The reflections on the “American dream” in Ayn Rand's works (on the example of her story "Her second career")

The article deals with not well-known early story of the American writer from Russia Ayn Rand (Alisa Rozenbaum) Her Second Career (about 1929). This story is analyzed within the context of discussing the “American dream” as the most important US national concept, the major conclusion here being the extreme contradiction expressed in the crisis of the anthropological model, when the ideal of man as a creator is replaced of the man as a consumer. Published posthumously in L. Peikoffs edition, the story is the narrative about Hollywood actress Claire Nash who was offered a bet by British screenwriter Winston Ayers: to start over her stunning career. Meanwhile he promised to make a star out of an unknown extra, Heddy Leland. The first problem of the “American dream” is revealed from the analysis of the details recreating Hollywood of the 1920s: the American society does not seek talents, it is indifferent, stagnant and unable to change. Besides, even despite the fact that the protagonist finally acted in one of the biggest movies (where the main role was played by the unknown extra whom Claire Nash despised at the beginning of the story), the critics still evaluated her as the mediocre actress. In that way, the second problem related to the “American dream” becomes clear: the manipulations of the audience's consciousness via mass-media. In the latest texts, Ayn Rand gave her female protagonists the traits of self-made persons, seemingly clinging to the ideal of the “American dream”, where everyone can be successful. But it is proved by the analysis of the story that the writer's latest protagonists have the essential quality making their success not an accidental one, that is their integrity. This quality is the key component forming the writer's private utopia as opposed to the so-called “American dream”.