Challenging the american dream

Challenging the American Dream Adults Alone challenges our assumption about the american dream, because Paul and Elaine pretend to make it seem like they are living “ the american dream”. When in reality they are not. In the story they live in a nice house in the suburbs, have two kids and a new car. Elaine and Paul both work, but Elaine takes care of the kids more than Paul. She also does all the grocery shopping and cleaning around the house. Elaine tries her best to look good, in terms of staying skinny. It is only because she doesn’t like eating, so she doesn’t have to clean up her mess when she is done. All of these ideas from the story is what makes them look like they are living “ the american dream”. In the story the best scene that illustrates this challenge would be when Paul and Elaine decide to take their kids to visit their grandmother in Florida. This scene is interesting to me because, Paul and Elaine didn’t just take them there to see their grandma or go on a vacation, but because they wanted time alone. The first thing Elaine did when they got home was go to sleep, while Paul talked to the kids on the phone. When any normal married couple would actually go out to dinner or go see a movie. Paul and Elaine have to get high to remember the idea of being in love again. When Elaine goes to the store and spends all that money on cheese. She comes home and drinks by herself not with Paul, he is downstairs playing video games. The kids call and Elaine answered the phone, it was Sammy crying. He misses his mom and dad and she doesn’t even care that he is crying. She knows she is being selfish too, but Paul didn’t even bother try answering the phone. That shows that Elaine care for their kids more. Before Paul and Elaine go to get the crack they get the idea from an advertisement on the television. This shows that they didn’t really take much time to think about whether they were doing it or not. Paul already knows where to get it from, they didn’t have to drive to get it either. Paul and Elaine just sat in the house and smoked crack. Sitting there high they were both hoping they would remember the idea of being in love again. The next morning, after they had come down from their high everything was back to normal. They both knew that they weren’t in love anymore or maybe had never been in love or actually happy with each other. They just stayed married so it makes them look like they are living “ the american dream”.