., my father beat me and his father beat my father and his father beat great-grandfather, and so on, to teach them obedience and decency).As a people, we Americans prefer easy sound-bites over thoughtful analyses. We want quick fixes, no matter how temporary or insubstantial. We value living in the moment with spontaneous impulsivity over years of planning and maintenance. We choose charismatic attention-seeking selfish self-centered strongmen who use power to divide us while enriching themselves instead of inclusive and empathic educated thinkers who want to raise all boats. We look for anesthetizing time-wasting distractions instead of working towards goals. The individuality most of us seek, partially because of our educational system and partially because of our national traditions, condemns us to general loneliness, lack of trust in each other and often self-destruction through substance abuse and mental illness. We like to think the aptitudes for hard labor, courageous risk-taking, native intelligence and moral backbones are in our DNA from birth. We are taught in school along with reading and writing that all we need to do is push forward and work hard, grooming our god-given inner talents and ambitions, and in time we all have an equal chance at earning billions of dollars. We are told we are all equal as human beings, starting with the same chances of success as everyone else around us. This novel vividly describes how 'The American Dream' actually plays out in reality. It doesn't matter the era in the book is from 1900 to the 1930's, or that it takes place in the American and Canadian West. Only technology separates the events from that period and our current time.I hated and despised almost all of the men characters in this book, all of them being ignorant and savage to women and children, so it was difficult for me to finish reading. (It is a book written in 1938, so women have either three roles, all supporting: Mother Madonnas, shallow social martinets or greedy prostitutes.) But everyone, male and female, is shown to be a product of place, environment, education, poverty and bodily damage. There is NO equal ground of opportunity, despite their simplified faith in their ability for advancement. They are unknowingly trapped by their ignorance and lack of self-examination.I believe education is helpful at reducing class differences, as I think so does the author. The main narrator (not the only one in this novel's structure of changing viewpoints), Bruce Mason, goes to college, which enables him to tell the story about his awful father, Bo Mason, and the destruction of his family with unblinking literary clarity.While the upper-classes were reading about new discoveries in psychology, social customs in other countries, science, electro-magnetism, food safety, radio, telephones, health care, etc., the lower classes were lucky if they attended school through the 8th grade, and most certainly had no access to libraries or were able to afford books. Lower-class men, in my opinion, barely had more intelligence than the understanding of the animals they had to hunt for sustenance, yet they were expected to work for 'The American Dream' as if it were attainable by simply working long hours of common hard labor and torturing their children to toughen them into the 'respectability' of surface psychopathic manhood. Instead, many boys became neurotic adult tyrants, eager to pass on the torch of humiliation, shame and PTSD down to their children, while drinking heavily to drown the pain of their internal lack of self-worth or ability to feel anything except generalized depression and misdirected rage, and a massive sense of failure.These were people who internalized the cultural lies about equality and yet at the same time had no educational tools to intellectually dissect the messages given to them. Doctors were rare and expensive for poor people, but not for the rich. A poor person who severely injured themselves had no recourse for recovery except home remedies. Loss of a job due to sickness or injury meant starvation and homelessness almost immediately. Wealthy people went to college, although as the decades passed scholarships became available and costs came down.I feel safe in thinking Stegner believed child abuse has a HUGE impact on human development, too. Unfortunately, the 1900's was a period in which most lower-class parents believed beating, and I DO mean beating, children was necessary for moral growth. Whipping with real whips, straps and sticks, kicks, slaps, throwing children into walls and floors, all-day starving, killing pets, enforced adult-level labor and constant verbal abuse was common to lower-class social mores.The male author, Wallace Stegner, who wrote this powerful and horrible novel of naked truth, used 'The American Dream' to rub the reader's face in our delusional social beliefs about equality and child-rearing. He makes clear the Dream is often an unattainable one for the poor, the sick and the emotionally damaged. Many of us live in a terrible miasma of shame without understanding the true source of it - induced patriarchal traditions manipulated by maladapted instincts. We need to teach children through respectful examples about the place of all living things in our world.I'm so fricking depressed. Depending on luck and being born into a wealthy or educated family alone for financial well-being is not acceptable, and yet here we STILL are, facing the same demons that the author wrote of in this amazing great novel. If you can stand it, read it to the end. It definitely is as much one of the Great American Novels as is Moby-Dick; or, The Whale and 'The Great Gatsby
D**G
Some people get it, some people don't
