Julia Alvarez's American Dream Of America

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We first meet Joe when Janie sees him walking down the road while she's peeling potatoes. Days later, he had convinced Janie to run away with him and go south where there was a town specifically for African Americans. Joe had big dreams about the town. He told Janie,“They were bound to need somebody like him” (Hurston 34). He didn't just want to be a regular person in this town; he wanted to be something of importance there. His American Dream became very clear to Janie. His dream was to be revered and to have power. Years passed and Janie found herself still not in love. The honeymoon phase of their marriage was gone, and Janie started noticing things about Joe. Joe became envious of her. He wouldn't let her wear her hair down in the store …show more content…
Julia explains her thoughts about America, “But in America, you didn’t go by what your family had been in the past, you created yourself anew. This was part of the excitement as well as the confusing challenge of America” (Alvarez 115). While her cousins back in the Dominican Republic started to marry and begin their families, Julia was in and out of jobs and marriages. She didn’t like her parents having to make excuses for her to the family. She felt ashamed because of it, and before she knew it, her American dream grew once again. She wanted to be accepted by her family. She wanted to make them proud. When she finally finished her first book, she felt like her family was finally proud of her. Julia states, “It's nice to have the family finally arguing over who can lay claim to me. In fact, The Fulfillment of the childhood desire in the playground to be picked for one of the teams instead of left over to be taken on as a handicap” (Alvarez 114). Her family saw it like this,”If the ending is “happy,” then the events that precede it suddenly light up with meaningful significance” (Alvarez 115).
The story of Joe Starks and Julia are very similar in these sections of the novels. They both are traveling to a new place with the plan to take on new challenges. Both Julia and Joe wanted others to be proud of them. Julia wanted her family to be proud of her, and Joe wanted his new community to be proud of him. There are differences in the way they wanted these people to be proud of them. Julia wanted more to be accepted by her family and not feel like a burden anymore while Joe wanted to be revered by the community. Joe was more worried about the power than feelings like
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