This American Life

The American Dream. Many generations of families came to this great nation hundreds of years ago to experience just that. Yet, what is the American Dream? F. Scott Fitzgerald discusses the idea of this concept in his short story, “Winter Dreams”. “F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His first novel's success made him famous and let him marry the woman he loved(Biography.com Editors). Fitzgerald referenced the American Dream in many of his numerous novels.…

influenced his life. He also looks at how contradictory Houdini was, and the many lines Houdini crossed involving the law and how Houdini also yearned to not be forgotten and never wanted to be outdone. Phillips also explores on how Houdini used America and American things to his advantage while also resisting assimilation. When Harry Houdini came to America, he was known as Erik Weisz, and he had to "sell newspapers, shine…

Who Am I ? “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr. Seuss once wrote this poem which was music to my ears growing up. It fascinated me to think that in this gigantic world filled with 7 billion people that I was the only Amanda A Laryea to ever walk its surface. Until about 8 years later on a random Facebook search, I found about four other individuals who share my name. However, our similar names do not connote similar personality…

Can turning point in a single person’s life change a whole society? A turning point can be described as a life changing event that teaches people of the world around them. People who endure a life changing event can respond positive/negative. In the autobiography “I Never had it made” by Jackie Robinson. The memoir “Warriors Don’t Cry” by Melba Pattillo Beals. In “The Father of Chinese Aviation” an article by Rebecca Maksel each of the individuals faced life-changing experience that altered…

seemingly never-ending search for purpose in life to surmount to the inevitable. As Russell M. Nelson once said, “We were born to die and we die to live”. Emily Dickinson, a 19th century American writer from Amherst, Massachusetts, explored the intrinsic meanings of life and death through several of her poems and literature. Dickinson resided in a pious household; consequently, she continually questioned her roots and early religious teachings. In this poem, “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”…

The American Dream vs Gatsby The American Dream, that vision varies between each individual who interprets it, is a emblem that consistently occurs throughout the novel known as the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The American Dream is often described as wealth, property and happiness. The brilliant author includes numerous elements from life in America after the first World War to convey the message of how artificial and unrealistic the American Dream is presented. He achieve in doing so…

by Jacqueline S. Thursby. This work explores numerous aspects of funerals and the customs that surround it. Although some of it was hard to follow and seemed a bit jumbled, I was able to get a sufficient amount of information from it that I believe will help me become a great funeral director in the future. I was able to extract a few great lessons from the work, the first being the fact that all people unconsciously seek a transformative experience. I found that this is an experience that…

A few years earlier, Jackie Robinson breaks through the segregation of major-league baseball, but the new opportunity for black ballplayers arrives too late for Troy Maxson. This situation causes a frustration in Troy’s life pushing him to live in an ordinary way as a dissatisfied employee. He is a former convict and once a baseball player, who is now a sanitation worker due to the lack of opportunities for his race. He is not being treated equal at his job. He wants everybody to have the same…

portrayed his personal life style or lifestyles he wished he lived. He was a critic of American life and believed the American Dream unattainable, but yet, he himself strove to achieve it and based his novels and short stories on it. The majority of his work, especially his novels, were set during the Jazz Age, an era of ambition, extravagance, and wealth. Fitzgerald tried hard to fit into the lifestyle of the Jazz Age, but found it to be quite the struggle. In the end, he lived a life he could…

the novel “The things I’ve carried”. O 'Brien writes of a young Vietnamese man who’s past, present, and future has been taken by a grenade in My Khe by O’Brien himself in the chapter “The Man I Killed”. The extreme remorse has him so obsessed on the life of his victim that his own existence in the story as character and narrator disappears. O 'Brien was a young solider in the Vietnam War, fighting against the communism. He has wrote the book about his personal involvements as a solider.…