12
FITZGERALD’S THE GREAT GATSBY , MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969), AND BLACK NATIONALISM The American Dream

The American Dream

  • Upload
    shalin

  • View
    118

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

The American Dream. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , Midnight cowboy (1969), And black nationalism. What is the American Dream?. Happiness Personal Social and geographic mobility (American) As portrayed in literature, cinema, and music, the American Dream is - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: The American Dream

FITZGERALD’S THE GREAT GATSBY , MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) ,

AND BLACK NATIONALISM

The American Dream

Page 2: The American Dream

What is the American Dream?

HappinessPersonalSocial and geographic mobility (American)

As portrayed in literature, cinema,and music, the American Dream isdeeply personal, can be difficult toattain and reflects the inequality inAmerica.

Page 3: The American Dream

Significance in the order of artworks

The 3 artworks examine the American Dream from different perspectives of American Society.

The Great Gatsby – white maleMidnight Cowboy – poor immigrantMalcolm X and Public Enemy – oppressed

minority

Page 4: The American Dream

The Great Gatsby

Personal component: reinvents himself because of his love for Daisy, unique dream.

American component: to be with Daisy, Gatsby yearns to reinvent himself and move socially.

Keep in mind: Gatsby achieves the American component, and is a white male.

Page 5: The American Dream

The Great Gatsby

“I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” (172).

Wealth didn’t do it for Gatsby. He rose up, and by many people’s definitions of the American dream, he was living it. At the same time, his American Dream was personal, and he did not fulfill it.

Page 6: The American Dream

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Miami DreamingBackground: Ratso Rizzo (NYC) and Joe Buck

(Texas)Joe’s DreamRatso’s DreamCommonality: Quest for happinessDifficulty (see clip)

Page 7: The American Dream

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Benefits of the dream: provides hope, a reason to continue, and a goal.

Downfall of the dream: it doesn’t happen overnight, or necessarily at all, difficulty in achieving it is depressing.

Page 8: The American Dream

Black Nationalism

“I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American Dream—I see an American nightmare” –Malcolm X

Page 9: The American Dream

Public Enemy

Page 10: The American Dream

Public Enemy

Party For Your To Fight“For the original Black Asiatic man, cream of

the Earth, and was here first, and some devils prevent this from being known, but you check out the books they own, even masons they know it but refuse to show it, yo. But it’s proven and fact, and it takes a nation of millions to hold us back.”

Page 11: The American Dream

Public Enemy

Blacks and other minorities are deprived of an equal opportunity to pursue the American dream.

Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) responds to that and attacks the oppressiveness of the white man.