The American Dream

Money, family, property and respect, all can be cateforized under the idea of "The American Dream". To me The American Dream is merely a life long goal that is ideal for the average american. It is something that can be said to be unattainable, or unappreciated once it has been reached. Throughtout this year in english class I have looked at many books that deal with the american dream such as "The Great Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Death of a Salesman", by arthur miller. Within both of these pieces of writing are examples that support the two ideas of the american dream that it is either unnatainable, or unnapreciated.

The idea that the american is unattainable can be seen through various examples of both books "The Great Gatsby", and "Death of a Salesman". An example from "The Great Gatsby" that supports this idea is how once Jay Gatsby attains his wealth and popularity and respect, he can still not gain the affection of his one true love. This shows how one can be incredibly succesful yet still not be happy, implying that the american dream is unattainable. A point of evidence from "Death of a Salesmen" that supports this idea is Biff Lowman. Biff was extremely popular and athletic in school, thinking he would become very succesful one day, but when he finally does grow up he realizes that his priorities were out of order. This shows that no matter how succesful you think you will be, you never know how things will actually turn out in you're future.


My theory that the american dream is unnapreciated once it has been reached is also supported in the two Books "The Great Gatsby", and "Death of a Salesman". In "Death of a Salesman", Willy Lowman was very happy at one point in his life, when his children were in highschool, yet he took for granted the happiness and level of satisfaction his family had. I feel that the happiness that the Lowmans had at one point was just as good as attaining the american dream and they just let it fly right by them. An example from "The Great Gatsby" that supports this idea is the way Jay Gatsby does not appreciate any of his money and throws it away on ridiculous parties and unnesesary items just to impress Daisy. This shows that his succesfulness was not appreciated and he would throw it all away for one thing, love.

Both books "The Great Gatsby", and "Death of a Salesman", do support these two negative ideas about the american dream, but this does not mean that the american dream is all bad. Both novels also tell of solid examples that reflect upon the idea of the american dream positively. An example from "Death of a Salesman", that supports this idea is how Willy Lowman does recal certain aspects and memories of his younger life as being hapy and succesful. This can show that one may be able to attain complete happines (Which can be seen as attaining the american dream), and just not notice their happiness. An aspect from "The Great Gatsby" that supports the american dream positively is how Jay Gatsby's success did bring him closer to capturing the love of his life. Although Daisy did not fall for him in the end, he did get a lot closer rather than if he was not succesful.

In closing, there are many ways one can view the ideas of the ideal "American Dream", but the two ways that i feel most repeated and renounced are the two ideas that the american dream is either unattainable or even worse, unnapreciated. Both ideas can be seen proven true through examples of the two books "The Great Gatsby", by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller. No matter how succesful one can become or how close one may get to the american dream, theres only one factor that maters in the end, one factor that determines how the rest of ones life is going to turn out, that factor is happiness.

Indentify your best piece of writing.

Over this year I have submited many pieces of writing to my english class, some good, some bad, but everything that i write only makes me a better writer. No matter how boring or unwell-written a piece of my writing is, it can only help me in understanding corrections needed to be added to help progress my writing skills. A great example of a piece of writing that has helped my progression as a writer is an un-named short story that I wrote for a final novel assignment. The story is about my eventful year of ninth grade and the choices one undertakes during their adjustment from middle school to highschool. I did excellent on the piece, recieving an A + and only possitive comments from my teacher Mr. Brannigan. I don't only consider this my best piece of writing because of the grade i recieved, but also because of the passion and imagery i used in writing this piece. Considering the story was about actual events that i personally went through, such as first encounters with drugs and hanging out with an older crowd of kids, it was very easy to write this piece. I used a process of basic memories to write this piece, meaning that i simply recalled my freshman year and put the main events in the story using wonderful imagery, such as the way i described the places and people i encountered during the story, which coveyed the emotions i was undergoing during my actual ninth grade year. The only challenge i had during writing this piece was trying to decide whether i wanted to tell exactly what happened or switch up the events a little. In the end i felt that telling the readers everything for truth would help convey my emotions better. My favorite line of this piece is the first sentence, "C'mon Danny get in the car, it's my brother's friend it'll be fine." This is my favorite line in the story because it deffinately catches the reader's attention and it also shows the main idea of the story, which is young children entering highschool and going through a phase of peer pressure. Overall this piece of writing means very much to me and shows much about the type of writer that i am and have become over this year. I am very proud of my writing.

how do you think you have grown as a reader in the past year? what have you discovered about yourself as a reader.

Being a reader holds much responsibility, in order to progress as a reader, one must first want to be as responsible as it takes. I feel that in the past year, i have grown greatly as a reader and that it shows through my reading. Not only does my progression in reading show through my reading, but it also reflects how am I am as a person. There are mutliple ways that I have grown as a reader and they all add up to my overall progression. I owe all of my progression as a reader to all the training and practice i have practiced in English 11R with Mr. Brannigan through out this whole year. An example of a way that i have advanced as a reader is the way i interpret vocabulary words that i do not recognize in my reading, meaning that instead of skipping over unknown words, i now look up the words either through the internet or dictionary. After identifying the definition of the words, i then re-read the passage. This gives me a much greater understanding for what I am reading. One more example of how I have grown as a reader is my note taking skills. Before this year I would normally read the book and hope to remember the important elements of the story, but now i can be assured that any information from the story that i may need after completing the book, I'll have written down in my notes and be able to look back at them. Along with my advance of reading skills, this year has also taught me alot about myself as a reader. The most important thing that i have discovered about myself as a reader, is that the more I commit my self to my reading, the more my reading will commit itself to me. This simply means that the more effort i put into trying to understand what I am reading, The more I will actually understand it. Overall this year has done more than i could ever imagine for my reading skills and i greatly appreciate the progression this year's english class and Mr. Brannigan have given me.