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The Concept of the American Dream in the past and in the present

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The Concept of the American Dream in the past and in the present

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The American Dream

Culture Wars

African American Experience

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Schritt für Schritt Kompetenzen und Skills trainieren Konzeptionelle Highlights:
* Kleinschrittiges und umfangreiches Kompetenztraining

* Aufbau eines thematischen Wortschatzes

* Ausgeklügeltes Differenzierungskonzept

* Schulung von Medienkompetenz

* extra ausgewiesene zusätzliche Seiten für das erhöhte Anforderungsniveau

15 Kapitel aufgeteilt auf 4 Halbjahresthemen:
I. The individual and society

II. National identity and cultural diversity

III. Global challenges

IV. Contemporary issues in society
Differenzierung:
In der Diff section finden sich umfangreiche Hilfestellungen zu vielen Aufgaben in den Kapiteln.

* Challenge-Aufgaben richten sich an besonders starke Schülerinnen und Schüler.

* Choose-Aufgaben lassen den Schülerinnen und Schülern die Wahl.

* Zu vielen Aufgaben wird Language support angeboten.

Ein umfangreicher Skills-Anhang liefert ein anschauliches Methodentraining:

* Wichtige Arbeitsmethoden

* Analyse und Produktion zentraler Textsorten

* Anforderungen besonderer Prüfungsformate wie z.B. Sprechprüfungen

* Sprachmittlung

Across cultures und Language awareness:

Camden Town Oberstufe legt einen besonderen Schwerpunkt auf die Schulung von Sprachbewusstheit und interkultureller kommunikativer Kompetenz.

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Camden Town Oberstufe - Ausgabe für die Sekundarstufe II in Berlin, Brandenburg und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - Schülerband Qualifikationsphase

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Schritt für Schritt Kompetenzen und Skills trainieren Konzeptionelle Highlights: * Kleinschrittiges und umfangreiches Kompetenztraining * Aufbau eines thematischen Wortschatzes * Ausgeklügeltes Differenzierungskonzept * Schulung von Medienkompetenz * extra ausgewiesene zusätzliche Seiten für das erhöhte Anforderungsniveau 15 Kapitel aufgeteilt auf 4 Halbjahresthemen: I. The individual and society II. National identity and cultural diversity III.

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Historical facts

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Values in the US American society: (how) have they changed through the centuries?

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Values in the US American society: (how) have they changed through the centuries?

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Religion
Hard work (work-life balance, the role of money...)
Family life (the current situation: different types families, LGBTQ+ rights, ....)
...

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Poverty and communities making efforts to escape and help others: article time magazine

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Poverty and communities making efforts to escape and help others: article time magazine

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Economic Hardship Reporting Project - Quality Journalism About Inequality

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The classic leather boot has had many names over the years-lace-up, cowboy, congress, pale rider. To get your work boots on your feet 200 or so years ago, you would stand up and grab two small leather flaps on the sides, known as bootstraps, and pull the boot up. From this everyday activity, the idiom "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps" was born-and with it, a torturous myth that true success meant getting ahead on only your energy and steam, without help from your family, government, or community. While it was initially understood to be an absurdity, over time it became a phrase that millions of people take seriously. The phrase is now, arguably, the basis of the American Dream and its embrace of an individualism that shades into a brittle self-sufficiency.

For years, I have been struck by how much the self-made myth shapes public opinion and policy. As a reporter focused on inequality, I frequently see this relentless individualistic stance, even in the messages I receive from readers about how the poor are responsible for their own scarcity, strangers wagging their proverbial fingers at "single mothers" or people who've been evicted. They are following decades of instructions that Americans have to accomplish everything on our own, from poor women being called "welfare queens" during the Reagan era to today's Republican politicians opposing college-debt relief as "a debt-transfer scam."

But there is also a very different version of the American Dream from this one. It's closer to what was first imagined by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book on the subject-more inclusive, more communitarian, and less singular. It's catching on. You can see it in the rise in the number of people joining-or attempting to create- new unions, and in the range of citizens now helping decide the budgets of their local governments. These are just two examples of the new American Dreamers that taken together show that collective action and community-focused activity are growing in popularity.

