Final Project on the American dream

The Great Gatsby Final Project

This project could be used after students have read The Great Gatsby as a final unit project. With some modifications, it could also be used before students read The Great Gatsby to prepare them for the themes found in the novel.

Essential questions: Is there still such a thing as “the American Dream” in today’s world? How does the idea of an “American dream” affect modern American society?

Goals/objectives: Students will be able to understand the history of the American dream.

Students will be able to understand how “the American dream” has evolved in modern society.

Students will be able to decide whether the American dream is possible in modern society or whether it is impossible, and provide evidence to back up their argument.

One of the most prevalent themes of the novel is the impossibility of the “American dream.” Gatsby was the traditional “rags-to-riches” story that American society loves to tell. According to Meyer Wolfsheim, Gatsby showed up in New York after the war, decorated in metals, but he “hadn’t eaten anything for a couple of days.” Wolfsheim “raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter.” Gatsby eventually got everything that “the American dream” promised: money, mansions, flashy cars, “friends,” etc., however, he was never happy because he couldn’t have the one thing he wanted: Daisy. He died completely alone, without friends, very little family, and not even a note or message from the love of his life. Thus, the overarching message of The Great Gatsby has been widely taught to be that the American dream really is impossible. The idea that people can begin with nothing, work hard, and eventually achieve success and happiness is seen as completely untrue. In this unit, I want students to really look at the question of the “American dream.” Is it really impossible? Can hard work ever result in success and happiness? If success and happiness is attainable to certain people, then who can have it? Who cannot? Why does the “rags-to-riches” story resonate so loudly to Americans?

In order to begin answering these questions, I will have students look critically at how the American dream has been portrayed historically and then move on to studying the modern depiction of the American dream and how modern culture perceives it. Because this theme can be subjective, I want students to explore the theme of the “American dream” and make their own decisions regarding the impossibility of it. Thus, instead of providing them with the answer as to what the “American dream” is, I want students to think through and make their own definition of it by experiencing the different ways modern society deals with the “American dream.”

I would begin this unit by asking students what they think the American dream is. Are they working towards “the American dream?” How would they know if they have achieved it? Students would freewrite their ideas and keep them as a reference to guide them through the unit. They will continually look back to this writing, and edit it or revise it as needed after they have worked with examples of the “American dream” in modern culture.

After this, we would then work on trying to discover where the idea of the “American dream” first originated. I would have students look at land ads from the 19^th century that tried to entice immigrants from Europe as well as people from the east coast to move west and settle the land. Students would be divided into small groups, each group would get a chance to study and discuss each ad individually. They should look at the wording of the ads, what words are bigger than others, which ones are emphasized? Why do you think so?  Do they make any assumptions or promises? What do these ads say about America? What do the ads insinuate about the connection between America and success and happiness? Where can you see instances of Gatsby’s “American dream” in the ads?

After studying the ads and discussing them, students would be given Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus:" 

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Students should read the poem, looking for connections between the messages portrayed in the ads and the message in the poem. What does the poem say about America? What does it insinuate about the American people? Once students have discussed the poem, they should go back to their original writings on their idea of “the American dream.” They should look critically at their original ideas of the American dream and compare it to the American dream in the ads and in the poem. Are they different? Why? They should write down any new thoughts that they have after viewing the ads or revise their original thoughts with their new knowledge. However, their original writings should not be thrown away, just added to. Since “the American dream” is slightly subjective, once students have thoroughly written out their ideas, I would want them to discuss in small groups their individual definitions of the American dream to help get everyone on the same page and hear what their peers think the "American dream" is. While discussing, they could focus on questions such as: What does it mean to be working toward the American dream? How do you get it and how do you know that you have achieved it? Did Gatsby achieve it?

Once students have discussed their ideas, we can begin looking at how the idea of the “American dream” is still present in American society and how it affects American life. To do this, I will show them various instances of “the American dream” in modern media. In addition to the examples I have chosen, students are also encouraged to bring in examples of a depiction of the “American dream” that they find to share with the class.

I think that one of the best examples of the “American dream” in modern media is the use of it in advertising. Students can look at the way that advertising companies target Americans working towards the “American dream” to sell their products. These companies want Americans to think that they can buy happiness and success when they buy their product. Here are a few examples of ads that link their product to the achievement of the “American dream.”

