Individualism and Materialism in America
One of the important features which make literature interesting is its ability to enlighten the readers in a hilarious manner. Well, getting to know and understanding what takes place behind our “normal” experiences as citizens may be a challenging undertake. And for that matter, literature becomes the third eye. Taking a keen scrutiny over the works of Dagoberto Gilb “Love in LA” and that of Tony Hoagland “America”, the manner in which the American culture has been depicted has a lot to be compared.
In Gilbs story “Love in LA” he uses the character Jake to depict the dominant culture of love in this big city of Los Angela’s, the form of love which is the love for self (selfishness). Gilbs story is also a twist on the traditional stories of love, as he majors on a man’s love for himself and what he owns. Jake has been presented as a character consumed with himself and having more pleasure in his life only.
He aspires to have more and more than what he already had with an aim of getting more women. He sees himself as a ladies’ man, therefore uses all possible means to get them, a good example being the moment when he is involved in a minor accident with a woman and uses that opportunity to make his moves. Through this character, the American culture of individualism and materialism is exposed.
This culture has been extended in the “America” by Tony Hoagland where he exposes corruption which is rampant in the American society. In this poem, Tony Hoagland manages to expose the two cultures, individualism and materialism using the characters student to symbolize the innocent citizens being corrupted and the speaker’s father to symbolize the cartels who are busy amassing wealthy for themselves not caring about the rest of the citizens.
From the choice of words by the author, it comes out clearly that selfishness has overcome the morals of the society in America. Basing the argument on the speakers father, when stabbed by the speaker in the dream he narrates that all that gushed out of him was not blood but money “bright green-dollar bills spilling from his wounds, and,…. Clogging up my heart..” (12-17) to depict how his father had gathered a lot of wealth through corruption while the rest of the people suffered.
The two works have presented the culture of American society as a culture of every man for himself and God for us all. This is in relation to what we get to be enlightened by the two stories. In the first story, from the character Jake we learn that everybody is up to getting enough to sustain himself and without any concern to the rest while in the second story, from the character Speaker’s father, we see how he has managed to amass a lot of property at the expense of the poor like the Student character.
From the way America has been presented in the two stories, it totally contrasts my own views on what America represents. Well, as a first world country and a super power, some of the issues being addressed in third world countries like corruption I thought were supposed to be history in America. Again, as a country on the front line championing for democracy I also thought the issues of selfishness were not supposed to be evident here. It is still a surprise to me!