Their numbers include people who are joining psychological subcultures that operate like mutual-aid networks of the mind, with what one practitioner called "survivor-centered and survivor-aware care." Cissy White, one counselor in a kind of new peer-to-peer counseling community, was a trauma survivor herself. She led webinars during the pandemic, sharing memories of her extreme poverty and neglect as a child, including the father she knew living unhoused. But while all of this suffering could have hardened her toward those less resilient and made her self-focused, it had instead made White more rigorous in her generosity.

Another woman spoke of her own abject poverty in childhood and young adulthood, how she once spent her days "drinking so much I was dying." White nodded in acceptance. A chorus of attendees also responded.

While the need for mental health care is often cast as an individual failing, those who are rethinking mental-health care believe we shouldn't have to hustle to access assistance or attempt to get healthier through self-help alone.

The fight for this new American Dream tends to require both social smarts and organizational abilities. For example, that's what people needed to participate in the mutual-aid groups that have risen up around the country since the pandemic. Local strangers connected by Google Groups, Google Calendars, and calling trees to bring groceries, eyeglasses, and medication to one another; they placed fridges in urban areas with complimentary food inside. In 2021, there were an estimated 800 such groups nationwide, but informally, scholars who study voluntarism told me there were many more. Near my apartment in Brooklyn, a volunteer group was organized by community activist Crystal Hudson, who today occupies New York City's 35th District council seat, to help the aged and the financially stressed in our neighborhood, including her own mother, before she passed away. The result of that group was that creatives in their 20s were buying chicken feet and pig feet and taking them to the doorsteps of elderly Caribbean Americans. It meant that Hudson herself heard "people cry on the phone when I asked them what they want us to buy. They told me, 'No one has ever asked me what I want to eat before.'" Mutual-aid groups can rethink charity and create spaces where the giver and receiver are more aligned.

The new American Dream can also be seen in alternative labor organization meetings or people rallying for higher salaries after a hard day as an underpaid adjunct professor or a low-wage restaurant worker. Think of the wave of protests by workers at universities and museums in 2022. These new brain-worker labor activists realize that advancement comes from better wages and benefits, not just from their creative endeavors. They certainly won't get it from the person at the top making over a million dollars a year. At one college recently, even the students joined, occupying the main glass building to insist that their adjunct professors, who are often paid poverty wages, get adequate raises and insured health care. In late 2022, faculty and graduate students in the massive University of California system marched and even kayaked to demand living wages, while in New York's Hudson Valley, sculpture-park workers picketed in front of a private club hosting an event for their trustees. These are not the typical union activists. Instead, they are culture workers banding together to address how they are underpaid and insecure. Even though they work in fields that tend to be highly individualistic, one of the striking adjuncts told me they had found new strength by bonding together: "We are woven together more tightly with our new social capital: that of raised awareness."

The dream also means workers entering their workplaces on different terms. This includes worker-owners of today's rising number of worker cooperatives, like the people who make up western North Carolina's Opportunity Threads, a worker-owned cut-and-sew factory that specializes in customizing patterns. I've spoken to a dozen workers at different worker-cooperatives and in their communal efforts-in these cases, the workers own their own farms and also work the land, or they co-own their own catering company and cook the food that's delivered as well-and they all describe a feeling of collective strength in their work, that their labor is offering a livelihood rather than just earning them their keep. According to the nonprofit U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, there are now 465 verified worker-owned co-ops in the country, up 36% since 2013, with about 450 more are starting up. Worker-owners are often better paid too, according to the Democracy at Work Institute.

Finally, the new American Dreamers include people who have joined participatory budgeting citizens' groups in cities around the country.

