The American Dream

Read: The Declaration; Crevecoeur, “What is an American?” (especially the first five pages; you can skim the rest); Lazarus; King; Adams; Jischke; Wiesel. Write: • What does the Declaration mean to you? How do you feel about it? • What ideals in the Declaration have guided American thinking throughout our history? • List four aspects of being an American, according to Crevecoeur. Support your choices by citing the text. • Who, if anyone, is left out of his notion of an American? • What are your reactions to Lazarus’s poem? How does it relate to the American Dream? • You have probably never read the whole speech. Now that you have, what are your initial reactions? • How is the Declaration of Independence at the heart of King’s speech? What might that say about American reform/protest movements? What are the elements of the American dream according to Adams? • Adams asks us to reconsider the American dream. Why? What does he recommend? • What is the American dream according to Jischke? • What do you think of the story of his family? • What do you think of Wiesel’s claim that the US started the war in Iraq for unselfish reasons? • Wiesel says that racism and anti-Semitism have vanished from American society. What do you think of that assertion? • “For an individual, as for a nation, to be free is an admirable duty – but to help others become free is even more admirable” (Wiesel 420). What do you think of this statement?