Maggie Owen Mrs. Rand English 1103H 30 October 2013 Annotated Bibliography Lin, Tony Tian-Ren.

"The Gospel of the American Dream." The Hedgehog Review 15.2 (2013): 34+. Student Resources In Context. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. The Gospel of the American Dream follows the lives of a few immigrants from Mexico. The church that they attend and their desire to live the American Dream connect all of the people in the essay. Their personal lives all have different struggles and joys but they can be summarized similarly. The summary would be that they moved to America to make more money for their family and to create a better life. They found a church that focuses on being the American Dream and allows them to be leaders and have valued roles even if they are in the bottom social class outside of church. This article focused on a lot of the traits that define the American Dream. These traits include: coming from nothing and becoming something, having a family unit, religion, home ownership, working hard to succeed, hope, better future, individualism, and being confident in their life. It also brought up ideas that I had not thought of, like that the pilgrims came to America to find the dream as well as most of the other immigrants that have come to America since it was founded. The dream also is a unifying force to all immigrants, cultures, and ethnicities since most people have the same goal when coming to America. Pearson, Roger L. "Gatsby: False Prophet of the American Dream." EXPLORING Novels. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources In Context. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

This article focused mainly on how Jay Gatsby in the book The Great Gatsby tried to live out the stereotypical American Dream but how he was a failure at doing so. Scott Fitzgeralds view of the American Dream is one that lacks optimism. He is the 21st century writer that is most associated with the American Dream. His vision of the Dream is a corrupted one since it is focused on appearances and materialism as a way of gaining success. Gatsby had a huge mansion and very nice cars and managed to come from nothing and become this widely rich and successful man. However, all of Gatsby was a lie and his life was an act focused on materialism. I chose to use this article to focus on the literary version of the American Dream since Fitzgerald is the writer known for the American Dream. This article also mentioned how the Dream has changed form different time frames. The puritans dream was for spiritual fulfillment, Thomas Jeffersons dream was for political fulfillment and the idea of the perfect man, Ben Franklins dream was for the self made man, Emersons dream was to ask questions for which man was made, and Whitman had a democratic dream. The article had a great ending quote which captures the essence of what my paper is about. The quote is: The American Dream is not to be a reality, in that it no longer exists, except in the minds of men like Gatsby, whom it destroys in their espousal and relentless pursuit of it. The American Dream is, in reality, a nightmare. Page 5 Rifkin, Jeremy. The European Dream. Utne: A Different Read on Life September/October 2004 : n. pag. Web. 28 October 2013 This article focuses on how the American Dream is something of the past and the new European Dream is becoming more popular. The American Dream is no longer attainable and does not inspire people. Instead, it now sparks fear and stress to achieve the Dream. There is too large of a gap in American between rich and poor which makes it harder for an individual to

move up in economic class. The market economy is also a limiting factor that pulls people down instead of allowing them to succeed. Another reason the American Dream is failing is that Americans are becoming lazier and are less willing to work hard to be successful. One-third of all Americans say they no longer even believe in the American Dream page 1. The European Dream, however, is starting to flourish. The European Dream focuses on sustainable development, quality of life, interdependence, leisure, play, keeping ones culture instead of assimilating, avoiding conflict, welfare of the planet, universal human rights, perpetual peace, and has a secular origin. The European Union is also becoming more successful than American. It is the third largest governing institution and has the largest economy in the world. The European Union also has an overall better quality of life based on statistics. They have a higher doctor per person ratio, lower infant mortality rate, higher life expectancy, lower homicide rate, higher math literacy in children, and a smaller gap between the rich and poor. These conditions set the stage for the American Dream to fall and the European Dream to take its place. Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "The American Dream." Vital Speeches Of The Day 70.23 (2004): 721. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. This speech was by Arnold Schwarzenegger in response to terrorism and Presidents Bushs actions. It is very political and Republican biased. Schwarzenegger told part of his life story growing up in soviet Austria and how America seemed like a perfect place. This speech was very patriotic and emphasized the ideal American Dream. He talked about how the American economy will always be strong because America is the best country. It is optimistic and very biased since other countries are becoming wealthier and are becoming competitors with the United States.

His vision of the American Dream from an immigrant status is that America is freedom, possibilities, openness, working hard, and bringing out the best in people. Growing up under Soviet rule and being confined by those rules heavily influences his view. It was also mentioned that the Dream is for everyone, it does not matter what your life background was, who your parents are, where you came from, or how much money you have. He viewed America as being the freedom to people of all countries and that the Dream was spread to people all over the world. Stoll, David. Which American Dream Do You Mean? Symposium: Immigration, Citizenship, and the American Dream. Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, 7 July 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2013 Which American Dream Do You Mean? is mostly about illegal immigrants and their motives for coming to America. Most of the immigrants want to come for personal freedom, higher pay, a job and creating a better life for their children. In the article, Stoll interviewed some Mayan Indians who did not want Americans to come in and improve their human rights, instead they wanted American goods and to know if they could get a job in America. This was very interesting since most Americans think that they need to go around and provide human rights to everyone when some people do not want it. The most interesting part about the article is the focus it made on the irony of immigrants American Dream. Most immigrants come in order to make a better life for their family, however, some end up losing their family by having to leave them behind or falling apart once in America. Another irony is that the illegal immigrants that come to America to work at very low wages are actually undercutting the American economy, which affects the American

Dream. In both cases, the immigrants are trying to fulfill their American Dream but actually end up jeopardizing it for the future.