The “American Dream” is a concept that began hundreds of years ago when people began to come to America in the hope of a better life. It’s the idea that anyone can become something, as long as they can put in the time and effort. But the American Dream isn’t a single dream, it’s the combination of everyone's hopes and desires, the longing for freedom and happiness, to have a purpose that you get to choose. Although everyone has their own individual dreams, most, if not all, have some similar traits. While many people dream of fame and fortune, the majority of us just want a good happy life. This can and has changed over the course of American history, depending what events we’re dealing with. Back before America had abolished slavery, the dream for many citizens was just to be accepted and treated with the same respect as everyone else. But in today's world, that situation has greatly improved and thus affected the dreams of many. Nowadays you see less people dreaming for freedom, (since many of us feel we have it), and more people wanting material things such as houses and money. Think of it sort of like version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Once you reach all of your idealistic goals such as freedom and happiness, you begin to move on to more materialistic goals such as money and land. Back when America was first starting out, everyone was on pretty much an even playing field. Almost everybody was a nobody but they all had the power to change that. But that all changed in the 1920’s when materialistic goals became more reachable (Amadeo).Those who have a lot of money and power keep their money and power while those who have little continue to just make it by (Kenton). As you can probably guess, these two groups of people probably have very different hopes, those with little just wanting to be happy but those with everything just wanting more. More people today value materialistic goals over idealistic goals, we’ve been trained to believe that we need “things” to be happy. (Kamp). The American Dream is changing, and I don’t think it’s for the better. Works Cited Amadeo, Kimberly. "What Is the American Dream? The History That Made It Possible." The Balance, 12 Dec. 2018, www.thebalance.com/ what-is-the-american-dream-quotes-and-history-3306009. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019. Kamp, David. "Rethinking the American Dream." VanityFair, Apr. 2009, www.vanityfair.com/culture/2009/04/american-dream200904. Accessed 14 Jan. 2019. Kenton, Will. "American Dream." Investopedia, 14 Dec. 2018, www.investopedia.com/ terms/a/american-dream.asp. Accessed 12 Jan. 2019. My art piece was created to show my individual “American Dream.” I did my best to incorporate three main themes, freedom, peace, and passion. What comes to mind whenever I hear the word America is hard to explain but let’s just say it includes explosions, guns, camo, bald eagles and the American flag. These are all symbols which to me represent our great country. But something else that comes to mind, possibly even more meaningful than the previously mentioned, is a sense of freedom. To show how important this is, I made a large majority of my collage a big open field with a single small house to the side. Standing in the field is a figure that represents where I want to see myself in the future. In his/my hands are tools in which he/I can create new life. In the back, there’s a giant bald eagle flying in front of a huge explosion. This represents not only my passion, but the passion of America.
In the United States, people of color are typically looked upon as lesser. This all started a long time ago when the Africans were brought over as slaves. The definition of a slave is someone who is the legal property of someone else and is forced to obey them. So back when this first started, whenever you saw an African you knew that they were a slave and you thought of them as property instead of a person. Throughout the years, slavery has lessened and Africans have gained more rights but people still don’t think of them as completely equal to everyone else. The reason for this is that’s what we’re taught. Back when all Africans were known as slaves, you were taught that Africans were slaves and you knew that’s just how it was and that’s what everyone knew. But nowadays instead of forgetting about those horrible times and trying to move on, everyone is still taught about how they use to be slaves, in some attempt to show how hard it was for them or something. Honestly, I’m not completely sure. But instead of helping the problem I feel like it’s only keeping it the same. If we weren’t taught that those of color were slaves in the past, no one would even think of them like that at all.
Wars have had a substantial impact on the writings of women. People writing poetry almost always write about their feelings, and war can cause a lot of feelings, typically, and hopefully, not good ones. Many of the poems writing during wars are considerably darker than others, as war brings death, destruction, and grief. In June Jordan's poem, “The Bombing of Baghdad”, she begins the poem by talking about all the bombings that happened, how much destruction there was, how many people died. She then talks about how war is just murder and compares it to the Holocaust and the killing of the Native Americans.
“My heart cannot confront This death without relief My soul will not control This leaking of my grief” -The Bombing of Baghdad, June Jordan. Society has some very strict expectations for women. When you think of women, you most likely don’t think of someone outside getting dirty or doing hard work; you probably think of someone inside, cleaning or cooking or taking care of a child. But women don’t just have to be those things. They’re just as able as anyone is. It’s okay if women don’t want to wear dresses or stay inside their whole life. How they think or act is not what makes them a woman, what makes them a woman is simply their anatomy. It may seem complicated but there’s really no more to it than that. The characters Mrs. Meller from The Story of an Hour, and Emily from A Rose for Emily, both women are dealing with social expectations. Both of them love the men in their lives but at the same time feel held back by them. In A Rose for Emily, Emily kills her husband; but in The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Meller dies because she sees her husband. Both of these actions had the same result, it left the women freed from oppression. But not completely, except in Mrs. Mellers case. But the biggest similarity is that both of these women defied the expectaions of their societies. No one suspected that Emily had killed her husband and no one knew that Mrs. Meller hadn’t died of the happiness of seeing her husband, she died because she never wanted to see him again.
The film Mulan is about a young girl living in China during a war with the Huns. She joins the Chinese army to help fight. But the Huns aren’t the only thing she fights, she also fights a much bigger fight; gender oppression. You see, Mulan wasn’t supposed to fight, in fact, it was illegal for any women to join the army, with the penalty for doing so being death. Since Mulan was a woman, her family and townspeople expected her to basically be a doll. She was told to act and look certain ways, told that the only way to honor her family is if she finds a man. A song is sung that features the lines, “Men want girls with good taste, calm, obedient, who work fast-paced, with good breeding and a tiny waist” and “We all must serve our Emperor, the men by bearing arms, the women by bearing sons”. This is basically saying that only the men are actually able to do anything, with the women being useless other than being able to provide more men. Even after being told all this, she went to the army training camps and eventually became the strongest, fastest, and smartest soldier; disproving her societies belief of men being the only ones able to do anything. She then goes on to take out the entire Hun army and save all of China. The film shows women that they’re just as able, if not more, than men. The story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is about the social expectations of women. At the beginning of the story, the narrator claimed that she was sick but her husband did not believe her; said that it was all in her head. He and his sister forced her to spend almost all of her time in bed and would get upset when she did even the smallest thing, such as write. With nothing else to do, she began to stare at the walls until she became obsessed with the wallpaper. Throughout the story, the wallpaper is a recurring theme. In the beginning, she can’t stop talking about how much she hates it but then she begins to weirdly like it. She claims that it moves, that there’s a woman behind it. During the day the woman creeps around. She sees her in her own shadow. At night the woman is trapped behind the wallpaper. But her and that woman are one in the same. +During the day she has to creep around so that her husband won’t see her, but at night when she’s in bed with her husband, shes trapped. The wallpaper represents the things that hold her back, such as her marriage.
For our first project of the year we chose an issue within our community and tried to think of solutions. After coming up with a few, we wrote letters to those who are running for City Council, in hopes that they help us turn our dreams into reality. My letter is shown below.
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Austin Chavoen |