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Journal Topic 4/8/13

Journal Topic 4/8/13. What does the phrase “The American Dream” mean to you?. Of Mice and Men overview. Analyze the American Dream Project/Presentation Read the book Re-write & act out new ending Unit test. The American Dream. The American Dream.

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Journal Topic 4/8/13

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  1. Journal Topic 4/8/13 What does the phrase “The American Dream” mean to you?

  2. Of Mice and Men overview • Analyze the American Dream • Project/Presentation • Read the book • Re-write & act out new ending • Unit test

  3. The American Dream

  4. The American Dream • From the 17th Century onwards, immigrants have dreamed of a better life in America. • Many people immigrated to America in search of a new life for themselves or their families. • Many others immigrated to escape persecution or poverty in their homeland.

  5. American Dream cont’d • These immigrants dreamed of making their fortunes in America. • For many this dream of riches became a nightmare.  there were horrors of slavery,  there were horrors of the American Civil War, • there was a growing number of slums that were just as bad as those in Europe, • there was also great corruption in the American political system which led to many shattered hopes

  6. The idea of an American Dream for many was broken when in 1929, the Wall Street crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression. • This era affected the whole world during the 1930s, but even in the midst of hardship, some people’s dreams survived. • Thousands of people made their way west towards California to escape from their farmlands in the mid-West that were failing due to drought. • The characters of George and Lennie dreamt of having a “little house and a couple of acres” which was their own dream.

  7. The Epic of America • The phrase “The American Dream” was first used in The Epic of America in 1931 • James Truslow Adams wrote, “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have become weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motorcars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”

  8. So what does that mean? • No matter who your parents are, no matter where you were born, you can be whatever you want to be as long as you are willing to work for it. • Is this true today? Let’s hear what Tony Hawk and Ying Ying Yu have to say!

  9. Now, write your own! • Minimum of 1 page; you should be able to write a full page easily • Can be hand-written, but must be legible! If I can’t read it, you get it back! • If typed, size 12 font, single spaced • Due at the beginning of class on Tuesday!

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