These are residents who are holding their municipal governments accountable, learning the ins and outs of their local governments and proposing to put civic money into improving park spaces or creating accessible paths to the public beach for the disabled. As one participatory-budgeting attendee said, they're allocating money in ways that were not how "government money was usually spent." The neighborhoods' inhabitants then vote on these citizen proposals at city-council offices or even at a folding table in front of the local grocery store.

An estimated 150,000 Americans have taken part in them since the practice was imported to the U.S. from Brazil over 10 years ago.

Despite the inspiration these pioneers show, many are still under the sway of the old bootstrap myth. A recent Center for American Progress study found that 60% of Republicans agreed with the statement "People get stuck in poverty primarily because they make bad decisions or lack the ambition to do better in life." Others polled by Pew Research Center in 2020 supported the idea that people are poor because "they have not worked as hard as most other people."

Opinions like these are why alternative community efforts must continue. National prosperity requires "community support as well as individual effort," as business historian Pamela Laird reminds us in her book Pull. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his bootstraps."

We must internalize these words and actions as elements of the new American Dream. It can emerge only out of heterogeneous communities, in which members help one another, if we are ever to escape the Bootstrap Society. Taken together these group efforts radiate outward, burning away the toxin of our relentless individualism.
Adapted from Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream © 2023 by Alissa Quart.
Alissa Quart is the executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and the author of Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream.
Co-published with TIME.

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Bootstrapping Has Always Been A Myth. The New American Dream Proves It - Economic Hardship Reporting Project

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Co-published with TIME. Relentless individualism has been part of America's ethos. Not anymore, writes Alissa Quart.

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Roger Luong, a second-year student at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM), has overcome challenges almost every step of the way in his desire to be a doctor.

"Opportunity for a better life was what pushed my parents to immigrate to the United States during the Vietnam War. They were chasing the American dream," he said.

Luong was born in the United States and grew up in San Jose, Calif., but life in an immigrant household was challenging. As the oldest of his generation, Luong was looked upon to be the role model in both his immediate and extended families. One of the biggest challenges was navigating his academic journey.

"Although my parents stressed the importance of education, they lacked the resources and understanding of the education system to guide me along my academic pathway," Luong said. "Things like preparing an undergraduate application, applying for scholarships, and utilizing other resources for education were all novel to my family."

A dream put on hold

Luong ended up attending and exceling at the University of California, Berkeley. His sights were set on medical school, but that dream would be a few years off.

Luong took on odd jobs for several years, eventually landing a research position at Stanford University's School of Medicine. Over the next five years, he worked on more than a dozen research projects and was first- or co-author on three publications.

And then it was time to get serious about chasing his ultimate dream.

Luong had taken the medical school entrance exam shortly after college, 12 years earlier, but he didn't feel the time was right to apply. By the time he was ready to apply, he had to study and take the exam again. In addition, because of the time that had elapsed, he had to retake several required classes.

"One of the biggest things that people don't realize is that when you've been out of academics for so long, jumping back can be extremely challenging, Things like financial considerations, the rigorous curriculum, and new learning modalities made the transition so tough," Luong said.

A perfect match

Luong had hoped to stay on the West Coast for medical school, but the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke caught his attention and eventually, his heart.

The school had what he was looking for - a small campus with a tightknit group of faculty and students. Friends and mentors quickly made his family members, who were nearly 4,000 miles away, seem not so far.

"I feel blessed to have so many wonderful people supporting and encouraging me," Luong said.

He jokes about the age difference between him and his classmates: "I was a little worried about being 10 years older, but instead, we're all so close. I love each and every one of them. My friends surprised me with a dinner for my birthday, which I had never had before."

Opportunities abound

Luong faced another challenge last spring when he broke his hand within the first few minutes playing in the school's annual Docs for Morgan fundraising basketball game.

"I couldn't figure out why I couldn't move my hand," he said. "Sure enough, it was broken. It was a really unfortunate accident at an even more unfortunate time. A scheduling mix-up had me waiting 18 hours at the hospital before I got in for surgery. Not only that, the surgery was the week before my final exams."

