1. The American Dream
American Literature

2. What is the American Dream?
The term “American Dream” as first used by James Truslow Adams in 1931.
He stated that the American Dream is the 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.

3. The Explorers/Early Colonists 1650-1750
Their Dreams:
Land, expansion of empires (England, Spain, France), goods and materials
Adventure
Religious freedom
Their Writing
Historical narratives
Diaries, journals, letters
Slave narratives

4. The Puritans Their Dream Their Beliefs Their Writings:
Religious Freedom
Their Beliefs
Valued thrift and hard work
Wealth was considered a reward of a virtuous life
Intolerant of other beliefs
Human beings are evil and must struggle to overcome their sins
Personal salvation depends on God,
Bible is supreme authority on earth for church and society
Saw themselves as “God’s chosen People”
Their Writings:
Puritan Plain Style
This plain style was distinct, orderly, and simple, while employing rhetorical devices sanctioned by Biblical use: parables and analogies, similes and metaphors, rhythmic and formal syntax

5. Rationalism/ Age of Enlightenment The Founding Fathers 1750-1800
Their Dreams
Democratic utopia
Use of reason
Individual & National assertion
Growth of Patriotism
American vs. European ideas
Their Writings:
Genres: political pamphlets, speeches, travel writing, fiction w/ generic plots & characters
MALE-centered

6. Deism: subgroup of Enlightenment
Benjamin Franklin was one of the major American Deists.
Their Beliefs:
1. One cannot communicate with God through any organized religions, rituals, or other practice.
2. They view Jesus as a philosopher, teacher & healer, but NOT as the Son of God. 3. They do not believe in miracles.
4. The "world operates by natural & self-sustaining laws of the creator." 5. One can learn morality by using reason without needing to appeal to religious revelation & church dogmas.
6. Deists pray, but only to express their appreciation to God for his works. They do not ask for special privileges or gifts.

7. Romantics
Their Dreams: Love of nature; use of imagination will return man to state of perfection; using intuition (gut feeling) is better than reasoning things out
Their Writings:
Genres: poetry, short stories, novels
Highly imaginative, often with fantasy & supernatural involved
Washington Irving
Edgar Allen Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne

8. Transcendentalists 1840-1860 Their Dreams:
Nature allows one to commune with the Oversoul; by looking at nature we learn more about ourselves
Their Writings: nature writing & essays; poetry
Major transcendentalist writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller.

9. The Realists/Naturalists 1855-1900
Their Dreams: Describe life as it really is, without fantasy or embellishment
Their Writings:
Short stories, novels, travel narratives
Major theme: Man loses in the end
Stephen Crane
Mark Twain
Jack London

10. The Moderns
Their Dreams: “Make it new” and throw away the past
Their Writings: Show how people are disillusioned by life and alienated from each other in the midst of material success
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck

11. The Post-Moderns 1950 to 1970
Their Dreams: Show the fragmentation of American society and the weight of the past on the present
Their Writings:
Genres: plays, novels, poetry & short stories
Arthur Miller & Truman Capote
Sylvia Plath
Kurt Vonnegut

12. The Contemporaries 1970 to Present
Sandra Cisneros
Their Dreams: Concerned with connections between and among people.
Their Writings:
Narratives- both fiction and nonfiction
Autobiographical essays
Anti-heroes
Emotion-provoking
Humorous irony
Gary Soto
Rita Dove
Stephen King

13. Modern American Generational Groups
The works of writers in American Literature have had and continue to have a large effect on the lives of many generations of Americans.
They include the following groups:

14. Baby Boomer Generation-1946-1964
Baby boomers presently make up the lion's share of the political, cultural, industrial and academic leadership class in the United States.
Vietnam War, the Beatles, Hippies

15. Generation X – 1961-1981 Brought up on television, MTV Atari 2600s
personal computers
raised in the 1970s and 1980s and saw this country undergo a selfish phase that they do not want to repeat.
"Generation X grew up in the 'me generation' of the 1980s, and now they are able to see that it is not all it is cracked up to be
Punk rock, Grunge, body piercings

16. Generation Y – 1981-2003 Technology driven
1st to grow up with Internet
Fall of the Soviet Union & the Iraq Wars
Sept 11th
Google, Ipod, Facebook,
The end of “the American century,” when USA was the dominant nation

17. Generation Z: ?
What will their American Dream be?

18. What about you?
What is your American Dream?