The Bellwood Dream
The American Dream, an entire nation clung to this ideology as a driving point that anyone could have achieved success through enough perseverance. The dogma of the American Dream is shown throughout Gwen Bristow’s Celia Garth as an aspiration that Celia drove for. Her drive being for the desire to escape the life of being a poor city seamstress and achieve the prosperity of having a home and family in Bellwood. Bristow astutely used Bellwood as the symbol of the 1950’s American Dream for which Celia aspired to achieve.
The 1950’s was defined as one of the most economic eras in the history of the United States, the decade following World War II provided the stability for American citizens to build wealth and start families. …show more content…
Celia, as an orphan and a poor seamstress in Charleston, is the demographic that championed the idea of hard work can lead to the higher standard of living and obtaining the things she never had: a family, a home that was hers and economic security. This all changed when she met Jimmy Rand. Celia fell in love with him and met Jimmy's family and heard the description of Bellwood,”...the Rands all thought anything from Bellwood was better than anything else” (Bristow 72) and wanted it to fill the void of never having that family and the wonderful home property that the quaint town would provide. Also, the view of how wonderful the land is illustrated to the reader with Celia’s references to Bellwood’s prosperity in comparison to her situation in Charleston, “I bet….at Bellwood they’re having beefsteaks...potatoes” (Bristow 183), Celia painted a picture of what she imagined of Bellwood, not only as a land with a rich countryside, but also as a sanctuary from the horrors of war she is living through everyday. This view of Bellwood being a sanctuary gave insight to why Celia is ready to go from the small farm town with Jimmy because it is safe and prosperous location for which she can receive the family unit she has always wanted. Celia’s desire to have this family also was influenced by the time period in which Bristow was writing …show more content…
For many, the notion of prosperity remained just a dream” (US History 1), meaning that even with the notion that one can make it did not occur in many cases. For example, when the American culture reminisces upon the 1950’s, it is seen as universal prosperity, but this thought is complete nostalgia as many individuals even with their perseverance could not succeed due to a variety of factors that plagued the 1950’s such as racism and sexism. These factors were heavy restrictions upon Celia as she was limited by society in which roles she could have as a women and was dictated by her once “family” patriarch Roy Garth. These stresses put curtailments on Celia's desires to work hard and begin her family with Jimmy. Bristow represents Celia's struggle through the burning of Bellwood: her goals, her future, her American Dream destroyed, never to see her perseverance and fighting of social boundaries rewarded. Not only these societal restrictions limited success but the true fallacy that is the American Dream as a whole, makes it not the widespread success that society details that it was, ”...portrayal of America in the late 1950s as a land of economic opportunity and common purpose is one-sided at best and that, in many respects, America today is a much better, more open, more just and considerably more
The American Dream, an entire nation clung to this ideology as a driving point that anyone could have achieved success through enough perseverance. The dogma of the American Dream is shown throughout Gwen Bristow’s Celia Garth as an aspiration that Celia drove for. Her drive being for the desire to escape the life of being a poor city seamstress and achieve the prosperity of having a home and family in Bellwood. Bristow astutely used Bellwood as the symbol of the 1950’s American Dream for which Celia aspired to achieve.
The 1950’s was defined as one of the most economic eras in the history of the United States, the decade following World War II provided the stability for American citizens to build wealth and start families. …show more content…
Celia, as an orphan and a poor seamstress in Charleston, is the demographic that championed the idea of hard work can lead to the higher standard of living and obtaining the things she never had: a family, a home that was hers and economic security. This all changed when she met Jimmy Rand. Celia fell in love with him and met Jimmy's family and heard the description of Bellwood,”...the Rands all thought anything from Bellwood was better than anything else” (Bristow 72) and wanted it to fill the void of never having that family and the wonderful home property that the quaint town would provide. Also, the view of how wonderful the land is illustrated to the reader with Celia’s references to Bellwood’s prosperity in comparison to her situation in Charleston, “I bet….at Bellwood they’re having beefsteaks...potatoes” (Bristow 183), Celia painted a picture of what she imagined of Bellwood, not only as a land with a rich countryside, but also as a sanctuary from the horrors of war she is living through everyday. This view of Bellwood being a sanctuary gave insight to why Celia is ready to go from the small farm town with Jimmy because it is safe and prosperous location for which she can receive the family unit she has always wanted. Celia’s desire to have this family also was influenced by the time period in which Bristow was writing …show more content…
For many, the notion of prosperity remained just a dream” (US History 1), meaning that even with the notion that one can make it did not occur in many cases. For example, when the American culture reminisces upon the 1950’s, it is seen as universal prosperity, but this thought is complete nostalgia as many individuals even with their perseverance could not succeed due to a variety of factors that plagued the 1950’s such as racism and sexism. These factors were heavy restrictions upon Celia as she was limited by society in which roles she could have as a women and was dictated by her once “family” patriarch Roy Garth. These stresses put curtailments on Celia's desires to work hard and begin her family with Jimmy. Bristow represents Celia's struggle through the burning of Bellwood: her goals, her future, her American Dream destroyed, never to see her perseverance and fighting of social boundaries rewarded. Not only these societal restrictions limited success but the true fallacy that is the American Dream as a whole, makes it not the widespread success that society details that it was, ”...portrayal of America in the late 1950s as a land of economic opportunity and common purpose is one-sided at best and that, in many respects, America today is a much better, more open, more just and considerably more