Orange Crush

Gap between Dream and Reality Dream and reality are as different as day and night. Sometimes it seems that what is practical and sensible does not connect with people’s most treasured dreams.

There is no reason why dreams must accord with reality. The power of dream is really overwhelming and always creates miracle. Unfortunately, there is a gap between dream and reality. Everyone has their dreams. However, it is the reality that often hinders the dream from coming true. This is the contrasting situation. In “Orange Crush,” the author Yiyun Li uses sharp contrast and anecdotes to show the great gap between dream and reality.

Fruit Treasure represents a high quality of life in young Yiyun Li’s mind, while reality disproves that. Li wishes to live a Tangy life, which to her symbolizes western luxury and a life of style. She supposes that the Fruit Treasure stands for her dream of being fashionable, “I was ashamed by our lack of style and our life…I could not wait until I grew up and could have my own Tang-filled life” (Li 2). On the contrary, when Li turns to be a mature adult, she discovers that Tang doesn’t represent anything. Her dream doesn’t correspond with reality. I moved to America ten years later and discovered Tang in the grocery store…its glamour had lost its gloss because, alas, it was neither expensive nor trendy” says Li(2). Yiyun Li uses impressive contrast and symbol to show the big differences between her dream and reality.

The TV commercial convinces people that a more healthful and richer lifestyle is produced by Tang, while the real product prompts ostentation and doesn’t create a better life. Yiyun Li proves the impracticality of Tang ad, “The TV commercial, which gave a glimpse of a life that most families, including mine, could hardly afford” (Li 1).Moreover, “The family on TV was beautiful…the young parents had to carry their children, half asleep and often screaming, with them because the only child care they could afford was that provided by their employers”(Li 1). Despite the predicament in reality, the ad promotes people’s showing off, “People used them as tea mugs, the orange label still on, a sign that you could afford a modern American drink” (Li 2). The purpose of the ad doesn’t come true in cruel reality, Yiyun Li uses image to prove that.Love, as Yiyun Li dreamed it to be is beautiful and full of sweetness given by a boyfriend who can buy her a bottle of Tang, while a husband in real life cares little about romance. Yiyun Li tells her expectation for love, “This would be the love I would seek, a boy unlike my father, a boy who would not blink to buy a bottle of Tang for me” (Li 2).

However, her hope evaporates in the face of reality, “Every dream ended with this bland, ordinary existence, where a prince would one day become a man who boiled orange peels for his family” (Li 2).Yiyun Li uses irony and contrast to show love is different in dream and reality. There is an impassable gap between one’s admirable dream and ruthless reality. Yiyun Li uses symbol and contrast to strike a dichotomy between fantasy and reality. The author stands as the voice of a teacher reminding her readers of how impractical some dreams are. Some ideas that seemed so important may have no value in reality. Dreams, while enjoyable, can be morphed into nightmares.

Reality, though tough, can be worth every bit of effort.