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

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.

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).