Luong, though currently uncertain about his specialty choice, said he always knew he wanted to choose a profession in which he could help people. It was either medicine or teaching. Academic medicine seems the best of both worlds.

"Fortunately, my journey did not stop as a college graduate," he said. "My parents always believed the United States was the land of opportunities, and they were right. When I look back on all the challenges I had to overcome, attending medical school seemed like an impossible goal.

"There were times when I didn't think I was moving towards my goal, that I would never make it. But hard work and resilience paved the way. Attending VTCSOM so far has been a dream, even if it came more than a decade later. I'm sure this dream will eventually come to an end. For now, I'm just enjoying the ride."

Luong's parents, Steven and Quyen Luong, said jointly, "We are really proud of Roger. He sacrificed a lot for our family. We are very happy that he still can chase his dream."

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top news;virginia tech carilion school of medicine;health sciences and technology (roanoke);campus experience;roanoke

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Student's journey to medical school epitomizes chasing the American dream

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Roger Luong adjusts to life in medical school 4,000 miles from home.

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Natie American People Cartoons and Comics - funny pictures from CartoonStock

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Natie American People funny cartoons from CartoonStock directory - the world's largest on-line collection of cartoons and comics.

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US Presidential Election explained (explainity® explainer video)

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1. Film "Passing"

2. Langston Hughes short story

3. Book "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennet

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Passing is a 2021 black-and-white period drama film written and directed by Rebecca Hall in her feature directorial debut. It is adapted from the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. Set in 1920s New York City, the film follows the intertwined life of a black woman ( Tessa Thompson) and her white-passing childhood friend ( Ruth Negga). Appearing in supporting roles are André Holland, Bill Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, and Alexander Skarsgård.

Passing had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2021, and began a limited theatrical release on October 27, 2021, prior to streaming on Netflix on November 10. The film received acclaim from critics, who praised Hall's screenplay and direction, and performances of Thompson and Negga. The film was named one of the top ten films of 2021 by the African American Film Critics Association. For her performance, Negga was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Award.

In 1920s New York City, Irene Redfield, a light-skinned black woman living in Harlem, meets a childhood friend, Clare Bellew, by chance at a hotel dining room. While Irene is married to a Black doctor, the also light-skinned Clare " passes" as white and has married a wealthy white man from Chicago named John.

Clare invites Irene up to her hotel room so they can talk more openly. Clare explains that after her father died, she was raised by her two white aunts and married John very young. They are interrupted by John, who openly despises and degrades Black people, unaware of his wife's or Irene's racial background. Irene leaves the hotel, angry with Clare, and refuses to respond to Clare's letter. However, after Clare unexpectedly shows up at Irene's home and apologizes for the encounter, they rekindle their friendship.

Clare, who wishes to associate with black people again, invites herself to a dance party that Irene is organizing. Most of the guests at the party find Clare charming, including Irene's husband, Brian. While there, Irene reveals Clare's secret to her friend, novel writer Hugh Wentworth, who seems less impressed with Clare than the others.

As time passes, Clare soon becomes involved in all aspects of Irene's life, joining Irene and Brian to all their outings. At first, Irene seems happy to have Clare around, but soon she becomes disillusioned with Clare, and starts to grow dissatisfied with her presence. Brian, also dissatisfied, attempts to teach his and Irene's children about racism in America, as Irene refuses to move anywhere else. However, Irene believes that the children are too young to learn about such things, inciting an argument between the two, further straining their marriage. Brian invites Clare to a tea party from which Irene purposefully excluded her.

When out shopping with her friend Felise, who is unable to pass, Irene encounters John, and hurries away as he begins to realize the truth about his wife's racial background. Irene tries to warn Clare, but decides against it when she is unable to reach her by phone.

