Kaitlyn Nunnelley Assignment 1

Susan Ludvigson's "Inventing My Parents," she invents a date her parents went on when she was 5 months old. The poem is a stark contrast to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks which is dark, trapping, and lonely. The poem is light and happy despite the dark background. It is during World War II and her parents are talking of how the war will change them. Ludvigson makes an allusion to Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby and the American Dream, which is the opportunity for prosperity and success and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. This dream is so optimistic, like the parents in the poem, despite all the hardship around them. The American Dream is a false reality, while people cannot come to terms with war. Ludvigson says her mother's laugh is "light as summer rain when it begins" and this is also contradictory by putting an optimistic face on an oncoming storm. Referencing the American Dream shows that all the happiness and life in this time is not as wonderful as it is painted to be.