What is the American Dream? Spend 5 minutes conceiving and writing down a definition in 1-2 sentences.
Share definitions aloud.
Now, check out these two album covers:
Elvis Presley’s 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong (1959)
and Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison (1968).
Study these images closely.
Discuss in your groups and answer these questions:
1) What image do you think each artist wanted to portray?
2) How can you tell?
3) Do you think you can tell anything about each artists personalities by looking at these album covers?
4) What assumptions can we make about the artists and their music based on the album covers?
Be prepared to discuss as a class how each of these two artists are depicted differently. The discussion should cover styles of dress, physical poses, personalities (if apparent), album titles, and any other visible design elements.
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash began their lives under similar circumstances before launching their massively successful performing careers:
a) Presley and Cash were born
three years apart in the American South, Presley in Mississippi and
Cash in Arkansas;
b) Both came of age during the
Great Depression and grew up extremely poor;
c) Both worked various jobs to
support their families before recording for Sun Records in Memphis in the mid-1950s.
Today we will be analyzing the idea of the “American Dream,” how it has changed overtime, and how it relates to the music and popularity of
Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
For a young musician in the 1950s, it was considered a
major accomplishment
to appear on one of these network television shows.
Discuss
as a class:
5) What traits do these artists
seem to have in common?
6) What
traits make each of these artists unique?
Now let's read about an idea of the "American Dream" from 1868.
In you groups, answer these questions:
7) What is Dick (the protagonist) likely to
achieve by diving off the boat to save the drowning child?
8) Based
on this scene, what does Alger imply about the protagonist’s moral character?
9) Over all, what does Alger suggest about a person’s opportunity to achieve
upward mobility in America? In other
words, what traits does an American need in order to succeed?
Now let's read read aloud a short biography of Steinbeck
and an excerpt from Of
Mice and Men (1937).
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) grew up in California’s Salinas Valley, an agricultural
region 25 miles from the Pacific Coast. After briefly attending Stanford University,
Steinbeck worked several jobs—including as a laborer, a reporter, and caretaker of
a Lake Tahoe ranch—before finding success as an author. In the 1930s, Steinbeck
used the Salinas Valley as the setting for some of his most-acclaimed fiction,
including Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). These novels
explored the harsh realities of life for common farmers and their families struggling
to survive during the Great Depression.
Of Mice and Men follows migrant laborers George and Lennie as they travel the
Salinas Valley looking for work. Throughout the novel, George, who serves as both
friend and protector for the simple-minded Lennie, refers to his fantasy of owning a
farm where he and Lennie will live.
Excerpts from Of Mice and Men (1937)
Passage 1
Lennie said, “Tell about that place, George.”
“I jus’ told you, jus’ las’ night.”
“Go on—tell again, George.”
“Well, it’s ten acres,” said George. “Got a little win’mill. Got
a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard,
cherries, apples, peaches, ‘cots, nuts, got a few berries.
They’s a place for alfalfa and plenty of water to flood it...”
…His voice was growing warmer. “An’ we could have a few
pigs. I could build a smoke house like the one gran’pa had,
an’ when we kill a pig we can smoke the bacon and the
hams, and make sausage an’ all like that. An’ when the
salmon run up the river we could catch a hundred of ‘em
an’ salt ‘em down or smoke ‘em. We could have them for
breakfast. They ain’t nothing so nice as smoked salmon.
When the fruit come in we could can it—and tomatoes,
they’re easy to can. Ever’ Sunday we’d kill a chicken or a
rabbit. Maybe we’d have a cow or a goat, and the cream is
so God damn thick you got to cut it with a knife and take it
out with a spoon.”
Lennie watched him with wide eyes, and old Candy
watched him too. Lennie said softly, “We could live offa the
fatta the lan’.”
Passage 2
(Dialog is between Lennie and Crooks, a stable hand.)
“George says we’re gonna have alfalfa for the rabbits.”
“What rabbits?”
“We’re gonna have rabbits an’ a berry patch.”
“You’re nuts.”
“We are too. You ast George.”
“You’re nuts.” Crooks was scornful. “I seen hundreds of
men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their
bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their
heads. Hundreds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go
on; an every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in
his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just
like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read
plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and
nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the
time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”
(Of Mice and Men—New York: Penguin Books, 1993 reprint
edition; Passage 1: Pp. 56-57; Passage 2: Pp. 73-74)
Discuss and answer in your groups and answer questions:
10) In
passage 1, what kind of imagery does George use to describe the farm to Lennie?
11) How does George’s vision connect to the
idea of the American Dream?
12) In
passage 2, how does Crooks respond to George and Lennie’s dream of owning a
farm?
13) What does Crooks’ observation
suggest about the state of the American Dream during the time of the Great Depression?
14) Explain
how Steinbeck’s understanding of the American Dream is similar to or different
from that of Alger’s.
Share answers with class.
Elvis Presley’s Houses
House
15) Describe Elvis’ birthplace (House A):
16) How big is the house?
17) How many rooms might a house like this have?
18) How is it decorated?
19) What construction materials can you see?
20) Who do you think might live in a house like this?
21) Describe Graceland (House B) using the questions above.
22) How big is the house?
23) How many rooms might a house like this have?
24) How is it decorated?
25) What construction materials can you see?
26) Who do you think might live in a house like this?
The image of Graceland is from the cover of one of Elvis’ albums.
27) Why do you think the decision
was made to put the house on the album cover?
28) What statement does this make about Elvis and
his relationship to the idea of the American Dream?
