The American Dream

“Progress, Freedom, and Liberty”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaXtvS4i9po&feature=related

What is the American Dream?

• A dream of progress, freedom, and liberty

• You could start with nothing and build your own future into whatever you wanted, and were willing to work for

Stage One: A Quest for Freedom and

Opportunity

- Beginning in the early to mid 17th century, Europeans began to move to the “new world”

- Why did the Europeans suddenly decide to pack up and move to a different continent?

Stage One:

- Europe was in the midst of the 30 years war (1618-1648)

- These European immigrants were often idealistic and wanted to create a utopia (a perfect society)

- In this new world, they could run things as they pleased, by giving themselves freedom of worship, freedom from military service, freedom from oppression, and most importantly, free land!

“ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

-Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, 1776

- These ideas appealed greatly to Europeans who were trapped in the lower class, living in poverty, and had virtually no hope of ever getting out of their current conditions

- These people had no hope of ever owning land, which was a symbol of wealth and power

- Even convicts were sometimes given the choice of going to America or staying in jail

- Group spirit: “we can make it together”- Since most people were from similar

circumstances, they felt that they were best off cooperating towards a common goal

The Frontier Theory (East to West)

- America settled from east to west British traditions; sophisticated and

cultured; importance of your nameand ancestors determined social class

Lawless; no traditions; take whatyou want; settled by taking wagontrains into uncharted territory

EAST

WEST

Frederick Jackson’s Frontier Thesis

The presence of the ever-expanding frontier is what made the American people self-reliant, democratic, and egalitarian, because the frontier equals opportunity

(argued in 1893 because of the 1890 U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to “close” the frontier)

North-South Theory

North – industrial, urban, liberal, receptive to change

South – farming, plantations, rural, traditional, conservative, resistant to change -conflict resulted from differing views-led to Civil War (1861-1865)

Stage Two: Wealth and Power

- Since land equalled wealth and people were given free land to move to the new world, people who were peasants now had new possibilities opened up to them for the first time ever; it was now possible for them to acquire wealth!

- Great emphasis was placed on work ethic if you worked hard, you could become as wealthy as you wanted

Stage Two

- You could conceivably start with nothing and gain everything through farming of the land

- This may not sound like such a foreign concept to us because it is all we have known, but it was inconceivable to peasants in Europe

• This rise in personal and individual wealth and power quickly led to the deterioration of the “group spirit”

• People became ruthless in their attempts to achieve the Dream no more group atmosphere and no more of the premise on what the Dream was initially built

• Land = Wealth = Power

After WWII...

• …the U.S. faced profound and irreconcilable domestic tensions and contradictions

• Although the war had engendered an unprecedented sense of American confidence, prosperity and security, the U.S. became increasingly involved in a tense Cold War with the Soviet Union

Anxiety...

• The propagation of myths of a peaceful, homogeneous, and nauseatingly gleeful American golden age was tempered by constant anxiety about Communism, bitter racial conflict, and largely ignored economic and social stratification

• Many Americans could not live up to the degree of social conformity and the ideological structures that a prosperous, booming, conservative suburban middle-class championed

Materialism...

• Disconnected individuals railed against capitalist success as the basis of social approval

• Many American families centered their lives around material possessions (cars, appliances, and especially the newly introduced television)—often in an attempt to keep up with their equally materialistic neighbours

Stage Three: Instant Fame

- Many individuals started to emerge with great wealth and power

- The dream was no longer about land; that dream had dissolved

- People began looking for immediate entrance to the American Dream through instant fame or success, and many were successful: Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Reality TV show winners, sports stars, music stars…

- There is one major piece of irony in this stage of instant fame: the main premise behind the American Dream is lost with fame – Freedom

- With fame comes loss of personal freedom, as celebrities’ lives are no longer private

• People no longer felt the need to work for the Dream, but they began to believe it was owed to them

• The crime rate began increasing dramatically as people began demanding their share of the Dream (fame, wealth, power)

• Now, to protect their own personal freedom, people began carrying guns

• Poorer people who felt they had no chance at achieving the Dream resorted to theft and violence

Changes to the International Concept:

Tarnishing the Image

• Traditionally, the US was seen as isolationist, which meant they stayed out of world problems while they were growing

• Today, however, they are seen as the “policemen” of the world, with their image changing dramatically over the years

Previously PresentlyPeacemakers, awe, envy, prestigious, desirable

Powerful, resented, hated, bullies, selfish, protectors, ridicule, fear

Problems for the Dream Today

- Black Americans were not able to share equally in the Dream like other immigrants (due to slavery, racism, segregation)

- Efforts to change this came in the 1960s with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., as black Americans finally began asking, “What about our dream?”

Problems for the Dream Today

- This led to the rise of black people in music, sports, and acting as they began to share the Dream

- Many black men, however, still felt excluded due to poverty, poor education, and dangerous neighbourhoods, and women began to advance more quickly than men

- Television shows, which once perpetuated the black American’s problems through stereotypes, began to change by making more positive role models for black youth

- In the 1970s, shows like “Sanford and Son” and “Good Times” both showed valid negative stereotypes such as financial and political issues

- Later, television shows like “The Cosby Show” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” started to depict more positive role models

- Today, we see an unfortunate regression of black culture in the media with gangsta stereotyping

Critique of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman

Willy’s America Real America

A land of opportunity in which ambitious young people like Biff (the salesman’s son) can accomplish great things

Although it still may be the land of opportunity, its values have changed from communal to individual - bases his/her success on acquisition of material goods and monetary wealth (values distorted by consumerism!)

• Willy is trapped in a capitalist, post-war American middle-class society that perpetuates the myth of prosperity through material possessions

• The salesman is the archetype of this ideology

• The more Willy sells, the greater his success

Symbols of the American Dream

“The Countryside” “The City”

•Represents America’s “golden age” of simplicity, community, an image of older American not ruled by consumerism•Willy longs for the countryside and longs for an age when life was simpler

•Represents the “urban squalor” of consumerist society•Willy feels he must survive in this society, but feels suffocated by all the buildings around him, the loss of gardens and green space•Represents Willy’s lament for a simpler time

Assignment

• Choose a song that depicts the notion of the American Dream

• Describe how the theme of consumerism is depicted in the media text:– discuss the use of lyrics – identify the target audience, their age group, socio-economic

status, etc.– explain how the text can be compared to the ideologies of

“prosperity and success”