As Brian, Irene, and Clare are on their way to Felise's Christmas party on the top floor of a six story building, Irene asks Clare what she would do if John ever learned the truth. Clare replies that she would move back to Harlem to be with Irene, a response which Irene finds troubling. During the party, Irene remains silent, avoiding the other guests. She opens a large vertical window to smoke. Suddenly, John angrily forces himself into the apartment demanding to see Clare, who remains calm, and moves next to Irene by the window. John accuses her of being a "dirty liar" and lunges towards her, at which point Irene abruptly puts an arm across Clare's pelvis. Clare falls backwards out the window, but it is not made clear whether John pushed her, Irene pushed her, or she jumped of her own accord.

In horror, all the other guests rush outside, not knowing whether or not Clare is dead. After some hesitation, Irene slowly goes downstairs, where the police are questioning guests. Brian states that he believes John pushed Clare, but when asked, Irene asserts that she believes the fall was an accident. The film ends with the police declaring death by misadventure, Irene sobbing in Brian's arms, and Clare's body being carried away by medics.

It was announced in August 2018 that Rebecca Hall would be making her directorial debut on the adaptation of the Nella Larsen novel, with Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga set to star in the lead roles. Hall had begun writing the film a decade earlier upon reflecting on her own family's history. When Hall presented her with a script version, Negga decided to collaborate in making it into a film as Negga was surprised the work was not more prominent, after having read the novel and was "completely astounded" by it. Thompson stated that the film would be shot in black and white. André Holland was cast in October 2019. In November 2019, Alexander Skarsgård joined the cast of the film.

With less than a month to go before filming production was set to begin, Hall was still $500,000 short on her desired $10 million budget, and had to apply for two grants to cover the difference. Filming began in November 2019 in New York City. The film is in monochrome. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised the use of a 4:3 aspect ratio as in this film it was "both fitting and practical given a smaller budget". Into the third week of filming, the Hugh Wentworth role, originally intended for Benedict Cumberbatch, remained uncast, and budgetary realities and the tight filming timeline meant the production would need an actor who lived in New York. On November 21, Bill Camp signed on, and filming wrapped in December after a 23-day shoot.

Passing had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 30, 2021. Shortly after, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film for around $15 million. It also screened at the New York Film Festival on October 3, 2021. The film had a limited theatrical release on October 27, 2021, prior to streaming on Netflix on November 10.

According to Samba TV, the film was watched in 653,000 households over its first three days of release.

Ruth Negga's performance in the film garnered widespread critical praise.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 231 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "While Passing's delicate approach has a dampening effect on its story, debuting director Rebecca Hall makes the most of an impressive cast-and handles thorny themes with impressive dexterity." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 85 out of 100, based on 46 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Kevin Maher of gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it, "a mesmerizing, deeply disquieting experience." Jessica Kiang, writing for , wrote that the film is "unerring, deceptively delicate, quiet and immaculate, like that final fall of snow." In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw praised Hall's direction, calling the film, "a very stylish piece of work from Hall." Benjamin Lee of The Guardian, gave the film a negative review of 2 out of 5 stars, arguing that it had "disappointing lack of verve" and was "inert".

The performances of Negga and Thompson in particular received praise. In a very positive review for the Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips gave the film a perfect score of four out of four stars, and wrote of the performances: "what Thompson and Negga accomplish on screen in this extraordinarily detailed portrait becomes a master class in incremental revelations". David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter lauded Thompson for her "unshowy, beautifully internalized performance", and Simran Hans called Negga "magnetic" in her review for The Guardian. In Time Magazine's annual best performances of the year list, Stephanie Zacharek named Negga's performance of the best of 2021.

1. ^

2. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (October 22, 2019). "'Moonlight' Actor André Holland Joins 'Passing' Adaptation From Rebecca Hall". Deadline.

3. ^

4. ^

5. ^ "Passing". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media.

6. ^ "Passing". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc..

7. ^ Hipes, Patrick (January 9, 2022). "Golden Globes: The Power Of The Dog, West Side Story, Succession Lead Way - Complete Winners List". Deadline Hollywood.

8. ^ Anderson, Erik (December 1, 2021). "'Belfast,' 'The Power of the Dog' lead 26th Satellite Awards nominations". AwardsWatch.