First off, I want to say that it was an absolute pleasure reading this book. It is not perfect in every way, no. But that is what makes it a human tale. Nothing is perfect.My only real criticism of the book is that Stegner doesn't have smooth transitions between events. Sometimes you end one chapter, then start the next and have no idea how much time has lapsed between the two (or maybe not even know where you are). Sometimes the characters are ahead in time half a year, sometimes multiple years; but there's no clear indication that any time has passed. I realize this adds to the mystique of the plot, but it is annoying to have to figure out at the end of one chapter, that you were in a totally different place than the author last left off. This happened multiple times throughout the book.My wish for this book is to have a map of where the Masons lived in the USA or Canada.So my actual review. Stegner is the west. I have never read anything so clearly authentic. Unlike some authors (even during the actual timeperiod) who pretend to know the west or use "western lingo" liberally, Stegner owns it, speaks it and assumes you know it. It doesn't take long to get the lingo, but it's clear he's lived this life. This book could be read just to become cultured in our past.The second thing I'd like to bring up is that not everyone will like this book. I'm fine with that. Not everyone gets it. People might want to read a book to become distracted, fantasize or whatnot, but this book is about life. It screams life. If you aren't old enough to have experienced life (30+, maybe a mature 20+), it probably won't strike true to you. Some people wrote that there aren't people like Elsa, who obey compulsively; or like Bo, who is convinced of his path. There are. Each of us can relate to the characters here. Who isn't a slave to their passions on some level? Who doesn't do something wrong, trying to get ahead, but it ends up failing? We're all like Bo and Elsa.I got a kick out of the one person who said "Is it really possible for a person (Bo the husband) to be naturally good at absolutely everything?" Did you even read the book? He failed at being a father, a good husband and a good person. He was not naturally good at everything. Honestly, if you're going to critique Stegner, it has to be something besides character progression. And the same person goes on to say: "You're supposed to feel bad for the family and their bad luck. But you don't because the author would rather give you pointless detail (while ignoring important detail) than help you get to know and like the characters." Who said you're supposed to do anything? And if you didn't care about the family by the end of the book, I have no hope for you as a reader. I have never cried for a book before, and I have to say, that I was suppressing tears multiple times in the book. And it wasn't just for the characters, it was because I am a father, I am a husband and I am a man and I can identify with Bo and Elsa. Good lord, can I identify with them! I may not have done what Bo did to Bruce (those who have read, will know what I mean), but I can tell you that at times I put myself in front of my wife and kids, just as selfishly. I've blown up in frustration many times. I get it, and Stegner does a great job portraying this. "Pointless details"? It's the pointless details that you're left remembering in life. When my dad passed away, I remembered how he shaved, how he sat down in a chair... pointless details? I think not... that's life and Stegner gets it.This book is about the big picture. Do I want to end up like Bo? Do I want to chase the American dream? Do I want the same end result as in this book? Stegner is a lot like GK Chesterton in that he wants you to hate the sin (or bad action if you hate the word sin). He wants you to hate the American dream of getting something for nothing. He wants you to hate being a slave to passions only. He does it so well that very often people will hate the book, not seeing why he wrote it to begin with. Everybody wants to be like Bruce. Tough. I remember reading the Brothers Karamazov, wanting to identify with Aloysha, the modest, humble good character. Nope, I was like Fyodor, the self-proclaimed idiot.Stegner, it was an honor to read this book. It is a greater honor to be one of those who loves it and allows it to impact their life. If you are on the fence about this book, know this. This is authentic, worthwhile and noble in its endeavor. It doesn't sugar-coat the truth, but lays it flat out. It doesn't put on any pretenses, but is what it is.A friend of mine summed this book's audience best by saying: I read it when in high school and hated it. Later, a college friend convinced me to read it again. I grudgingly picked it up again and found that I loved it. I didn't get it originally because I hadn't any life experience, I couldn't relate to anybody in the book.
E**A
Wonderful book
This a book everyone should read, it is about how the American dream is an illusion and the rootlessness and unhappiness it creates is pertinent to this day.
L**Y
Fantastic American epic
This long book, written in 1943, is an extraordinary account of the post-pioneering generations of the midwest, where we follow Bo Mason and his young wife Elsa through 30 years of trial, occasional triumph and frequent trauma. Incredible set-piece scenes are interspersed with the internal thoughts and reflections of the main characters, and the anguish visited on the wife and children of the man who always has a dream of quick riches.
R**S
An epic story
Well sculpted and vivid story telling.
K**N
Read this
Although sentimental in some respects this is a strong story of lost hopes and dreams with compelling characters living in small town US West
B**.
Painful but totally absorbing.
To say that this book is long and weighty in more senses than one is meant as no criticism. Rather, I’m trying to communicate a little of how successfully Stegner draws us in to the Masons’ itinerant worlds, how we seem to live every moment of their lives, almost at the pace of the family themselves. The author's personal experience enriches the novel most particularly via our sense of the actuality of place.Even more than Bo, Elsa stands at the centre of the book: stoic, loyal, possessed of strength and love in equal proportions. As increasingly the narrative shifts to seeing events through the acute, sensitive eyes of Bruce, Elsa grows even further in stature, but Bruce’s anger at his father, while always there, is increasingly shot through with moments of imaginative empathy.In many ways the book is a monument to endurance and the persistence of hope. It is a relentless tale of pursuit of rainbows but also a solid tribute to the human spirit. It seems to me to be a major achievement and offers the most powerful experience to the reader.
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