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Park, Geryong. “N. West’s A Cool Million: The Dismantling of American dream through parodying H. Alger’s novel.” Studies on English Language & Literature. 33.1 (2007): 161-178. The American Dream is the political, social and economic idea, which implies that if one works hard and honest and obeys the rules in the USA one will be rewarded with financial wealth and success. But the American Dream is also a myth that simplifies the complexities of reality and mphasizes only the optimistic vision. Horatio Alger’s Risen from the Rank is one of the proto-typical “rags to riches” stories. On the other hand, Nathanael West’s A Cool Million is savage parody of Horatio Alger’s success story. It is the chronicle of Lemuel Pitkin’s successive downfall and isfortunes. It dismantles the American Dream and warns the upsurge of native Fascism. His novel’s world, set in the 1930s, is filled with simulacra. Lemuel’s death is celebrated as a revolutionary hero’s martyr; ironically, he himself doesn’t know the cause of the Revolution. Lemuel the clown is thoroughly tricked into death by the American fascism led by Whipple the dictator. (SangMyung University)