"The Chaneysville Incident" and the American Dream Chris Kostantewicz College

The Chaneysville Incident by David Bradley follows the narrator John Washington in a deeply introspective exploration of his family history in order to truly find himself and the origin of his existence. Washington reaches a pinnacle of achievement in his life; he’s a respected scholar and has hit all the quintessential milestones which would indicate he’s achieved the ‘American Dream,’ so to speak. Despite such attainments, he realizes early on that with this immense amount of knowledge comes a greater understanding of the inner workings of society. One particularly important portion of the novel was Washington’s analogy, which he uses to describe America as a classed society through the various forms of transportation and to demonstrate how this society is very clearly rigged.

Washington states that in order to truly understand anything, specifically how a society is structured, you need to analyze the seemingly insignificant details. He states that the reason for this is:

“For one of the primary functions of societal institutions is to conceal the basic nature of society, so that the individuals that make up the power structure can pursue the business of consolidating and increasing their power untroubled by minor carpings...