Australian Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes "Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing From the Land Down Under," by Phyllis Edelson. Specifically, it analyzes the essay "American Dreams," by Peter Carey. Some Australians do not seem to recognize just what it is they have in their country, and Carey attempts to show them how they are pushing their culture away with their "American Dreams."

From the Paper:

"Peter Carey's "American Dreams" is a veiled plea to his countrymen to stop thinking about America and try to appreciate what they have at home. "For our own town, my father says, we have nothing but contempt" (Ededson 166). The people do not respect what they have, or even those who live in the town. When Gleason begins building his wall, they think only the worst, and cannot think of something good or beautiful, and it is the same with how they see Australia as compared to America. "Later he told me that he thought Gleason had built the model of our town just for this moment, to set us see the beauty of our own town, to make us proud of ourselves and to stop the American Dreams we were so prone to" (Edelson 172)."

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