Conclusion

The conclusion highlights the double movement of the book as it reveals the figure of the American dream and refracts this figure into all its complexity. Ethnic literature’s shared engagement with and inevitable difference from this figure brings out both ubiquity and unevenness. Constellating distinct literary traditions in this way develops new comparative methods and orientations to ethnic archives, along with a better understanding of how race and ethnicity are being realigned at present. The conclusion emphasizes what characterization as contestation accomplishes—how the interplay of the many facets of character across literary and social worlds breaks down persistent archetypes and foregrounds structural constraints. In closing, the book points to attentiveness, underscoring the agency of literature and of literary critique.