Story of a Lithuanian

I personally found the story of the Lithuanian Chicago Stockyard worker by the name of Antanas Kaztauskis to be rather awe inspiring towards the kind of life that he and his family led before the old shoemaker made his impact on the boy.  While it was brief in length, I got a strong sense of the kind of difficulties that came along when an undistinguished young man living under an oppressive foreign regime strives to chase a fleeting hope towards the United States.  The most interesting dialogue that I encountered was definitely the discussion with the shoemaker who kept referring to the Russians as "man-wolves", a title that is both abstract in image and honest to the brutality of their general attitude.  The only question that I can think to ask a fellow reader is the following: Do you think the American Dream is as elusive as it is commonly portrayed?