Gloria Naylor Quotes

That’s what the Depression kind of showed, that hard work guaranteed you nothing.

When I think of the American dream, that’s what I think of something that is manufactured, something that is ethereal, something that’s not quite there yet.

If you can just first maintain your own humanity, reify your own personal worth. You then flow into the system as an entity.

They are acceptable. The Colin Powells of America. It was such a phenomenon to me, that Colin Powell was so deeply loved by the American media and actually tabbed as becoming president. And when you look back at the man, you sort of understood what could be more American than someone who was willing to die for this country. You know, then then a man who was a general, then a man who was that conservative, you know, a man who was also fair skinned, which was extremely important and who had Republican leanings.

When I think of the American dream, I think of exclusivity, to be quite honest with you. I think that dream, just like the Foundation of America, was only held out to a few and it was only met for a few. You know, it was not for the most part, for those who had come from Europe, who were land owners, who were part of the aristocracy, who had helped to them the promise that they could indeed prosper in this country. The Constitution was not intended for people who were landless, for people who were not male, for people who were not white. You know, this country was just simply not founded that way. We had to have amendments in order to make this democracy more and more inclusive. And so with the American dream as well, it was held out to those who were white, to those who were male for the most part, and others had to fight for inclusion in it.

Perhaps of the books that we were reading, the one that really stands out the most about the American dream is The Street (by Ann Petry).