Rice Krispies

JIF

Elecrolux

Students would view the commercials and discuss how the “American dream” is portrayed in each. How do the advertisements try to sell their products by promoting the “American dream?” If a consumer was to buy these products, would they have achieved the “American dream?” Do these commercials make you rethink your original definition of the “American dream?” After viewing the commercials, students should revisit their writings on the "American dream." Does the depiction of the dream in the commercial coincide with their original thought? How is it the same/different?

To help students further round out their ideas about the "American dream," they can view clips from recent television shows. Recently, there have been quite a few popular shows that depict the opposite of the “American dream.” These shows either depict the “American dream” on the surface and then dig deeper to show corruption underneath (such as the way home life is depicted in Mad Men) or they completely do away with the “American dream” and show families living in complete chaos.

A good example of this is The Middle:

In The Middle the comedic effect comes from the fact that this family is not living the life that is sketched out in the “American dream.” They are the complete opposite. The show asks the viewer to recall the idea of the perfect “American dream” life, an idea that is instilled in every American, and then compare this idea to the depiction of the dysfunctional family. Students can compare this clip to the commercials seen earlier that depicted “super moms” with perfect kids. Has the “American dream” completely shattered in “The Middle”? Or is this a modified version of the “American dream?” Is the family in “The Middle” exaggerated or is this really how Americans live today? What does it say about the state of the “American dream” in modern culture when in its perfect form it is used to force us to buy things, but when it breaks down, it is used as comedy? Overall, I want students to see how both sides of the “American dream” argument – that the American dream is possible on one side and impossible on the other – is surrounding them every day and affecting their lives. Once again, after viewing the clip, students should reexamine their writings on the American dream and see if they should be changed, revised, or added to. 

Finally, to help students gain a larger view of the American dream and how it affects not only their own lives and the lives of their fellow Americans, students can news clips that depict immigration to America to explore the way that others view America and the reasons why people immigrate to America. This is a good example:

Why did the family immigrate to America? What is available to them in America that isn’t available in Mexico? Were they able to achieve the “American dream?” Why or why not? 

Compare this video to the “free land” ads we viewed earlier. How are they different? How are they similar? Does this mean that the “American dream” is only reachable for certain people?

Here once again students can go back again to their original writing of what they think the American dream is and reevaluate it to see if any of their ideas have changed. They can then use their writings to open discussion of what they think the "American dream" is and why.  

For a final project, students should use their original and revised writings on their ideas of the “American dream” to decide what exactly the “American dream” is and what it means to Americans. They will then use their interpretation of the American dream to decide if achieving the “American dream” in modern culture really is impossible as Fitzgerald would have us believe in The Great Gatsby or if he was wrong and it is possible to achieve the “American dream.” Or they can claim that neither side is right and the “American dream” is possible for some, but not others or even that it doesn’t exist at all. Overall, I want students to explore their individual beliefs on the “American dream.” Once students have made their decision, they should collect evidence that supports their claim. They can use anything in modern culture: music videos, film clips, advertisements, commercials, etc., that supports their decision. They will then compile their evidence (at least 5 pieces) into either a VoiceThread or a video presentation to share with the class. The presentation should state explicitly the student’s views on the “American dream” and then use the collected evidence to back up his claim. 

(The images of the land/home ads are from the Library of Congress's digital collection. All video clips are from youtube.com.)

