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AMERICAN DREAMERS
MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST & TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST & TRAGIC - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST & TRAGIC - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
AMERICAN DREAMERS MATERIALISM, SELF-INTEREST & TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES Money ..you say it long enough it doesnt mean anything..every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty. How far do you agree that the play illustrates the failure
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Money..you say it long enough it doesn’t mean anything..every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty.
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How far do you agree that the play illustrates the failure of the American Dream?
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The American Dream
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… 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...
James Truslow Adams, Epic of America (1931)
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You could say I’m a dreamer (pg2)
THE IDEA OF A GOOD LIFE;
BETTER FULLER
IS PROBLEMATIC
RICHER
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Suburban middle-class life Naturalistic style
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SETTING
THE KELLER HOME IS A SUBURBAN IDYLL CLEARLY DEFINED BY ITS MONETARY VALUE
‘It would have cost perhaps fifteen thousand in the early twenties when it was built’ (3).
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EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
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AN ABUNDANCE OF ALLUSIONS TO
MONEY, SALARY, GOODS, PROPERTY
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EVERYBODY’S GOT A PRICE
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JOE KELLER
‘Build you a HOUSE...I had one of the best SHOPS…BIGGER than ever’
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LUBEYS REPRESENT THE AMERICAN DREAM
KATE KELLER , ACT TWO (67)
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- SMILE. LOOK AFTER YOURSELF!
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I WONDER HOW THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT
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TRAGIC END. Is the ending the message?
The moon is strong and casts its bluish light.
The destruction of the Keller family might serve as a WARNING against the AMERICAN DREAM.
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IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, MONEY, MONEY Page 5
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I felt…ashamed
- somehow. I felt
wrong to be alive, to open the bank- book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator.
CHRIS KELLER, ACT ONE (38)
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CHRIS’S DISGRACE
CHRISTOPHER KELLER
A symbol of ill-gotten gains and his complicity.
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WE NEED TO TAKE IT BACK IN TIME Page 6
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HOW DOES THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL TENSES DEPICT CHRIS’S BELIEFS AND PRIORITIES? IS THERE A SHIFT?
CHRIS: Annie, we're going to live now! I'm going to make you so happy. (He kisses her...) (Act One, 37) ANN: Because you have a right to whatever you
- have. Everything, Chris, understand that? To me,
too... And the money, there's nothing wrong in your money. Your father put hundreds of planes in the air, you should be proud. A man should be paid for that… CHRIS: Oh Annie, Annie... I'm going to make a fortune for you! (Act One, 38)
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CHRIS: I want to build something I can give myself to. KELLER: I took it for you… When would I have another chance to make something for you? Both Keller and Chris are alike in their motivation. Both strive in the name of family ‘for you’.
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YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE (pg7)
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CHRIS’S ANAGNORISIS
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IF I WERE HUMAN ANYMORE
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YOU CAN’T PUT A PRICE ON LIFE (pg7-8)
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JOE KELLER FEELS NO SUCH REMORSE
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