dark side of the american fantasy

American Fantasy

In Ashton kutcher Kesey’s Occasionally a Great Notion, the Stamper family shows how the idealistic American lifestyle and the evenly idealistic persons living and working within just that lifestyle become damaged by the dark side of the American Dream. The Stamper relatives follows the unthreatened lifestyle, unregulated freedom, and unrestricted pursuit of joy, which leads those to the inevitable demise of the pursuit.

The theory that all man has got the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is frequently skewed and instead perceived as every mans right to his maximum capacity of these individual rights, provoking detriments that he may instill on his friends and neighbors. This irony is further more defined as the pursuit of monetary success and private power, both these styles which come in the expense more. The Stampers’ determination to freely go after their existence, liberty, and happiness by themselves terms gets them into conflict with others who are trying to the actual exact same point. The friends and family runs a Gyppo working operation in Wakonda, Or that has manufactured a deal using a logging union called Wakonda Pacific. The gravity with their decision quickly becomes obvious when the town’s lumber market finds alone in a strike. The Stampers’ agreement with Wakonda Pacific cycles confronts associated with the responsibility to fill the contracts of such striking employees with a very limited amount of family members. Even though the contract can be portrayed as somewhat unfeasible, even the town admits that “half the boys can cut two times the trees” (Kesey 46), and the Stampers are convinced that they can make the deadline. While the city is left in a disoriented state, wondering “who [do they] believe they are, in any case? These Stampers? To make this kind of bad hit? ” (Kesey 200), the family turns into preoccupied which has a large work load and disregards the potential corollaries of their decision. This Stamper manifestation with the American Wish is deeply rooted in the inherent idea of “Never Offer a Inch” children motto that rests on a plaque in Hank Stamper’s room. This kind of plaque was originally an image of Jesus, but was colored over in gaudy yellow equipment paint and embossed together with the motto now represents the way in which the Stamper family beliefs of determination and resistance paint more than several common values over the novel. This kind of willpower not merely causes the Stampers to ignore common values, although also directs them towards a goal which could only be achieved at the expenditure of others.

In the midst of this kind of strike, Hank Stamper is confronted by the union arbitrator peacemaker, Jonathan Mcneally Draeger, who have reminds Hank that “a good various people around are dependent on that work reopening” (Kesey 360). Hank Stamper is definitely offended by simply Draeger’s make an attempt to instill self-reproach and encourage him to trade the operation and dismisses any gentle concern intended for the town by exposing his ambitious, self fulfilling personality:

&lt, BLOCKQUOTE&gt, If we was to enter it with Russia Id fight for all of us right down to the wire, and if Oregon was going to get into this with A bunch of states I’d fight for Oregon. But if somebody Biggy Newton or the Woodsworker’s Union or anybody gets into it with me, in that case I’m to me! When the chips are straight down, I’m my patriot. My spouse and i don’t give a goddam the other guy is my own brother wavin’ the American flag and singing the friggin’ Celebrity Spangled Banner! (Kesey 363)&lt, /BLOCKQUOTE&gt

Kesey portrays Hank Stamper as a protagonist whom embodies not simply honesty, honesty and determination, but also ruthlessness, out and out aggression, and insensitivity. These bad traits area when it comes to working on his determination. When Hank deliberately explains to Draeger, “[You] can tell my good friends and neighbors Hank Stamper is heartless being a stone in case you want” (Kesey 363), it becomes clear that he cares about you not for the more good, nevertheless for the immediate great of himself and his instant circle. Hank, unlike various characters, will not undergo virtually any transformation over the course of the novel and remains generally fixed when it comes to attitude and beliefs. The perseverance of his figure further underlines the persistence of his motives plus the family’s hobbies. His father, Henry, and brother, Lee, exhibit similar tendencies and attitudes, although become handicapped throughout the book, both actually and figuratively. Henry manages to lose his arm in a signing accident and Lee turns into tangled in an affair with Hank’s wife, distracting both equally characters in the family’s primary pursuit of this modified American Dream.

Conflicts inside the family simply conceal the exponential regarding the passion, allowing Hank Stamper to pursue an ambition which in turn eventually visits benefit only himself and leaves the family in shambles. His invulnerability causes him to ignore important morals and embody a callous, insensitive lifestyle. At the conclusion of the novel, Hank Stamper’s belief inside the plaque is stronger than his belief in his relatives. He constantly pursues his corrupt concept of the American Dream, which has been meant to at first beat straight down everyone about the Stamper relatives but can be camouflaged until it leaks from its margins and beats straight down members within the family. The philosophy at some point comes to reflect Hank Stamper’s best interests, because distinct as a result of the friends and family as a whole. His intent transforms malignant to the people he views close also his partner, Viv, that can no longer put up with the isolation his purpose causes her and commits adultery.

This obsession not only brings about internal discord within the Stampers, but also forces the family to handle the town’s external bitterness: “The individuals truly weren’t being permitted to make themselves comfortable by blaming it on the rain¦ when it was so goddam evident the town’s concerns and issues were being caused by¦ that goddam hardnose up the river! ” (Kesey 400). Since Hank regularly finds himself impermeable towards the town’s cries and Draeger’s pressure, the responsibility is placed after the rest of his friends and family. The consequences from the family’s unhindered pursuit happen to be experienced simply by Viv, who will be snubbed by the town and finally “stops answering the phone in daytime (she got already ended going into Wakonda to shop, and was even experiencing wintry stares when ever she gone as far away as Florence)” (Kesey 444). The not regulated liberty that Hank Stamper believes he possesses actually begins to limit the freedom of his prolonged family. Requiring that the procedure be distributed, Orland gripes to Hank that “you have to worry about neighbors! You have to a teen-aged daughter who comes home crying because the children in school will not likely vote her into the Y-teens” (Kesey 418). A member of the family is ultimately killed in a logging incident and the marriage act between Shelter and Viv is no longer obscured towards the end of the story. The deterioration of the is evident to all or any but is definitely steadfastly forgotten by Hank Stamper, who sees towards the logging procedure as his top priority and declares that “I’m likely to finish away that last boom¦ avoid matter easily come down with flu by every region in the world” (Kesey 449). However , Hank’s pursuit of a so-called unthreatened life at some point jeopardizes his ability to even fulfill the agreement with Wakonda Pacific. Irrespective of his be anxious that “[they] just might not really make that deadline” (Kesey 364), Hank Stamper remains to be relentless and continues to battle with the wood logs to his likely loss of life.

As American world is founded on the traditional value for identity, rebellion, and rule-breaking, so are the Stamper family values. Their viewpoint does not deviate too far through the original thought and can even be observed as appreciating that idea. However , their very own application of these values shows how the American Dream may be pursued within an infatuated manner where eventual demise is unavoidable. In the novel At times a Great Idea, Ken Kesey exhibits just how every man’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” can be dangerous, preempt morality, and potentially lead to the destruction of life.

Works Offered

Adams, Wayne Truslow. The Epic of America. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1931.

Kesey, Ashton kutcher. Sometimes a Great Notion. New york city: Viking Press, 1964.