The part I found the most fascinating in Anderson’s piece was in regards to ambition. The narrator’s parents were perfectly happy and content with their simple life together at the beginning. Once they had a child, however, they became ambitious people (though at different times), although not for themselves. What I found particularly interesting was that the parents were ambitious for their child. This reminded me of the theme we discussed earlier about the American Dream having to do with providing for future generations. Do you think this plays into the version of the American Dream seen in Gatsby at all? Why / why not?
2 thoughts on “Ambition in Anderson”
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You brought up a really good point. In Anderson’s short story, The Egg, the parents were inspired by the birth of their child and did what they could to provide a good life for the future generations. With regards to your question, I think that in Gatsby, we see a different version of the American Dream. In the Great Gatsby I get the sense that most of the characters are acting out of self interest and doing things that would help them get what they want. There is a sense of selfishness. In the short story, The Egg, the parents take into account the importance of their son and do things that would help him, rather than themselves.
To continue and perhaps belabor this point, I think it is important to add that the points at which the mother and father became ambitious are SEPARATE and DIFFERENT. The mother becomes ambitious soon after giving birth to the narrator (the protagonist). The idea of ambition “comes into” the father’s head “during the long nights” when he would “cook” the “meats that were to go into the sandwiches of the boarders” (235). Here, the new life of the narrator and the living nature of lunch meat have a parallel. Though they are vastly different, both images of meat (one human and one animal), reinforce the idea of how new life and new breath, no matter its form, instills ambitious ideologies (like the American Dream).