Since the founding of this nation, the American literary tradition has been concerned with what it means to be American and how the country holds up to its idealistic aspirations. Specifically, the American literary tradition has concerned itself with the existence of certain idealized American qualities, such as the American dream, American exceptionalism, resilience, opportunity, hard work and standing up for what is right.
For example, Crevecoeur praised the American work ethnic and the opportunities that the country allowed the common man to achieve. Naturalist writers, like Stephen Crane, offered tales that examined the existence of these ideal American qualities in regard to the lower and less privileged classes. While mid 20th century poets expressed the reality that this ideal vision of America did not apply to the black or female populations.
I feel that The Big Lebowski follows this tradition of investigating the existence of ideal American values by taking our ideal view of America and flipping it upside down. The film attacks and mocks traditional American values and reveals the hypocrisy that is evident in our society. The movie’s main character, Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, is not the typical American hero rather he is the laziest man in all of Los Angeles County who simply wants to get stoned and get compensation for his rug. “The Dude” represents a more realistic American man who is lazy, unmotivated and nonchalant. However, “The Big Lebowski”, the old paraplegic millionaire, that “The Dude” gets mistaken for claims that he achieved the American dream through hard work and perseverance when he really just married into his wealth. Even worse, he is attempting to embezzle money away from the charity for disadvantaged children he created. “The Big Lebowski” pokes fun at mythical American qualities that we constantly look for in our society while presenting us with many of the dysfunctional elements that we tend to ignore.
Yeah, well that’s just like, your opinion, man. But really, I agree with what you’re saying here. It seems like a lot of people go around acting like they completely paved their own path, while in reality they’ve just found themselves in the right place at the right time and ended up on top. The Big Lebowski is a classic american movie in which the characters portray some american stereotypes in a comical and relatable way. I think that contributes to the fact that The Big Lebowski is a cult classic, with followers all over the place who dress up as The Dude and come together about it.
I agree with the fact that The Big Lebowski pokes fun at the idea of the American Dream. The protagonist is the laziest man in Los Angeles County. He has no ambition, no goals, no traditional American hero traits. A protagonist like this truly challenges the notion that an American has to be hardworking and ambitious in order to be content. In fact, it is the dude’s contentment that truly separates him from the typical American protagonist. The Dude doesn’t seem to want anything out of life and he’s completely okay with that. That’s an American Narrative that we’re not used to seeing. Along with the story set in a city of lies and deception, characters appearing not as the seem, the Big Lebowski truly mocks the idea of the American Dream.