This Boy’s Life & The Color of Water In class Essay
We all hear about or imagine the perfect American Dream, big, happy, house, working a good job or going to school and getting a good education. In our imagination or the stories we are told we can make the American dream exactly that but in both The Color of Water and This Boy’s Life living out this dream is harder than imaging it. Both of these memoirs refute our ideas of the American Dream because Toby and his mother go through a lot of hardships trying to get a hold of their lives and James and his family try to hide their lives.
Toby follows his mother as they move from town to town trying to find a job, house, and school that works for them. Toby’s mother decides she needs a husband, too. She is trying to build this family to the best of her ability; meanwhile, Toby is trying to find himself. He doesn’t do well in school, gets in fights, and plays with guns. The focus on this imaginary perfect world takes over and Toby’s mother works so hard to finds it she ruins it at the sametime. Toby is so young he needs his mother as he discovers himself so his happy childhood is also lost. Toby’s mother ends up marrying Dwight who takes advantage of them both. Dwight threatens Toby’s mother when she tries to leave and forces Toby to work but to find this family, including a husband, a good job and a school for a good education the American dream in lost and Toby grows up with very little support from parental figures.
The Color of Water is another example of ideas of the American Dream falling apart. james’s mother tries to forget her past and create a new life for herself. She marries a black man, starts a family, and works hard getting all of her children to school and then through college and some she even gets through graduate school. Although she does this, her children grow up without knowing her making it hard for them to get to know themselves. She thinks that if she satisfies the American Dream her family will be happy and successful, but as usual they face hardships and a house, job and good education aren’t enough. James’s father and stepfather die which stunts the family but the biggest stunt is the family needs to know who they are. They can’t hide behind an education. After James’s stepfather dies he doesn’t do well in school and starts to get in trouble with his friends. It is not until his mother shares her story that he can understand her and himself. Once he hears her story they can relate and he is proud of his different yet amazing mother.
For both James and Toby the perfect American Dream was nowhere near how the grew up. Both of their mothers tried very hard but focused to much on school, family and a job to notice they needed to be more of a parent to their children. The stereotypical American Dream that we all think of is very rare to live so instead we should make our own real American Dream. It is impossible to match what we create in our imagination. Toby’s and James’s families did not live our ideas of the American Dream.