The American Dream
Read: The Declaration; Crevecoeur, “What is an American?” (especially the first five pages; you can skim the rest); Lazarus; King; Adams; Jischke; Wiesel. Write:
• What does the Declaration mean to you? How do you feel about it?
• What ideals in the Declaration have guided American thinking throughout our history?
• List four aspects of being an American, according to Crevecoeur. Support your choices by citing the text.
• Who, if anyone, is left out of his notion of an American?
• What are your reactions to Lazarus’s poem? How does it relate to the American Dream?
• You have probably never read the whole speech. Now that you have, what are your initial reactions?
• How is the Declaration of Independence at the heart of King’s speech? What might that say about American reform/protest movements?
What are the elements of the American dream according to Adams?
• Adams asks us to reconsider the American dream. Why? What does he recommend?
• What is the American dream according to Jischke?
• What do you think of the story of his family?
• What do you think of Wiesel’s claim that the US started the war in Iraq for unselfish reasons?
Sample Solution
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are documents that provide the ideological foundations for the democratic government of the United States. The Declaration of Independence provides a foundation for the concept of popular sovereignty the idea that the government exists to serve the people, who elect representatives to express their will. Among them was the idea that all people are created equal, whether European, Native American, or African American, and that these people have fundamental rights, such as liberty, free speech, freedom of religion, due process of law, and freedom of assembly. America’s revolutionaries openly discussed these concepts.
