Chance is driven by two things: 1) The dream of becoming famous and rich to impress his love Heavenly and prove his doubters wrong. 2) The illusion that Heavenly still loves him and will be by his side, though he hurt her and she no longer loves him. Love drives Chance's dreams and illusions but also destroys the fake world he creates for himself. He becomes selfish and unable to see reality.

1. DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS

2. Discuss what drives Chance forward. What are the
roles of dreams and illusions? Consider love’s role.
Chance is driven by two things;
1. The dream of becoming famous and rich;
2. The illusion of having his youthful love at his side.

3. The dream of
becoming famous
and rich
Chance is driven by the dream of
becoming famous and rich. Why?
To impress his love, his Heavenly,
and to prove to all those who never
believe he could do it. But he is so
blinded and obsessed with his
dream that he no longer sees the
world around him… He doesn’t see
how much he hurt Heavenly and left
her broken or that Boss Finley, Tom
Junior want to castrate Chance for
his mistakes, or that his brought an
already messed up woman/ famous
actress into his world.

4. The illusion of having his
youthful love at his side.
Sadly Chance has shut the curtains
on the true world, on the people
he’s hurt. He’s under a ‘spell’, one
where the illusion of having his
youthful love, his sweetheart, his
Heavenly, by his side, in his life is
really going to happen. But he
doesn’t realise the pain and
humiliation he left her in. How
broken and hurt she was when he
abandoned her. His illusion has
driven him to the point of madness,
he can’t seem to see how she no
longer loves him.

5. Dreams and Illusion
[Quotes]
Quotes Analysis
“- What’s wrong there ? The place is dead.
- You been away too long, Chance”. Page
67
Chance is clearly unable to see the divide
between him and the people he used to
know. He still lives in the illusion that
nothing changes, and this is probably why
he can’t stand aging because he cannot
accept that time passes and flies.
“(He takes a pill and a swallow from a
flask.)
- What did you just take, Chance ? You
took something out of your pocket
and washed it down with liquor.
- Yes, I took a wild dream and -
washed it down with another wild
dream, Aunt Nonnie, that’s my life
now.” Page 62
Chance, in a desperate attempt to escape
reality, create his own paradise using
drugs. Nothing seems to have sense in his
life, this is why he decides to replace the
dreams he cannot reach (becoming rich
and famous, getting back with Heavenly…)
by artificial ones. But drugs are only
creating temporary “dreams”, which in
reality, are nothing more than bare
Dreams are also a kind of illusion. However, an illusion is not necessarily a dream.

6. “ - Aunt Nonnie, we didn’t lose that lousy
national contest, we just placed second.
- Chance, you didn’t place second. You
got honorable mention. Fourth place,
except it was just called honorable
mention.” Page 63
Chance is lying to himself, and this is
evidence that he lives in his dreams but
also tries to convince his siblings of the
vision he has, which also demonstrates his
lack of care towards them, and especially
towards Heavenly. He even decides to
reject the Princess at the end who had
started to develop feelings for him. In a
way, love turned Chance into someone
quite selfish.
“ - It would have been worth that money to
see that one little smile your mama bird
give me at noon of the day she was dying
- I guess that shows, demonstrates
very clearly, that you have a pretty
big heart after all.” Page 55.
Boss is here using illusion to achieve
something completely different. He is
actually trying to convince his daughter of
his good intentions, and that he is not the
cursory person he seems to be. But once
again, this is only a mask. Supposition can
be made, that Boss also believes in his
own lies, just like Chance.
Love has a specific role in the play; in fact, it is both what drives Chance into his dreams and
illusions and what destroys this fake plastic world it originally created in the protagonist’s mind.
Love can then be considered as the very cause of the tribulations in this story.

7. Links to other works studied on your OIB syllabus:
Sweet Bird of
Youth
Chance was under the illusion
that his sweetheart, Heavenly,
still loved him and that she
would end up by his side when
he came back for her.
Love’s illusions
Each character was under a different illusion,
their own made illusion because of their
obsession to their love. Whether it’s believing
you have stayed pure for them or making up
your own memories of love, the characters
create their own little lies to make them feel
loved and right for their love.
Love in the Time of
Cholera.
Florentino was
always in the illusion
that he was a virgin,
for his love Fermina.
The Handmaid’s
Tale
Offred creates her own
illusions of love to keep
her sanity and help her
feel loved.
Sweet Bird of
Youth
Chance has a
dream to be
famous and rich.
Intimate Apparel
Esther has dream
of opening a salon
for all black
women.
Dreams
In both books the story is written around the theme of
dreams, of the character’s dream for a better life. It’s
what drives them to live. They both illustrate to the
reader how reaching for your dream can sometimes
leave you blind to the realities of the world and leave
you with nothing, instead of everything you dreamed
of.

8. Stopping by woods
on a Snowy Evening
The man who stops at the
edge of the woods starts
thinking about what could be
inside, then remembers he
has to go working on
something.
Sweet Bird of Youth
In the play, the Princess
and Chance are trying to
reach their dreams,
rejecting the passing of
time. Chance, especially, is
truly convinced that all his
illusion will lead him
somewhere
The impact of aspirations, whether
they’re only illusions or not
In the poem, the man is eventually brought back to
reality by the horse, which can be interpreted as his
conscience. The Princess also finally accepts her fate
and decides to get back on the track of her life. The only
one who decides to live in his dreams forever is Chance,
driven crazy by his love for Heavenly.