9. ^ ""The Power of the Dog" Leads the 2021 Seattle Film Critics Society Nominations". Seattle Film Critics. January 10, 2022.

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Passing is a 2021 black-and-white period drama film written and directed by Rebecca Hall in her feature directorial debut. It is adapted from the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. Set in 1920s New York City, the film follows the intertwined life of a black woman ( Tessa Thompson) and her white-passing childhood friend ( Ruth Negga).

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Collection of short stories + Lehrerhandreichung

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Collection of short stories + Lehrerhandreichung

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1. Dreams and Realities

2. Multi-ethnic America

3. Global Perspectives

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Die Texte der Sammlung stehen beispielhaft für die thematische Breite und die Schaffensvielfalt, welche die amerikanische Kurzgeschichte seit jeher kennzeichnen. Die Ausgabe umfasst Klassiker wie Ernest Hemingways „A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" und zeitgenössische Erzählungen wie Junot Díaz' „Nilda" und Deborah Eisenbergs „Twilight of the Superheroes".

Die Kurzgeschichten können in der gesamten Oberstufe eingesetzt werden, bieten zahlreiche Anknüpfungspunkte an das Curriculum Englisch und können sowohl unter literarischen Gesichtspunkten behandelt als auch in thematische Einheiten eingebettet werden. Zu nennen sind hier unter anderem: the American Dream, immigration, the global role of the USA, the individual and society.

Der Sammelband enthält folgende Kurzgeschichten:
Dreams and realities

Ernest Hemingway: "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Babylon Revisited"

Langston Hughes: "One Friday Morning"

Multi-ethnic America

Leslie Marmon Silko: "Tony's Story"

Jhumpa Lahiri: "Sexy"

Junot Díaz: "Nilda"

Global perspectives

Deborah Eisenberg: "Twilight of the Superheroes"

Charles Baxter: "Charity"

Joan Silber: "About My Aunt"

Zum Einfach Englisch Unterrichtsmodell Classic and Contemporary American Short Stories
Erfahren Sie mehr über die Reihe

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EinFach Englisch Textausgaben - Classic and Contemporary American Short Stories

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Die Texte der Sammlung stehen beispielhaft für die thematische Breite und die Schaffensvielfalt, welche die amerikanische Kurzgeschichte seit jeher kennzeichnen. Die Ausgabe umfasst Klassiker wie Ernest Hemingways „A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" und zeitgenössische Erzählungen wie Junot Díaz' „Nilda" und Deborah Eisenbergs „Twilight of the Superheroes".

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Gender in focus: Between "Metoo#" movement and abolition of abortions

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Gender in focus: Between "Metoo#" movement and abolition of abortions

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When did female emancipation start in the USA? How has the situation of women changed in the last centuries?
What is MeToo# movement?
Why do some US American states abolish abortions and what are the reactions of the population?

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The USA between wokeness and book banning

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The USA between wokeness and book banning

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Links:
1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/23/republican-hysterics-wokeness-critical-race-theory-book-banning-/

2) https://eu.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2022/09/06/letters-wokeness-southern-symbols-banning-books-ron-desantis/7960167001/

3) https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/09/15/are-american-childrens-books-getting-more-woke

4)https://evolutionnews.org/2023/06/luskin-book-banning-woke-forces-know-all-about-that-they-practiced-on-us/

5)https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22914767/book-banning-crt-school-boards-republicans

