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Alondra Rodriguez Medina

Susie Huerta

English 1T

7 February 2018

Dream Big

Living in a country where we strive for success although the American Dream- isn’t

always achievable. Coming from a family who has always believed in this concept motivates me

to always dream big, and make sure that I have that dream accomplished. My dream is to be able

to provide for my family and one day reminisce about all the struggles and complications that got

me to where I am today. Being successful isn’t about money, it is about being content and

valuing all that life has given you along the way of your hard work. In the book Between the

World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, he gives the background on his life and how that influenced

his way of believing in the American Dream. He grew up in a rigid city in Baltimore, didn’t

graduate from Howard college, yet alone him going to school was the last thing on his mind.

Coates expresses that the American Dream is a fantasy that people need to wake up from due to

all the injustice and inequality several people faced back in the day. He believes that it is not

something worth waiting for due to the inhumane treatment the black community has received,

and currently receives. Although I disagree with Coates’ idea of waking up from the American

Dream and how there is no hope left, I strongly think that he is biased based on his experiences.

Being part of a family where they believe in the American Dream and having that hope to

hold onto the possibility of change influences the way of going about it. Coates grew up in an

environment where he believed that this so called “Dream” isn’t a reality because sooner or later

it could get snatched away from you. In Coates’ book he describes how his family was structured
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and how it was growing up. Living in Baltimore with his family, his parents made sure he

learned everything he needed to know in order to protect his body. Whenever Coates got in

trouble at school his mother would make him write about it at home. He realized how to be

conscious of his actions. When Coates mentions how his mom taught him at an early age he

says, “Your grandmother was not teaching me how to behave in class. She was teaching me how

to ruthlessly interrogate the subject that elicited the most sympathy and rationalizing-myself.

Here was the lesson: I was not innocent. (Coates 29). When he says “I was not innocent” he

meant it as a literal form. He was responsible for his own actions and he had to power to amend

any of his actions. His parents never coddled him. Later he gives an example on what he did with

his son. He knew that sugarcoating things had its consequences on the long run and he didn’t

want his son to grow up in this fantasy world and let him not know the reality of the world and

how cold and cruel it can be. Coates describes a time where he had a situation with his son and

how he dealt with it. His son was upset with how the system was handling the situation with

Michael Brown’s murder. After hearing how the men were free of charges, his son ran to his

room to cry because of how confused and upset he was. Coates didn’t comfort him nor did he tell

him that everything was going to be okay. He knew that if he started to comfort his son and

sugarcoat the violence and discrimination going on, the consequences on the long run would be

uneasy.

Family structure does play a huge role in your life and it can influence the perspective of

this dream we all want to achieve someday. I grew up in a family that always believed that

America was the land of dreams and wealth. The main reason why my parents came the United

States was to be able to succeed in realizing the American Dream. Tradition, heritage, and

culture play a huge role in our everyday lives and trying to adapt into a new environment
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changes everything; the way we think, the way we live, the way we communicate with others,

and the way we decide to live our lives.

In addition to his family structure, violence played a huge role in his life that affected his

way of perceiving the American Dream. Violence discourages the ambition to let this so call

dream fall apart instead of pushing through every setback to prove people wrong. In Coates’

view about violence he says, “The boy did not need to shoot. His friends pulled him back. He did

not need to shoot. He had affirmed my place in the order of things. He had let it be known how

easily I could be selected,” shows how the violence would always remind him that at any

moment he could be taken away from his body. He references his body metaphorically because

its life and represents how we don’t really own our body. Baltimore was known for being very

violent and holding no future to anyone who grew up there. Coates had a hard time dealing with

all the violence and being able to make a life for himself.

I think that violence does put a limit in people's desire to obtain the American Dream.

Living in a world where we can’t even go outside without the fear of being murdered, attacked,

or getting hurt is disappointing. In every evil is a little good and there are still good people in this

world. I remember once seeing a show some time ago and remember how one of the characters

said “We can’t just stand here and let the evil dominate us. We have to take a stand together and

remain united. If no one takes the stand, then how is a change ever going to happen? Our

generations are soon going to be living in pure hell.” Hearing those words really got to me and I

agree with those because we can’t just sit here and not care about what our world is coming to.

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and all these leaders who once fought for the serenity of

the human race would be crushed to see that instead of going forward and making a positive

impact to others and this planet, we are dooming ourselves more and more. When reading
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Coates’ book, he states, “Not being violent enough could cost me my body. Being too violent

could cost me my body. We could not get out. I was a capable boy, intelligent, well-liked, but

powerfully afraid. And I felt, vaguely, wordlessly, that for a child to be marked off for such a lie,

to be forced to live in fear was a great injustice” (Coates 28). This quote emphasizes the idea of

how violence prevents us from realizing the struggles one faces to overcome to pursue the

dream. Violence always has a negative impact on our world and due to all the scars and trauma it

leaves on us, it is never easy to erase and marks us for life.

Our communities should join together to save this so called Dream and realize that

waking up from it only brings our hope and desire down. In order to pursue this dream, we must

not have false hope and remain to be optimistic. Coates makes arguable claims throughout his

book “Between the World and Me”, but I disagree with him and I think that realizing what our

ancestors have done to fight and protect this dream that is reachable. Growing up with different

family structures can impact the way we perceive this American Dream and we all grow up with

different values and morals that shape us as humans. We all have our own definition of the

American Dream therefore we should individually reach this dream at our expense. Ignoring this

“dream” is like a slap to the face to all those with hope that one day they too can achieve the

American Dream. Violence will always exist and can prevent us from getting to where we want.

It’s not something that's easy to fight off or ignore, it takes time to make a change. Even though

the world is corrupting and going downhill, I disagree with Coates when he says that people

should wake from this dream. Pursuing the American Dream has lived on longer than we could

think and even though Coates encourages us to wake from it to see the reality, I disagree and I

think that there is still hope and aspiration for those who are optimistic. We want this American

Dream to be a reality, then we gotta fight for it, even though we face many obstacles on the way.
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