Bowman's Folly on Folly Creek.

Bowman's Folly on Folly Creek, Accomack vic., Accomack County, Virginia.

The image reveals the historic house of Bowman’s Folly on Folly Creek, Accomack County, Virginia. In context, the house was built by Edmund Bowman, Justice of Accomack. The house was later inherited by the Cropper family when Bowman’s daughter married, and has remained within the Cropper family ever since.

This source presents an ideal of what could be considered a stereotypical traditional view of the ‘American Dream’. It depicts a grand white house with white pillars, a porch, and its own land. It is an idealistic view of a home that many Americans may have previously, or to this present day, aspired to. For instance, this has been reflected in the on-screen adaptation of ‘The Notebook’ where Noah aims to afford and restore the traditional, American house that he envisioned for himself and Allie. Overall, it reinforces the fundamental concepts of hard work over a long duration of time to achieve the dream.

When looking closely at the concept of the American dream, both Cullen’s and Adams present slightly different views. Cullen’s suggests, there is no singular view or idea of the ‘American Dream’. For some, it holds connotations of religious freedom, the declaration of independence, economic prosperity, racial equality, and more. Therefore, Cullen’s may infer from this source that it is someone’s American dream, but not a universal dream. Similarly, Adams suggests the dream is wider that a materialistic motive. It is not the connotations of wealth or grandeur that underpin the ‘American Dream’, but instead, it is the “dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable”. While this picture may be an example of an ‘American Dream’, Adams would argue that the concept has a wider meaning.

However, this utopian image also establishes an unrealistic dream for many Americans. As Cullen suggests, a major problem surrounding the ‘American Dream’ is the resolution. If, for whatever circumstances, a person does not achieve their ‘American Dream’, it is often unclear as to why that is. Even people of the highest social ranks are not guaranteed to achieve the dream. This has been shown in American film and literature. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Tennessee Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Both show characters in different circumstances that will never achieve their personal ‘American dream’.

Sources:

file:///C:/Users/gbenn/Downloads/AM1212-James_Truslow_Adams-The_epic_of_America-Chapter_of_The_epic_of_America-pp214-221.pdf

https://www.loc.gov/item/csas200904051/

https://winchester.instructure.com/courses/2521/files/280564/download?wrap=1