The American Dream is a set of morals and ideals brought to American by the Puritans from England. These ideals have constantly been critiqued though poetry, film, and literature over time. Through the poems A Lone Striker by Robert Frost and Advertisement For The Waldorf Astoria by Langston Hughes and the film American Beauty by Sam Mendez, three main themes are prevalent. These being work, wealth, and nature/beauty. These themes all relate to each other and play a role in the discussion and reflection of the American Dream through the 3 texts.

The importance of hard work is the foundation of the American Dream. The poem A Lone Striker shows us the need for employment in order to live, but how there is the contrasting feeling of longing to be somewhere else. This longing to leave the working life and retreat, is a reflection on the original ideas of the American Dream. “He knew another place, a wood, and in it, tall as trees, were cliffs; and if he stood on one of these, twould be among the tops of trees”. This phrase instantly gives us the imagery of the woods and nature in the surroundings. It is a contemplation of what the man in the poem could really be doing with his time, instead of waiting for his job.

This phrase uses rhyme between the words “these” and “trees” and uses a reminiscent tone to convey a longing for the woods. In the same way, American Beauty, in the scene where Lester is at work, sitting at his desk taking a call. The tone of his voice while speaking on the phone is quite sarcastic and you can tell that he is fed up. As lester hangs up the phone, his supervisor, Brad, comes into the room and asks if Lester “has a minute”. This is a slightly low angle shot of Brad, where he stands a little left of centre. Lester, still in his sarcastic tone responds “For you Brad, i got 5”. This is a slightly high angle shot on Lester who is seated at his desk. We then cut to a low angle shot of Brad at his desk.

The frame is filled with Brad who is in the centre. We then cut to a rather empty frame of Lester sitting in a chair in the centre of the room. This is a high angle shot and represents Lester’s insignificance compared to Brad. Commencing this meeting, are conversations of employee’s being fired. To prevent his job termination, Lester brings up confidential information that he is aware of, but shouldn’t be. This leverage that Lester now has is shown through the shot composition and how in difference to previous shots, Lester now fills most of the frame and the camera is no longer at a high angle, looking down on him. Lester using this as leverage to keep his job shows us just how important work is to him.

With the already known ideals of the American Dream, we could argue that the poem Advertisement For The Waldorf Astoria points out the flaws of the American Dream when it comes to wealth. With the setting of the Great Depression, the writing style mocks what the majority of people couldn’t have and flaunts what the minority could. This poem for the most part is addressing the masses or majority. It is written like it would be spoken in the tone of a preacher. This tone is inclusive and gets people in, but then crushes their hopes by giving them an unrealistic offer. It is a mockery of the poor of the time but also shows us the monstrous divide between the wealthy and the poor.

The line “All you families put out in the street: Apartments in the towers are only $10,000 a year. (Three rooms and two baths.) Move in there until times get good, and you can do better.” This section of the poem is a perfect example of the mocking tone that exists throughout. Contrasting these beliefs of wealth, American Beauty shows us how the modern American family functions or for better word disfunction's within the constraints of the American Dream. Themes of wealth are used throughout the film. In particular, a scene where the mother, Carolyn is opening a house for inspection. The scene starts with her arriving at the house with cleaning equipment.

The first line she says as she enters the house is “I will sell this house today”. As she is cleaning various sections of the house she manifests her mantra into her cleaning. In the final shot before opening the house, you see Carolyn in a mirror applying a dark red lipstick. She repeats her mantra one more time while looking in the mirror and then notices a missed spot. She aggravatingly wipes at it before opening the doors for inspection. Her determination and drive to sell this house shows how much she wants the wealth that it would bring.

The shots are mainly mid shots with Carolyn always a little right of centre. There is a shot of her cleaning a window and disappearing out of the shot going down the window which then cuts to a shot of her rising from behind a counter and cleaning it. This is used as a transition from one shot to another.

Nature and beauty, two essential themes linked tightly with both American Beauty, and A Lone Striker. The scene where Carolyn is in the front yard at the very start of the film consists of Carolyn in her garden, closely observing her roses that are growing, and then cutting them and collecting them. A shot from the bud of the rose, close up, tilts down the stem until we see Carolyn’s hand with plant cutters that snip the rose. We then get a Medium close up of Carolyn, carefully observing her rose like it is her own “American Beauty”. A voice over of Lester then says “see the way the handle on those pruning sheers matches her gardening clogs? That’s not an accident”.

As this voice over happens we instantly feel like a voyeur into Carolyn’s life. This part of the scene has two shots. One which is the medium close up of Carolyn observing her rose, and the other which cuts to a long shot from behind her, though a window, observing her actions. The rose is aesthetically beautiful but bears no sent, therefore it can only please one of our five senses. A Lone Striker has similar themes but more genuine in the longing to be with nature and its beauty.

The line “He knew a path that wanted walking, He knew a spring that wanted drinking, A thought that wanted further thinking, A love that wanted renewing. ” is an almost dream sequence for the man waiting outside his work and uses a longing-full tone. The way he brings us into the woods with the imagery used gives us the feeling of the nature and beauty surrounding us. This ties back to the original ideology of the American Dream. It was to be surrounded by nature, live within nature and to be happy and free within it.

The industrialisation and metropolisation of Americas major towns and cities was a block to this ideology of being in nature. This man is waiting outside a factory (industrialisation) but longs to be where the original American Dream started.

Through all three texts and their commentary on the concepts of the American Dream at the time of their composition, we can grasp that the Dream was and still is a vast concept and truly a social marvel that has shaped generations of proud Americans ways of thinking about what they should and shouldn’t want in life.