American Dream 1.) Catchwords and original meaning 2.) American Dream in the past 3.) American Dream in the present 4.) "Melting-Pot" theory 5.) Frontier spirit 6.) Lee Iacocca 7.) Madonna Catchwords decribing the American Dream: Industry Temperance Prudence Punctuality Perseverance Contentment Reputation Policy Betting Gambling Vice Virtue General/Original meaning of American Dream climbing ladder of success by one´s unimportant, ordinary person in society to well-known successful personality who stands as hero over whole nation 2.) American Dream in the past - America = nation of immigrants or descendants of immigrants - fancy of a paradise has belonged to the idea of America since the beginning - regarding to a virgin land the New World was described as a paradise which released the newcomer from the trouble of the life of the Old World à the American Dream of the new Garden of Eden - Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776 in Declaration of Independence of "inalienable rights" à equality of opportunity à political, radical and social equality à individual freedom in case of religion, politics and economy à pursuit of happiness - containened all human rights and values dating from the beginning of the American history - first proof of American Dream - older ideals of American Dream were strongly influenced by the frontier spirit - 19th century: large number of immigrants came to the USA - vast land offered enormous possibilities - everybody dreamed of a better life, a new society, individual wealth and cheap soil - 1920´s - the golden twenties - period where old values (faith in God .) were destroyed by persuit of wealth (dream of fame, money, .) 3.) American Dream in the present - today: American Dream has changed hard and has many faces - today´s society dreams of material wealth and economic success - most known is dream of dishwasher to president or from rags to riches - often the American Dream is thinking of immigrants - Statue of Liberty = symbol of the freedom à first thing European immigrants saw arriving New York harbour - most of Hispanics and Asians never saw Statue of Liberty today - Asians arrived at Western ports and airports - most of the Hispanics crossed border from Mexico into California and Texas or from Cuba into Florida - people hope to build up their own business, to have their own house and their own land one day - hope to be able to choose a job freely, express opinions freely and to keep their religion - for them America is country of unlimited opportunities and success - their dream nothing to do with reality à live in ghettos à caught by police and send back to their home country à most of illegal immigrants live under poverty-line 4.) "Melting-Pot" theory - main idea = to describe the mixed American nation à wide spectrum of origins - melting-pot = pot in which different elements are fused together, with the result that the ingredients are transformed into one different thing à all the different people with its different origins, culture, tradition and language are mixed up to become one nation à in reality this dream has never become true à people speak the same language + get the same national identity à still barriers between blacks, Indians and whites à religion also got separate sectors of Protestants, Roman Catholics and Jews à people kept their tradition and culture, slaves and Indians were very long seperated à melting-pot does not function - another way to describe this theory was the salat bowl or the pizza - it shows the multi-cultural, diverse and pluralistic American civilization - melting-pot was criticized as too idealistic 5.) frontier spirit - frontier = westward moving boarder between the civilization and the wilderness - frontier life was very hard but peaceful - implied independence, a primitive life and the struggle of the individual for survival - at the frontier everyone is equal à only this one will survive and become wealth who work hard à these things had a strong influence on today´s American society - Americans still got a geographically and socially mobility - Frontier spirit influenced American Dream à You can everything do what you want if you just work hard for it 6.) Lee Iacocca - real name: Lido A. Iacocca à changed his name after going to work for Ford à felt it would be easier for business associates and contacts to recognize and understand - grew up in Allentown à dutch community, lot of dutch people lived together à Italian was second class compared to dutch - his parents Nicola and Antoinette were Italian immigrants - Iacocca´s parents worked hard to provide their family - father believed in America and he felt in America you had the freedom to become anything you wanted to be if you were willing to work hard for it - Iacocca worked 16 hours a day in a fruit market after High School - in school Iacocca came face to face with ethnic intolerance à he was looked down on because he was Italian à also two Jewish friends were treated bad à realized the importance of recognizing people for their contributions and abilities, not for their race or nationality - after graduating university he got a scholarship from Princeton - started working for Ford in 1946 - in Iacocca´s eyes there is one word that describes a good manager à decisiveness - Iacocca was made president of Ford in 1970 - by the end of 1975 began having trouble at Ford - most of this seemed to be a personality conflict between Henry Ford II. and Iacocca à Iacocca was fired in 1978 - didn´t sit around for long - joined forces with Chrysler in the same year - helped Chrysler in a state of emergency à lack of communication and no team work - belonged to Chrysler till 1992 ð worked hard for his destination ð never rested on his laurels 7.) Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone - was born in Bay City (near Detroit) in 1958 - daughter of Italian immigrants (8 siblings) - her father and mother worked as mechanics - lived under modest circumstances - mother died when she was 5 years old - was very intelligent and honoured on the one hand by extraordinary performance, disciplin and ambition and on the other hand by rebellious behaviour - got a dance-scholarship when she was 18 years old - stop this for going to New York (with only $35) - life was hard there for her à had to work as auxiliary worker and naked model to survive - danced as minor role in numerous plays - Madonna displaced her activities from dance to music - lived several time in the gutter - due to good friends she got a record contract with Sire Records - in the following years she sang songs like "Holiday" and "Like a virgin" which made her very popular - the longplayer "Like a virgin" was also a extremely success à Madonna was the first female singer selling 5 billion records à was like a pioneer of the female superstar - was even more successful than Elvis or The Beatles in the USA and in Great Britain - Madonna also tried to be a movie star but not successful - played in approximately 20 movies (more flops than success), most popular movie: "Evita" - 1991: negotiated with Time Warner Group the most expensive conduct in this time - got about 60 billion Dollars - used the money to found her own company "Maverick" à support the work of young artists - the most popular singer which was supported was Alanis Morissette - created many music and fashion trends - today: has two children and is married with Guy Ritchie
