Introducing The Great Gatsby
Homework for Monday:
*Read pp. 1-59
*Read and mark up the essay below. Answer the questions attached to it for homework credit (for full credit you should write roughly a paragraph for each).
*Watch some of the attached video clips if you were not in class and missed them (you will need them to do the short answers).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_g-0u1wfNc (from the beginning to 8:43)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_liemIeSDk&feature=related (3:00-3:30; 4:30-5:30; 7:35-8:40; 9:30-end)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHvmn7Fb05I&feature=related (0:00-:30; 1:23-2:18; 2:39-4:55)
Michel-Guillaume-Jean De Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1783
Crevecoeur was a Frenchman who had served with Montcalm in the French and Indian War and in 1765 decided to remain in the New World. For the next fifteen years, he farmed land in Orange County, New York and wrote his Letters from an American Farmer. The following excerpt is from his third and most famous letter, "What is an American?" Adapted from: http://staff.jccc.net/vclark/doc8_1_1.htm.
Directions: Read and mark up this essay. Complete the questions that follow for homework credit.
I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent....
He is arrived on a new continent; a modern society offers itself to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess every thing, and of a herd of people who have nothing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power giving to a few a very visible one; no great manufacturers employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe.
Some few towns excepted, we are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense territory, communicating with each other by means of good roads and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws without dreading their power, because they are equitable. We are all animated with the spirit of industry, which is unfettered, and unrestrained, because each person works for himself. If he travels through our rural districts, he views not the hostile castle, and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and miserable cabbin, where cattle and men help to keep each other warm, and dwell in meanness, smoke, and indigence. A pleasing uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest titles our towns afford; that of a farmer is the only appellation of the rural inhabitants of our country. It must take some time ere he can reconcile himself to our dictionary, which is but short in words of dignity, and names of honour. There, on a Sunday, he sees a congregation of respectable farmers and their wives, all clad in neat homespun, well mounted, or riding in their own humble waggons. There is not among them an esquire, saving the unlettered magistrate. There he sees a parson as simple as his flock, a farmer who does not riot on the labour of others. We have no princes, for whom we toil, starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing in the world. Here man is free as he ought to be; nor is this pleasing equality so transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the shores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor the unknown bounds of North America entirely peopled. Who can tell how far it extends? Who can tell the millions of men whom it will feed and contain? for no European foot has as yet traveled half the extent of this mighty continent! ...
In this great American asylum, the poor of Europe have by some means met together, and in consequence of various causes; to what purpose, should they ask one another, what countrymen they are? Alas, two thirds of them had no country. Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country? A country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich, the severity of the laws, with jails and punishments; who owned not a single foot of the extensive surface of this planet? No! urged by a variety of motives, here they came. Every thing has tended to regenerate them; new laws, a new mode of living, a new social system; here they are become men: in Europe they were as so many useless plants, wanting vegetative mould, and refreshing showers; they withered, and were mowed down by want, hunger, and war: but now, by the power of transplantation, like all other plants, they have taken root and flourished! Formerly they were not numbered in any civil list of their country, except in those of the poor; here they rank as citizens. By what invisible power has this surprising metamorphosis been performed? By that of the laws, and that of their industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen; and to that title every benefit is affixed which men can possibly require. This is the great operation daily performed by our laws. From whence proceed these laws? From our government. Whence that governments It is derived from the original genius and strong desire of the people ratified and confirmed by government. This is the great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every province exhibits, Nova Scotia excepted. There the crown has done all; either there were no people who had genius, or it was not much attended to: the consequence is, that the province is very thinly inhabited indeed; the power of the crown, in conjunction with the musketos, has prevented men from settling there. Yet some part of it flourished once, and it contained a mild harmless set of people. But for the fault of a few leaders the whole were banished. The greatest political error the crown ever committed in America, was to cut off men from a country which wanted nothing but men!
What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence: Ubi panis ibi patria, is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a man, whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry, which began long since in the East; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought, therefore, to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. Here religion demands but little of him; a small voluntary salary to the minister, and gratitude to God; can he refuse these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. This is an American.
Homework Questions:
1. What would Crevecoeur describe as the American Dream? Point to textual evidence and the stylistic devices that he employs to get this across (remember that such analysis can also be done of non-fiction).
2. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
3. What is the American Dream as it is presented in the video clips about F. Scott Fitzgerald and the 1920s? How does this mesh with Crevecoeur’s dream? How this conflict with it? Why do you think it meshes/conflicts?
4. What do you believe is the American Dream now?
1.) Crevecoeur describes the American Dream as the fantasy that a person can come to America and have a fresh start and have better opportunities there than the place that they previously resided.And in order to fulfill this dream, they must adapt to the new lifestyle and government in order to be rewarded and given freedom. He also believes that the American Dream can create a new race of men, "Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world".
ReplyDelete2.)I do not agree with Crevecoeur, I think his idea is far too optimistic and unrealistic.
3.)In the video, the American Dream is more about getting rich and famous, and not actually working . It meshes with Crevecoeur's idea because it doesn't focus on good values, but rather on being successful based on how famous they are.
4.) I think the American Dream is a lot like the one presented in the video, everyone wants to get rich and famous, values or lost, etc.
1. He describes the American dream as being part of our new land and working. Being a true American and contributing to society by working here to make the world a better place to live in. "Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world"
ReplyDelete2. Yes, I do agree with him because being a true part of your country involves contributing to it.
3. I think Fitzgerald's idea of the American Dream was more glamorous. It was more related to the type of job you had and how you dressed. He says one girl was more admired because of the way she dressed and carried herself. If you simply had a job it would not necessarily be the dream.
4. I believe that now the American Dream is all about money to most people. But I also think the ideal dream is to have a family, a nice house, and money. To be well off and not struggle to get by. Everyone wants to have a happy life and live with your family
1. He describes the American Dream as a fresh start, a clean slate. People can come here and build a new life for themselves. "Here individuals are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great change in the world." This statement alone shows that he sees america as a place to build a better future.
ReplyDelete2. No I think he is kind of unrealistic.
3. The video depicts a kind of "hollywood" version of the american dream, where everyone's worried about getting rich and famous.
4. I think many people see the american dream has become the superficial view of wealth and fame so I do think it's depicted the same as it is in video.