So, I’ve been messing around with this idea of the “American Dream” lately, right? It’s a pretty huge concept, and I wanted to see how it plays out in short stories. I figured, what better way to get a feel for it than to dive into some actual stories and see what people are saying?
I started by just poking around online, trying to find a bunch of short stories that deal with the American Dream. It took a bit of digging, but I came across some interesting stuff. I mean, there are a ton of different takes on what the American Dream actually means.
First, I started reading that one short story. This was about a farmhand, 35 years old. The story goes on to say that he gets married and has a child. I was like, “Okay, this is a start. Classic setup, family, hard work, that sort of thing.” I made a note to come back to that one later and really think about what it was trying to say.
Then I got sidetracked reading about the actual definition of the American Dream. Apparently, the Oxford English Dictionary says it’s about everyone having an equal shot at success through hard work and determination. That’s pretty broad, but it gave me a decent framework to work with.
After that, I stumbled upon a few short stories published after 2000. One was called “The Third and Final Continent” by someone named Jhumpa Lahiri, and another was “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu. I added those to my list, figuring newer stories might give a more modern perspective on the whole thing.
I also found some forum where people were talking about using images to represent the American Dream. Someone suggested picking five images and describing the time period, the people, and what kind of dream they represented. I thought that was a cool idea, so I spent some time scrolling through old photos and making notes. I picked out a few that really stood out to me, and I’m going to try to write some descriptions for them soon.
- Read “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri.
- Read “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu.
- Write descriptions for the five images I found.
- Think more about the farmhand story and what it means.
And I found out that the “Rags to Riches” theme is a big part of it. You know, starting from nothing and making it big. They gave Andrew Carnegie as an example. That gave me some history to look into, as well. Then there’s the whole idea of turning raw information into something meaningful. These stories are supposed to make you feel something, you know? Create empathy, that kind of thing.
Current Progress
So far, I’ve got a pretty good list of stories to read and some ideas to explore. I’ve started to see how complex the American Dream is, and how many different ways it can be interpreted. It was pretty hard to do it, I will continue to explore it. It’s been a fun project so far, and I’m excited to see where it goes. I’ll probably share more as I dig deeper into these stories. Stay tuned!
