The Collapse of the American Dream: Cultural Deconstruction of the Wealth Myth in Trust

This paper examines Hernán Díaz’s novel Trust (2022) through the lens of cultural deconstruction, analyzing how its four nested narratives systematically dismantle the American Dream ideology. The novel Bonds and autobiography My Life collaboratively construct a financial myth portraying protagonist Andrew Bevel as an exemplar of self-made success. Subsequently, Ida’s Memoir exposes the subjective construction of history, declaring the American Dream’s bankruptcy at the epistemological level, while Mildred’s diary Futures deconstructs the myth from within by revealing that Bevel’s financial genius was built upon appropriation of his wife’s intellectual labor. This paper argues that Trust reveals the American Dream as an ideological illusion—narratively constructed, practically dependent on structural injustice, and essentially serving power reproduction.

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