In The Islands, In Hollywood Summary and Analysis

'In the Islands' is the first essay in Part 4 of "The White Album" called Sojourns. This Part continues to explore the American Dream, but as we shall see does it in a more removed way through its effects in different environments that make up the essays and articles of Part Four. The first two can be grouped together in the way that they discuss the 'elite' social circles of America (the jet set that holiday in the Royal Hotel of Honolulu and the film giants of Hollywood). Both of these social groups are seen to be living out the fantasy of the great American Dream, but are doing so apparently oblivious to the darker underbelly of that dream (in Honolulu we have the massive graves being reserved for the Vietnam dead, and in...