Early in the twentieth century, California was observed as being a prosperous state with many opportunities. This sort of place with such success was known as the "American Dream". Many families do not get to experience this pleasure of living the perfect life. During the 1920's, if a person worked hard they could achieve a comfortable lifestyle. After the Depression, the thought of working hard to achieve nice things was destroyed. Many families worked long strenuous hours at their job, only to provide the food on the table. In the novel, Now and On Earth by Jim Thompson, many variations of the "American Dream" are revealed. The hardships of life alter the Dillon family's perception of this dream while working during the war becomes the underlying factor. .
In Now and On Earth, Thompson depicts an image of the "American Dream" to be a flourishing lifestyle. The Dillon family wanted to be part of this dream again. They thought of the dream as "Six in all [children], we had dreamed of; and a big white house with a deep lawn and many bedrooms and a pantry that was always full." (Thompson, 102). The family was not a normal "American Dream" family. During the 1940's, for them this dream was far fetched. Jim Dillon, the father, began to criticize the dream because he had the chance to see both sides of the dream: the rich and the poor. He believed that their family had been trapped the way they were and they didn't have any opportunities to become anything more. He assumed that his family, as a whole, would never be normal. He mentioned that maybe if he left and went on his own he could be normal, but not there, not with them. Jim knew that in the "American Dream", the family status was viewed as a wife and two children. In the Dillon household there were Jim, his wife, three children, his mother, and his sister. He had more people living with him in his house than most which made it hard to make enough money to provide for their needs.
