In the present text I am going to analyze an extract taken from Russell Wayne Baker’s autobiography, Growing up, written in 1982. It is set in the United States between the two world wars and in particular during the Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the country and of the industrialized ones.

Starting from the title, it was given to the extract after the writing of the autobiography as the most suitable means in order to give a guideline to the reader. The passage is about the American separation of roles in 1930 and the appeal of the American dream in crisis days like those. The loss of certainties due to the Depression has led the American people to feel a sense of inner emptiness and to take refuge in the tradition. The American dream bases its origins in the Puritan ideology of “the parable of the talents” and according to its definition, American society provided equal opportunities for everybody regardless of birth, race or social class.

Considering the layout, the text is arranged into four paragraphs, each of them with a specific function.

As for the first paragraph, it is opened by a first person speaking voice, who introduces to the first theme: the separation of roles. In the 1920s there was a significant progress in women’s rights. For instance, in the 1920 the 19^th Amendment allowed women to vote. Nevertheless, the Depression shifted women’s focus. The reader can but-noticed it in the description of the speaker’s sister’s role in the family regardless her skills (“she had enough gumption for a dozen people”). Like other women, Doris is focused on keeping the family together and doing household chores, while the men were searching desperately for a job.During the crisis, it was women who also carried on the family economy, working in place of men for more hours and with a lower salary. Their occupations were limited to those mentioned in the extract: the nurse and the school teacher. Nevertheless, she had great skills, she had studied and she understood economics, as highlighted by the passage where she discovered the scam of a piece of cheese paid more than its actual weight.

Moving on with the second paragraph, it is functional to focus the reader’s attention on the speaker’s personal experience. According to his point of view, he felt he was perceived by his mother as an incapable. The reader can but-noticed it both in the passage: “this must have saddened my mother, this twist of fate that had allocated all the gumption to the daughter and left her with a son who was content with Dick Tracy and Stooge Viller” and in the other one: “she didn’t overestimate what she could do with it”. The lack of trust and esteem in him by his mother is probably caused by his lack of interest in work and in the organization of his future. For this reason, he does not correspond to the ideal of the American dream, which was introduced with the phrase: “The Lord helps those who help themselves” which recall the parable of the talents in the Puritan tradition. Russell Wayne Baker was expected to make something of himself, willy-nilly, from a point of view according to which only those who realize themselves are blessed by God, because they work for the greatness of America. The last lines of the paragraph are functional to introduce the third one which is about the highest ambition of American people: to become the President.

In the previous fifty years, families used to ask to the boys if they want to study in order to become the President, following the example of Abraham Lincoln. The reference is done on purpose as Abraham Lincoln is the symbol of the achievement of freedom against slavery and of the equality of each citizen’s opportunities regardless of birth, race or social class, becoming the father of the American dream. In a period of crisis like the one in which the story is set, where the First World War had just ended and where people felt the tension for the new world war that would soon rise up, American people wished those rights would be observed. It goes without saying that Abraham Lincoln was the idol of the Puritans, the one who best represents their ideology of work ethics and the division they made of people between good (those who work) and bad (those who have not been able to use the means provided by god). The third paragraph is also functional to show the determination of the American people, who are able to work hard in order to achieve their ambitions, as the one to become a President.

The fourth and last paragraph provides the reader the confirmation of the speaker extraneousness to the American dream. When his elderly uncle, who was still tied to the tradition of being president like many years before, asked him to express his preference for the future job, the speaker chose to become a garbage man. The choice is done on purpose as the most suitable means to give the idea of the speaker opposition to traditional values. Infect, the job chosen is the most nonconformist one. It will bring him to the bottom of the society and it is in contrast with the ambition of other men to become the President of the United States of America.