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:
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.
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.
Now lets watch clips of Elvis Presley on the Milton Berle Show (1956)
and Johnny Cash on Ranch Party (1957).
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
No comments:
Post a Comment