OMAM Chapter 1-You've Got a Friend

Chapter 1 gives us a first glance into the friendship of Lennie and George. Describe that relationship and talk about if you could see yourself in the role of George? Could you befriend a person like Lennie? Truly befriend.....?

Defining the American Dream

The term "American Dream" was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream is 'that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.'"

In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream?

So FOR WHOM is the American Dream? What do you "look like" when you have achieved it?

Was this 1950s television show close to the mark? Is this how you see the American family living the American dream?


Or could it look something like this family?

What is the American Dream?

Journal-
Respond to this quote by comedian, George Carlin.

"They call it the American Dream
because you have to be asleep to believe it."

What IS the American Dream???

And is it just a dream??