Wednesday, September 26, 2007
"Engaging the Text" #3
According to Terkel, the American Dream is "governed not by education, opportunity and hardwork, but by power and fear."(pg. 356) I have never heard this side of the American Dream, but based on the author's experiences, I would say that he is right. The American Dream wasn't, at the time that this was written, what we all think of it as being. Terkel says that the only reason that he was living the American Dream was because the companies he worked for wanted to have him on display. They wanted to show that they were diverse, but they wanted him to "get to know their business," or as he puts it "fall in line." I would like to think that today, this practice of diversifying companies just to look good is not nearly as common as it was back then. This whole book is showing a side to America that I never took the time to consider before.
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1 comment:
i liked the points that you made, and i agree about the diversity issue and how the Civil Rights Act has greatly affected the way the companies hire their employees. All of the points were solid and well represented with examples from the essay. the only problem i saw in ou writing was this:"Terkel says that the only reason that he was living the American Dream was because he the companies he worked for wanted to have him on display." You repeated "he" and added it in a strange place, so just revise and re-read more often, and you will be fine.
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