"The American Dream" consists of the old rags-to-riches story as pictured in the books written by Horatio Alger. The American dominant culture has tried to convince themselves and others that America is the "land of opportunity"; that if a person works hard and has "luck and pluck" that person can achieve his or her dreams of riches and success. The American Dream is not aobut equality, because it is assumed that all are equal (among the WASPs). In contrast, the African American dream is about equality and freedom.

In Martin Luther Kings famous speech "I Have a Dream," he says "the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination"... "the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." These passages of King's are evidenced in the two texts, Baby of the Family and Black Girl Lost. Although Lena's family is not poor, they are forced by a segregated society to live in a poverty-stricken area (the Black part of town). Sandra lives in an even worse area, the African American ghetto and she is desperately poor. Sandra must steal in order to keep from starving and to go to school without being ashamed. While the American Dream involves material success, the African American dream consists of freedom and equality.

References

Ansa, Tina McElroy. Baby of the Family. Harcourt, 1991.

Goines, Donald. Black Girl Lost. Lushena Publishing, 2006.