The Birds

I think that using films adaptations of novels or short stories in an English classroom can present many challenges. There are many film adaptations that take so many liberties with a text and seem to only keep the names of the main characters intact. Then there are the adaptations that take every excruciating detail and put it on screen. Because of the differences in adaptations, either between the adaptation and written text or differences between adaptations themselves, I think that using film would be a great way to teach students about author intent and the impact that context and culture can have on a film or written text. For example, students could read a novel or short story and then watch a film adaptation of that same story that had been made in a different time era or culture or that is almost completely different than the novel. For example, Daphne Du Maurier wrote the short story on which Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds was based. The short story focuses on a farmer and his family who get attacked by birds. Through radio communications, they find out that everywhere has been attacked and they are some of the last people to survive. It ends bleakly, with the family waiting for one more bird attack. It is theorized that the story was written to protest war. The film is much less serious. It focuses on an heiress who visits a small town that gets attacked by birds. It ends with the heiress and her love interest escaping the town as it is the only place to be attacked by the birds. Clearly, the film takes very little from the short story and deals with a completely different theme that that of the short story. With this adaptation, students could compare the theme, setting, characters, and ending of the short story to that of the film. They could do research on the contexts of both the film and the short story, as well as find out more about du Maurier and Hitchcock, the audiences they were writing for, etc. Since it could be a large project, I think that this would work well to do in groups. For example, one group could focus on the story, one on the film, one on du Maurier, one Hitchcock, one the audience for the film, one the audience for the story, etc. Each group’s goal would be to become “experts” on their part of the project and then to teach the rest of their classmates about their topic. Then, once students have a thorough understanding of each aspect of the film and the short story, in their groups, they could work on their own adaptations of The Birds using either their community or the school as an audience. Each group would need write a new adaptation of The Birds to make, taking into account the context in which it will be set, a message they want their audience to leave with, and the audience who will be viewing the film, etc. I would like if students were actually able to film their story ideas with digital cameras and then edit them using iMovie or Windows movie maker. However, if that doesn’t work, students could also create digital comic books of their adaptations and then distribute them around school or the community. I think that this activity would be a good way to show students how film and print texts differ in the way that they make meaning and how an audience experiences each text differently. This project could also be done with other films and novels such as Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and the 1995 Demi Moore version of the novel, Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’ Diary, or Emma and Clueless. However, with longer works, students would need to choose a specific scene or section to adapt.

All These Things That I've Done

I chose to analyze the Killers’ video for their song, “All These Things That I’ve Done.” I chose this video because it has always been interesting to me. I had to view it a couple times to figure out what exactly is going on. Part of the reason that this video is so confusing is that it’s not linear at all. Most music videos aren’t linear in the first place, but this video takes scenes from a linear story and mixes them up. They then try to give the viewer clues as to what is going on by numbering all of the scenes. That way, when you put the numbers in order, the scenes fall into place as well. In addition to this, the video is confusing because at first, it seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the song at all. It shows the band members in a trailer park dressed as cowboys and being chased by a group of women called “The Killer Sluts” while the message of the song is about taking inventory of your life, seeing things that could be different, and trying to change them. However, the concept of the music video seems to make more sense when this meaning of the song is brought out. The video begins with scene zero, which shows the lead singer lying face down in a puddle after he and the other band members have been beaten by The Killer Sluts. The video then goes into a jumble of other scenes that happened either before or after he lands in the puddle: he cheats on his wife, rides a donkey, lands in the trailer park, etc. After it shows all of these scenes out of order, the video ends with him once again face down in the puddle, this scene now numbered as seven. The fact that the two scenes are the same but numbered differently serve as a warning to the viewer of what would happen if you don’t stop and take inventory of your life or make changes. Everything that went wrong in the past will go wrong in the future: you will make the same mistakes twice if you don’t do anything to stop them from happening. I think that they way that the scenes are jumbled show that the series of events in one’s life doesn’t have to remain static. They’re changeable and movable; just because one’s life starts out one way doesn’t mean it’s changeable. This gives some hope to the video, despite the fact that it begins and ends in the same way.

As for a way of selling the Killers’ music, I think that the video does a good job of intriguing the viewer enough to make him pay attention to the video and the song. The way that the video is jumbled makes viewers want to keep watching it to figure it out. It pulls the viewer in, forcing him to listen to the song and probably get the catchy “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” like stuck in their head, which could propel viewers to buy the music.

The songs have got to have soul, have real meaning . . .

Even though I listen to a lot of different kinds of music from many different genres, anything from Michael Buble, The Killers, and Phoenix, the one music genre that I will always know the most about and be the most partial to is country. This may be because of the fact that I’m from the relative middle of nowhere or maybe because the only radio stations my parents listened to (or possibly the only ones that came in clearly at home) were country. I think country music is a bit of an acquired taste. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who can really admit that they are a “new” country music fan; you have to grow up with it or spend some time getting used to it before you can honestly say you like it. You almost have to learn to like it. I know my boyfriend, Ryan, who didn’t grow up with it, has a hard time even listening to country, citing the “twang” in the singer’s voice and the steel guitar in the background as “unlistenable.” But I don’t even notice these things anymore.  Ryan had to point them out to me and then I had to listen super carefully to even hear them individually; for me, they just blended together into a whole, complete song. 

