The Real American Dream

Realism was rushed into place with the rude awakening of the Civil War. For the first time, Americans began to open their eyes and write about the everyday aspects of the culture they saw when they looked around. The American Dream was all about the reality of the American life; for the first time, the focus was on minorities and the working class. The romantic archetypal hero is placed with the human beast, depicted as animal-like and brutal (Norton).

Sui Sin Far’s short story “It’s Wavering Image” is about a Chinese-American girl who struggles to choose which race to identify with. This liminal space proves to depreciate her; the decision for her to be Chinese forced her to move from a place of innocence to a place of experience. When the Chinese woman comforted her with the thought that “thou wilt bear a child thyself some day, and all the bitterness of this will pass away”, Pan is consoled because it helps her deal with her identity (Sin Far 312). The story’s depiction of the human experience as a harsh reality begs the question of accepting life’s realities as true inspirations of hope, or if highlighting the hardships of life create a melancholy vibe of hopelessness.