The American dream or the American nightmare? : two visions of the United States of America in "Szczurojorczycy" by Edward Redliński

Bibliogr., streszcz. po ang.

Szczurojorczycy is a novel written by Edward Redliński, published in 1994. It shows the life of Polish immigrants in the United States of America at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. The characters live in one, cramped flat and work hard at random illegal jobs. Some of them still dream about great careers and believe in the American Dream, while others are depressed and want to come back to Poland as soon as they can. Most of them understand the harsh truth about the reality of the USA, just not all of them want to take a part in the rat race. The article explores how Redliński constructed the two Americas: the rich and luxurious one in Manhattan, which the immigrants dream about and the actual one in Greenpoint: a poor, small and dirty one, which they live in. The analysis considers the impact these two images have on the characters and what is the source of such big difference between the American Dream and the American Nightmare, which, as Redliński shows, is the only American reality for the immigrants.