الخطاب
Volume 19, Numéro 2, Pages 547-562
2024-06-30

The American Dream As A Tragic Quest In Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby

Authors : Rezzoug Ahmed .

Abstract

American cinema, ever since its inception, has long perpetuated myths that color the American dream. These include concepts such as self-making, self-determination, and new beginnings. Ideals such as these have become so prevalent in American thinking, that that it has become a delicate task finding any cultural medium that is not imbued by these beliefs. Contemporary directors such as Clint Eastwood have shown a keen interest in revisiting this American dream. To this regard, Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004) presents the dream as a ghost in disguise. His vision of the American dream is indeed one that is hollow and bereft of the lofty ideals that one usually attributes to this concept. This paper thus aims to probe the bleakness and the hollowness that might result out of the so called “pursuit of Happiness.”

Keywords

Clint Eastwood ; American dream ; Million Dollar Baby ; Tragedy