American Dream And Identity The Legend By Garrett Hongo

American Dream and Identity â€Å"The Legend† by Garrett Hongo was written in 1951 and â€Å"Mexicans Begin Jogging† by Gary Soto was written in 1995. For a short background, in the 1950’s, America is at its peak. The economy is booming larger than ever before. This was the time where the American dream starts to grow for the American people, and also for immigrants that tries to make a better living in a great country. A few decades later, in the early 1990’s, America was starting to enter one of the greatest economic recession ever, but immigrants still rushing into the United States in the hope of achieving the great American dream, to go after the wealth that the United States promised to give for those who work hard for it. These two poems does complement each other. Both of these poems, and poets, tries to resemble the view of the American society of those who try to pursue the American dream, as an immigrant or the son of immigrants that lived in th e United States, but no one cares about their identity and hard work to achieve the American dream. Both scenarios reveals the view of the dark side of the American dream, of how difficult it is to have the opportunity to achieve the American dream, as well as alienation. The first poem that portray this theme is â€Å"The Legend.† Garrett Hongo did a great job on setting the theme, describing the imagery, tone, and allusion in the poem. The theme of the poem is about the vanishing of the American dream and the identity of the pursuer