Beginning to read Of Mice and Men originally led me to question issues of inclusion and exclusion, belonging and unbelonging in the United States. I couldn't help but to see Steinbeck's California as a microcosm of America, the promised land of opportunity for Lennie and George. The place where dreams come true. As far as inclusion and exclusion are concerned, it is the American Dream and those who have the right to dream and those who don't, that I find really interesting. Now, after examining scholarly research on what the "Dream" means, my own vision of the American Dream has changed. The "Dream" is of those narratives, similar to the trope of the "wild west" of California, that promises so much but does not deliver for many people. This project tried to, at the very least, define the American Dream, while it concurrently challenges all of the things we take for granted about the "Dream."
My first three genres try to synthesize standard conceptions of the American Dream with cultural and historical realities. By standard conceptions of the American Dream, I speak of what political scientist Jennifer Hochschild calls "tenets" for success. Those tenets are that, if one plays by the rules and works hard, then they will find success in the United States. The playlist to the American Dream are satirical songs about the American Dream, finding flaws in the logic of the standard conception of the American Dream. That is, because of problems such as poverty and the Vietnam War, the "Dream" does not apply to all people. The Venn Diagram activity does a similar synthesis, except between literature and historical events. This activity compares descriptions of characters from Of Mice and Men to descriptions of migrant laborers of the 1930s. Then, the diagram compares migrant laborers from the 1930s to DACA recipients of today, showing that the "Dream" does not really apply to all people but rather a very white and upper-middle class portion of America. The postcard from Soledad touches on this same idea more creatively, taking the perspective of an immigrant worker in the United States. Comparing expectations of opportunity in the United States to the reality of work is the main function of this activity. Overall, theses genres work to poke holes in our standard conceptions of the American Dream which equate to "tenets" of success. My next three genres try to talk about the American Dream from the other side, from perspectives of those who are not represented in the standard conception of the American Dream. I take this idea from literary historian Jim Cullen who tells a story of the American Dream such that it portrays it as not singular but rather a plurality. In my journals from Curley's wife, I take the perspective of a character who is marginalized in the text because of her gender. Her desire, or dream, is to be free from the abusive relationship of her husband and to run away to make a life of her own. While freedom and liberation are not part of the traditional "tenets" of the American Dream, I feel like this should be available to people living in the United States. Another thing that should be made more available is meaningful work, especially for those with disabilities. My public service announcement challenges those who think that they believe in the American Dream yet deny work from people with disabilities. It is not just about finding success and upward mobility, rather, the "Dream" may be something as simple as finding a job, something that over 60 percent of people with disabilities cannot do. Finding multiple perspectives on the "Dream" is the main idea behind my lesson plan, the final genre of these three. Students are asked to vote with their feet about which perspective about immigration reform they agree with most. They must justify their reasoning with their beginning conceptions of the American Dream and what opportunity should mean in the United States. Although some may never move past the traditional conception of the "Dream," the hope is that many begin to see the multiple different potentials of the American Dream and opportunity in the United States. Finally, a word should be said about making this kind of learning accessible to all. I intentionally created genres that used multiple different intelligences from Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory. The activities created on this site use all of the different intelligences in the hopes that students may find an avenue to make their thoughts and talents shine. Also, because this project is published entirely online, this Multigenre Inquiry Project engages with 21st Century Skills such as communication, digital literacy, global literacy and problem solving. All of this started because I was inspired by literature, and my goal is that others may see this project as an inspiration for their own teaching, learning and love of books.
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