Essays

“The British Dream in Hearts and Minds (Anna, Job) compared to Candido's and America's American Dream in the Tortilla Curtain.”


In the following essay I will compare the British Dream (BD) to the American Dream (AD) considering the two novels: “Hearts and Minds” by Amanda Craig and “The Tortilla Curtain” by T.C Boyle.
First of all I am going to explain what is meant by the AD and the BD.
The American Dream is a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success and also and upward social mobility achieved through hard work. One important quote by James Truslow Adams is that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.
The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

In comparison to this definition the BD can be described as a backward-looking.
It focuses around the concept of "Deep England": the desire to live a middle-class culturally-conservative lifestyle in an unspoilt rural setting - but simultaneously having all modern conveniences. In fact, the British Dream does not really exist. People want to make a living in Britain but their aim is not to become Britain. You could say that it is a “London Dream” and London “is calling”. It pretends to offer a carefree, glitzy and luxurious life for the immigrants.

Taking this definitions into consideration, you can compare it to the stories of the protagonists of the two books.
Candido and America are the two protagonists of the book “The Tortilla Curtain” who hoped to find the American Dream in America and they have already been ready to work hard to reach it. Their aim was to own a small flat with refrigerator and a car. By the time America realizes that they will not reach the AD. The labor exchange has been closed and she has to worry about Candido’s and her future because she is pregnant. She made experience in Canoga Park by seeing all the pretty houses and doubts whether her family can reach this. America gets a breakdown and has to get her baby in a shed because she and Candido do not have any money for a doctor. In spite of working very hard they cannot reach any prosperity, so they realized that the reality in the USA is not the same as promised by the AD. Both of them tried hard to reach the AD which promises freedom, success etc. but they failed.

In the novel “Hearts and Minds” by Amanda Craig there are two main protagonists who also strive for the British Dream, one of them is Anna, who is a 15-year-old girl from the Ukraine. She comes illegally to London because she hopes to find a good job there, for example as a chambermaid. She hated her life at home because she had to organize the life of her whole family and she felt like there was no future for her in the Ukraine. She is a girl with a lot of dreams and expectations. That is the reason why she wants to come to London (p.29) and also because everybody in London is a foreigner and nobody knows her there (p. 44).

When she arrives in London, she is quite excited, but what she doesn’t know is that her friend Natalya, who told her to come to London, sold her to a brothel. Anna is immediately trafficked into prostitution and sexual slavery.
In the beginning Anna seems to be a very naive girl, also because of the reason that she is still physically a child. She thinks that her life in London is going to be so much better than at home.
During her stay in the brothel she is raped and beaten several times a day. Instead of accepting her new cruel life, she still has the bravery to make up a plan to get out of the brothel although at times she is disheartened and thinks of ending her life.
Anna is also a very good-hearted person. You can see that when she gives money to another prostitute or when she decides to help Katy, a woman who allowed Anna to live with her in her household. She keeps Katy’s flat clean and she even cooks for her.
After all this horrible time that Anna has been through, she is scared of course, but she still hasn’t lost her bravery and her principles of being a hard worker. She seems to be a really diligent person. This is something that her old grandmother, who was deported in Russia, taught her. She also seems to be a caring person because she notices when Katy is sad and Anna kind of tries to help her and talk to her.
With the help of Katy she manages to find a job as a waitress and that’s when she starts earning money with a totally normal job. This naive little girl turns into a really strong young woman who is now ready to start a new life.

Another protagonist from the novel “Hearts and Minds” is Job.
His story stretches through the whole novel and is linked to the other main characters. Job is a 22 years old male and a Christian. He was born in Zimbabwe, Africa, where he grew up in the Wisdin's residence (p. 65) because his father died very early. When he married his wife Munisha he voted he "wrong party" in his country. Therefore he was tortured and persecuted so he gathered all the money he could get to flee to London with a fake student visa. In London he earns his living as a taxi driver with a fake drivers license but has to work a second job as a car washer to send enough money to his wife and his sister's family. This shows how hard he is working. He speaks English fluently due to the Wisdins family, is very sophisticated and likes Shakespeare. Even if many other taxi drivers discriminate him he is willing to help Tarique's son read, which shows his friendly and helpful character. He also wanted to help Anna out of prostitution. But he sees his own home country as hell and as the worst thing ever because of his bad experiences in the past. He has a strong personality, even if he is confronted with a lot of discrimination and hate against him, he never gives up und still keeps on working hard (p. 21), about 16 hours a day, and sending money to his wife and sister even if he hasn’t heard from them in a long time. At the end he still goes back to Zimbabwe to his beloved wife Munisha. Job is also a hero because he stopped Selim’s bomb attack.

Considering the stories of all the characters, you can say that the characters in “Hearts and Minds” were more successful. They went through a lot of difficulties like Anna. She started as a prostitute but she never gave up and also Jobs, who always worked very hard and at the end he could go and search for his wife.

You can say that Anna and Job somehow got from “rags to riches” but they did not actually get “rich”, they just “climbed up some stairs” into a better life.
In comparison to this, Candido and America did not reach the AD because they were really unlucky. They tried their best and worked hard but at the end they failed and their baby also died.

You can see that it is different from human to human. There are people who easily reach the AD and try it hard but there are also people who try it even harder and do not have any luck reaching the AD.
Even though, the AD and the BD have a lot in common: the intentions of both promise a better life and success but both are more a dream than reality. People who believe only in them are really naïve and fail at the end.
Both authors show us very realistic ways of how it can be, reaching the AD/BD or not and all in all you can see that reaching the AD/BD is a very important aim for the life of the American and the British people.