The American Dream

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oppression • equality: no class distinctions, equality in court individualism: idealization of the self-reliant, self-sufficient, independent individual is not important if you work hard, key to prosperity • hard work: heritage progress: desire to progress personally by making use of opportunities education and self-improvement. education is the key to individuals realizing their full economic, social and personal potential Interpretation personal dream: reach and preserve personal aims such as family, property, freedom, happiness, health, but also materialistic wishes for self-fulfillment • economic dream: prosperity and success, newness, desire to get continually better • social dream: equality and opportunity, classless society, belief in the melting pot (multicultural society) • political dream: democracy and justice, basic human rights The American Dream Klausur, 05.10.2021 KEY EXPRESSIONS freedom (The Statue of Liberty) a gift from France 1886, to celebrate the first 100 years of the American independence Symbolizes enlightemnent, independence, liberty and freedom • Manifest Destiny: the belief that America has been chosen by God to expand from east coast to west coast, to spread democracy, American beliefs and westem way of living • Frontier (John Gast - progress). border between civilization and wilderness •New Canaan: in the Bibel "Canaan" was the land God promised to the Israelites, Canaan (America) is "the land of milk and honey" Melting pot: melting of serveral cultures to one, a new nation, immigrants became part of an unified, monocultural American nation Ellis island: an island of hopes; small island on the Hudson river which was an entry station for immigrants •Fortune: "from to riches rags • Happinness: if you achieve all your goals, you live happily, personal fulfilment • Equality: equality of opportunity, political equality, racial and social equality DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE the basic democratic idea and the American dream were summarized in the Declaration of Independence (4th July 1776) •"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 States the American colonies independence from Great Britain THE AMERICAN DREAM TODAY • nowadays: very critical and negativ view of the American Dream • Critics see the American dream as a clever political and economic marketing strategy • many values are reflected • "hard work will pay off /social standard is changeable": huge gap between rich and poor, different social classes, no welfare system is irrelevant" racism directed against the black population (BLM) "heritage • "education is the key to success": casts of higher education leave many no choice to stay where they are • the American Dream is projected mainly on material prosperity → main idea has changed, mindset is consistent When the American Dream was endangered - 9/11 . 11 of September in 2001 inspired by the American Dream, many people migrated to the United States in the hope of leading a better life through hard work the World Trade Center employed many people who were living the American Dream on the morning of the respective day, four airplanes were hijacked by terrorists: two flew into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed somewhere else • the terrorists were supporters of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, founded by Osama Bin Laden, who wanted to continue the so called "Holy War" around 3000 people died, the whole country was in shock and it is an unrecoverable event in the history of America When the American Dream endangered other nations - The Vietnam War started in 1965 →→→ America started interfering on 8 of March after the second world war, North and South Vietnam were devided into a communist state in the ....... north and a democratic state in the south established by the western world in the north the communist-influenced "Vietcong" was founded which destabilised the south → a civil war in the south began and so the United States interpreted this as a danger for their interests American Dream: spreading their idea of democracy all over the world as god's chosen ones America's military problem: the Vietcong had much more experience in the jungle soldiers' psychological problems: didn't know anymore who is evil or good and didn't know what they are fighting for protests in America and the world followed America lost the war in 1975 the American Dream had failed, society was let down and many soldiers were left disabled → the losers of the war (surviving soldiers) were excluded from the community and suffer from the circumstances of the war to this day . Einleitung / introduction: How to write a summary sagen, worum es in dem Text geht (the topic) aufzeigen, welche Argumente der Autor benutzt, um sein Thema zu stützen (sub-topics of the text) erklären, was der Autor mit diesem Text sagen will (the message of the text) ZIEL EINER SUMMARY << AUSDRÜCKE >AUFBAU/STRUCTURE WICHTIG: Der Text umfasst ca. 1/3 des Originals und muss sachlich und präzise sein. KEINE EIGENE MEINUNG! NICHT ZITIEREN "The given Text xy written by XY deals with the question as to why...." "The newspaper article "...." written by (...) and published in "(...)" in October 2013 deals with [...]. im Allgemeinen The (text type) "title" written by (author) is about /deals with / informs about (main topic) Hauptteil / Main Part "First the author shows that.... Then he argues that.... Moreover, he reminds us...." ÜBERBLICK TIPP: lies den Text genau und unterstreiche das Wichtigste The author... says, states, points out that.... claims, believes, thinks that... describes, explains, makes clear that/ why... uses examples to confirm /prove that.... doubts, asks the question as agrees/disagrees with the thesis /view that.... criticizes /analyses / comments on... consider... " Compares x with Y.... Compares X to Y... tries to express concludes that.... 1. Den Text aufmerksam lesen 2. Schlüsselbegriffe unterstreichen 3. Einen Einleitungssate formulieren 4 Im Hauptteil die wichtigsten Infos des Texles zusammenfassen. Die Sprache ist - sachlich/ neutral - Sätze sind eher kurz - Simple present @padpaper