The American Dream. A set of ideals giving every American the opportunity of freedom, equality, and a life of stability in both materials and happiness. For centuries people alike have been introduced to this lavish idea to live in a beautiful upper-middle class neighborhood, live in a two story house equipped with a white picket fence, children running in the yard with their friends, mom taking care of the house and preparing meals while dad goes to work to pay the bills, and all in all not a worry in the world. As this idea is taught, the ignorance to reality grows deeper and deeper throughout society. With poverty flooding the streets, crime rate sky rocketing, and gangs taking over our neighborhoods, this is the true reality …show more content…
As the audience studies the photo deeper, we see that the father is teaching the-what seems to be-two-year-old daughter how to hold a gun that she can barely wrap her tiny hands around. Society has a tendency to judge someone by their own actions, as well as their influences on others around them. Upon instinct, the audience is drawn to anger towards the father for putting a gun in the toddler’s hands, as well as towards the mother for not doing anything to prevent or stop the father from teaching her how to hold a gun. However, if we read into the actual meaning behind the photograph, we find out that the father had been targeted by a gang for a couple days now and he is giving his child the only way that he knows how to protect himself as well as his …show more content…
In the photograph Mike Estrada, Rodriguez takes us to the streets where children and families are doing everything to survive. Within Mike Estrada, we see a child about four or five standing within the streets holding a photo of his father. Without any background information, we feel sympathetic towards the child for he is fatherless. What we find out from the caption under the photo is that the photograph that the young child is holding is of his father that is serving time in prison. After reading the caption, some may become less sympathetic towards the child for this is less uncommon for a child brought up in the streets. This child is unable to reach the American Dream due to the fact that he doesn’t have stability in his home. This is the future of most children raised in the streets. The only manly-figure he has to look up to is the man that made him and is now in jail, and the men that drive around the neighborhood blasting inappropriate music and waving guns in the