Dream of Freedom

Dream of Freedom

The dream of freedom is just one of the small aspects that can fulfill the American Dream. In Jim Cullen’s The American Dream, he touches upon the historical aspects of freedom and equality. In Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It feels to Be Colored Me” and Shay Youngblood’s Soul Kiss both authors take the creative approach to freedom and create freedom that is the unconventional freedom that is away from laws and restrictions.

Jim Cullen’s The American Dream takes a look at the reality of being free in America. In regards to the dream of freedom coinciding with the dream of equality Cullen states, “At some visceral level, virtually all of us need to believe that equality is one of the core values of everyday American life, that its promises extend to everyone” (108). By stating this, Cullen is saying that to believe in freedom and equality everyone must believe that they are entitled to freedom and can obtain it. Cullen continues by saying “This allows us to believe we live in a reasonably fair country that bears some relationship to its founding ideas-in this case, that “all men are created equal,” as usefully ambiguous as the phrase is- and gives us hope that our own dreams are not impossibly out of reach” (108). By giving us hope that our own dreams are not out of reach, Cullen gives the idea that we live in a dream society where we think it is possible to do anything, which, in some cases is true.

In Zora Neale Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” Hurston is quoted as saying “But I am not tragically colored” (153). In Hurston’s work she writes about how she was unaware that she was colored until she was thirteen, after that she was aware of her color but never let it define who she was (Hurston 153). In contrast to Cullen, Hurston’s dream of freedom is achieved differently than through laws and court hearings, such as Plessy vs. Ferguson. Freedom is achieved for Hurston through being who she wants to be, for example: “At certain times I have no race, I am me” (154). Hurston believes that achieving freedom means living the life she wants and not being aware of the limitations that have been bestowed upon people of color for years.

In Shay Youngblood’s Soul Kiss, similar to Hurston, the dream of freedom is not set by boundaries of laws and rules. Although Mariah is a character of color, her struggle for freedom is not from laws and regulations that stipple her race. In my opinion, Mariah’s dream for freedom stems from her mother.