The one country artist that I would say that I am the biggest fan of is Gary Allan. I have listened to Gary Allan’s music for about ten years, been to two of his concerts, met him once, and own all of his albums. Gary Allan has never been afraid to make music that he wants to make. He doesn’t “sell out” and make music just because it will be popular and it will get played on the radio. He’s made a point of staying “true” to his idea of country music when so many other country artists have crossed over into pop or rock to get more air play. However, this being said, Gary Allan’s music over his career is very eclectic and a little difficult to pin down to an exact subgenre. He started out like many country artists singing country songs that were similar to those popular at the time (i.e. like songs by Garth Brooks, George Strait, Brooks and Dunn, etc.), most likely because he wouldn’t have gotten a record label otherwise. (Country labels, at least in the mid-90s, were famous for finding singers they would sign, but then tell them they have to fit into the cowboy hat and boots wearing mold or they won’t sell music.) However, by his third album he strayed closer to making “country rock” or “Bakersfield country” that uses more electric instruments and is more sharp and edgy than traditional country. However, after the release of his fourth album, Gary’s wife committed suicide and he transformed again, his fifth album staying closer to traditional country with fiddle, steel guitar, and lyrics about losing everything. After this, his albums became a blend of the many subgenres of country, with a few songs fitting under “traditional country,” a few under “country rock,” and then a couple under “Bakersfield country.” 

I think part of the reason for Gary’s eclectic mix of subgenre’s in his music can be found in his definition of country music: “the songs have got to have soul, have real meaning....Country music is...what happens during the week. Rock 'n roll is about what happens at the weekend." I would agree. Country music prides itself in being about everyday life and being relatable to every person because it can incorporate so much of the human experience in just one song. Allan allows his own feelings and emotions dictate what he will sing. He doesn’t depend on the country genre to shape his music and push him into a preset form. So, given this, I have decided to talk about a song off of Allan’s sixth album, Living Hard, called “Learning How to Bend.” This is the second album to come out after the death of Allan’s wife. The first album to come out after her death, Tough All Over showed Allan still in shock and trying to deal with his loss, as evident in songs such as “Best I Ever Had,” “Life Ain’t Always Beautiful,” “Puttin’ My Misery on Display,” and “Puttin’ Memories Away.” However, Living Hard and especially “Learning How to Bend,” show Allan moving on with his life and getting over, but not forgetting, the loss of his wife. The song opens with the lyrics, “I’m still learning how to pray/ Trying hard not to stray/ Try to see things your way” and then a few lines later, “I’m still learning how to trust/It’s so hard to open up/And I’d do anything for us.” It’s as if Allan is saying that even though he was hurt by his wife’s death, he’s working on how to deal with her loss, how to be human again for those still in his life. He needs to relearn how to trust people and get close to them without running away in fear of losing them. Later in the song some the lines “I'm just trying to understand/It's all in someone else's hands/There's always been a bigger plan/But I don't need to understand.” Here he seems to be coming to terms with her death and realizing that it wasn’t his fault.

Even though there seems to be so much of Allan’s own feelings in the song, like I said earlier, country music incorporates so much of the human experience that I think it would be difficult for everyone not to be able to relate to some part of the song. Because of this, to teach this song and the country music genre in general, I would play “Learning How to Bend” through once for my students, with copies of the lyrics so they could follow along. Then, I would have them do a free write, picking out at least one line of the song (or the whole song) that they can relate to especially well to and find meaning in and describe why, stating an experience, memory, person, etc. Then, once done writing, I would have students who feel comfortable share what they wrote about and have them think about their peers’ responses and how they fit into the song as they listen to the song again. I would then share with them the history of the song and how Allan wrote it after his wife died. Then, after this, I would like to discuss with my students how even though the song has a definite history and meaning for the artist, it still can relate to everyone because it focuses on a subject that everyone can relate to.

Presentation