American Flag and Statue of Liberty

Plowing in the Fields

The Perfect Home

Family Praying at Dinner

Family Feast

Husband and Wife

Woman At Work

Rosie the Riveter

January 18, 1964 President Lyndon Johnson, Martin

Luther King Jr., and other prominent black leaders.

American Soldiers

Money

The Pitfalls of the American Dream

Brainstorm the positive and negative impacts of the American Dream:

POSITIVE NEGATIVE

The American Dream: A Perspective

“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” Thomas Jefferson

The Promise of the American Dream

• Historical perspective– Symbol of the opportunities inherent in a

democracy– Immigration and the American Dream

• Diversity as a major strength in our society

• The American Dream as a motivating force that attracts immigrants

– The belief that hard work, ingenuity, and perseverance can take you anywhere!

The Changing American Dream

America is a new Eden, a “promised land” of beauty, unlimited resources, and endless opportunities.

Voices of the Revolution and Nationalism—Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams,

and Thomas Jefferson

The Changing American Dream

The American birthright is one of ever-expanding opportunity. Progress is a good thing, and we can optimistically expect life to keep getting better and better.

Romanticism– 1800-1860

Emphasized feeling and intuition over reason. Common features included looking to the past as well as to nature for guidance and wisdom.

Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Changing American Dream

The independent, self-reliant individual will triumph. Everything is possible for the person who places trust in his or her own powers and potential.

Transcendentalism— (1850’s)

Believed in living close to nature and taught the dignity of manual labor. Self-trust and self-reliance were to be practiced at all times, because to trust self was really to trust the voice of God speaking intuitively within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

Realism 1865-1900

1865– Civil War ended

1917– America entered World War I

This was a turning point in American life, marking a loss of innocence and a strong disillusionment with tradition.

Postwar Period

Two important trends, Marxism and psychoanalysis, were noteworthy factors in the breakdown of traditional beliefs and values.

Psychoanalysis led to the literary technique of stream-of-consciousness narration, which attempted to imitate the moment-by-moment flow of a character’s perceptions and memories.

The Moderns

1900-1950

What events in history sparked a change in these

writers?

1909—Freud lectures on psychoanalysis in U.S.

1917—U. S. enters World War I

1917—Russian Revolution/Communism

1920—Harlem Renaissance

1920—19th Amendment grants women the right to vote.

1929—Stock market crashes, leading to Great Depression.

1933—Roosevelt becomes president; New Deal program to counter Great Depression begins

1941—US enters World War II after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. (1939 World War II began.)

Introduced the Following Major Themes:

ISOLATED SELF SUICIDE

ABSURDISM DEPRESSION

HOPELESSNESS WASTE

DISILLUSIONMENT

RELIGIOUS UNCERTAINTY

RE-EVALUATION OF THE AMERICAN HERO IN RELIGION AND BUSINESS

NONCONFORMITY IN LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, AND STRUCTURE

TRAGEDY OF THE “LITTLE MAN”

RECONCILING THE SELF TO AN ORDERLESS, OFTEN SELF-DESTRUCTIVE WORLD

MEANINGLESSNESS OF WORLD

Thoughts From Two Modern Writers

“Men travel faster now, but I do not know if they go to better things.”

--Willa Cather Death Comes for the Archbishop

“I had a world, and it slipped away from me. The War blew up more than the bodies of men…It blew ideas away.”

--Sherwood Anderson Letter to his son, November 1929

WHAT DO WHAT DO

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