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As time has gone on, America has gone from a land of opportunity to a land of control and manipulation. America has lost its dream, as mobility and opportunity virtually no longer exists.

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"Why didn't anybody come?"

Death of a Salesman tells the story of Willy Loman, a salesman who comes to the tragic terms of his and his sons' lives, and eventually ends his own. It is shown numerous times throughout the story that he works very hard and has a role in his company that he has held for years. We even learn that he aspires to be like a fellow salesman he once knew, who brought a personality to his job and at the time of his death had many people come to his funeral and mourn him for months afterward. However, before his death, Willy not only loses his job, but realizes he didn't have that same respect from his peers even though he had convinced himself otherwise. After his death, his wife is confused at the lack of people who came. She thought he had respect from many; after all, he was the New England Man. But in the end, both her and and reader must come to terms with the true tragedy of Willy Loman: he was a very hard worker and cared for his family very much, and yet the world around him chose to reject him and never let him move up, tearing him away from the promises of the American Dream he had so passionately believed he would reach.

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"'Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don't you learn to play chess?'"

Rules of the Game is a short story about a young Chinese-American girl named Waverly who becomes a chess prodigy. Multiple times throughout the story her mother demonstrates certain opinions and expectations that conflict with Waverly's, leading her to become more and more frustrated. Eventually, Waverly gets tired of the way her mother treats her and shows resistance to said treatment, only to be punished and ignored in response. This story reflects a sad reality for those moving up in the world: their fate rests in the hands of those who often don't understand or fully respect their work, but make concessions for them anyways and reap the profits of said work. For example, Waverly's mother would often encourage her to lose as few pieces as possible, which frustrated her as that was an irrelevant factor to her success. However, she kept quiet as she knew her mother was the one in power and needed her permission to keep playing. As soon as she did show her discontent with her treatment, she was instantly cut off from her mother, revealing the full cycle of the relationship between a worker and those who hold power over them.

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"To his supporters he was saying, I see you. I see your value. Which is more than can be said for the elites of either party."

Richard Russo's American Work is an essay about the mistreatment of the working class and how it has affected America. It confronts the reader with the stereotypes and general poor opinion that many of us unconsciously hold for the working class, and how that has led the working class to support and align themselves with people who may have bad intentions for them or the country. This bad stigma doesn't necessarily represent any kind of power struggle, but rather the value of seeing every class in America as important and making valuable contributions, which America severely lacks.

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“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

In “The Great Gatsby”, Daisy is the driving force that propels Gatsby into falling into the trap of the American Dream. Daisy is a symbol for the intangible goals of the American dream and Tom is a symbol for class.

Tom and Daisy are uncaring and greedy; they will ruin others' lives and cause destruction wherever they go and then get to disappear again when things go south. This is symbolic of the connection between class and American Dream. Rich people who are born into the ideal situation of the American Dream will be able to achieve it with no worries, while working class people like Gatsby have to throw away who they once were all for an ideal that will never come to fruition. Tom and Daisy's destructive nature is that of high up bosses and business men: they do not care who they hurt as long as it provides them more money or in Daisy's case, fun.

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“Your heartbreak is just another version of the same old story.”

The narrator's “heartbreak” is a symbol for the American Dream. All throughout the book the narrator is chasing and trying to get back with his ex-wife Amanda to no avail. This is symbolic of how people will chase the idea of the American Dream despite knowing that they will never achieve it. Additionally, Amanda and the narrator met in Kansas City before moving to New York where Amanda becomes a model, ultimately leaving the narrator. Her leaving was a turning point for the narrator: ever since she left he has constantly told himself that he wants to get her back. The narrator is so blinded by what he thinks he wants that he doesn’t actually know what he truly does want. This is the case with many Americans who seek to live out the American Dream, they are fed lies their whole lives all just so they are easier to manipulate later in life. In the novel Amanda doesn't care about the narrator, just like how the higher ups of companies don't care about their employees. The American Dream is built on the exploitation of the desperate and delusional, promising something unattainable all so people will more easily adapt to being part of a machine.