6) https://atoday.org/how-should-adventists-react-to-book-bans/

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Wie nah Erfüllung und Scheitern des amerikanischen Traums beieinanderliegen können, erlebt der Pakistani Changez in seiner Wahlheimat USA nach dem 11. September. Zurück in Lahore, Pakistan, erzählt er einem Amerikaner seine fesselnde Lebens- und Liebesgeschichte. Sie gewährt dem Leser tiefe Einblicke in die amerikanische, aber auch in die pakistanische Kultur und ermöglich eine neue Perspektive auf die tragischen Anschläge.
Neben der Aufarbeitung der Zeitgeschichte und daraus resultierenden Problemfeldern (Terrorismus) werden mithilfe dieses Unterrichtsmodells verschiedene Kompetenzen im Bereich der Literaturanalyse und -interpretation eingeübt.
Hamids Roman eignet sich als Schullektüre für die Jahrgangsstufen 11 und 12. Dieses Modell liefert einen praxisorientierten Leitfaden zur Behandlung im Unterricht und zur Vorbereitung auf das Abitur.
Contents:
The novel - The author - The content - The characters - Vorüberlegungen zum Einsatz des Romans im Unterricht - Konzeption des Unterrichtsmodells - Klausuren

Component 1: "I am a lover of America" (chapter 1): Getting started - The beginning of the novel - Criticism of Princeton - Language and narrative perspective

Component 2: Being different (chapters 2-4): The outsiders (chapter 2) - Cultural differences (chapter 3) - A pub quiz (chapter 4)

Component 3: 9/11 (chapter 5): The Manila assignment - The 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers - Creating a newspaper front page

Component 4: After 9/11 - changes (chapters 6-7): The atmosphere after 9/11 (chapter 6) - Change (chapter 7) - Changez - torn between the U.S. and Pakistan - Genghis Khan

Component 5: The symbolism of names (chapter 8): Changez's relationship with Erica - Who is Chris?

Component 6: The process of identification (chapters 9-10): Pakistan - Changez's beard - Changez - a modern janissary?

Component 7: A fundamentalist? (chapters 11-12): Farewell - Understanding the ending - The title "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" - Asking the author - Rewriting the ending into al film script

Erfahren Sie mehr über die Reihe

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EinFach Englisch Unterrichtsmodelle - Mohsin Hamid: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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Wie nah Erfüllung und Scheitern des amerikanischen Traums beieinanderliegen können, erlebt der Pakistani Changez in seiner Wahlheimat USA nach dem 11. September. Zurück in Lahore, Pakistan, erzählt er einem Amerikaner seine fesselnde Lebens- und Liebesgeschichte. Sie gewährt dem Leser tiefe Einblicke in die amerikanische, aber auch in die pakistanische Kultur und ermöglich eine neue Perspektive auf die tragischen Anschläge.

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The American Dream: Dreams, Struggles and Nughtmares:

1. America and Americans

2. Founding and Shaping a Nation: Political and Historical Visions and Challenges

3. The Ameican Dream: "Opportunity for each"?

4. "Separate but equal". The African American Struggle for Civil Rights

5. Minorities in the USA: Trying to get their share of the pie

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Die Lehr- und Arbeitsbücher und Pathway Advanced orientieren sich bei Themenauswahl und methodischer Fokussierung an den Vorgaben des Kerncurriculums für die gymnasiale Oberstufe in Niedersachsen.

Bei der Konzeption der Schülerbände wurde viel Wert auf die Auswahl motivierender Texte und hochwertiger Bildmaterialien gelegt. Das übersichtliche Layout wurde an die Bedürfnisse heutiger Schülergenerationen angepasst. Die klare systematische Gliederung und der optisch übersichtliche Seitenaufbau fördern die Konzentration auf das Wesentliche.

Die Aufgabenapparate sind methodisch abwechslungsreich und differenziert ausgearbeitet und ermöglichen den Schülerinnen und Schülern eine anwendungsorientierte und damit motivierende Auseinandersetzung mit gesellschaftlich-kulturellen Phänomenen des anglophonen Sprachraums.

Webcodes an vielen Aufgabenapparaten verlinken die Materialien im Schülerband mit Zusatzmaterial im Internet und erleichtern so das komfortable Auffinden von Links und Dateien, die speziell ausgewählt oder erstellt wurden.
Hierbei handelt es sich um ein breit gefächertes Angebot von Videodateien, Worksheets, Verweise auf weitere Texte zur vertiefenden Recherche oder für Projekte sowie alle Lösungen der Grammar- und Language-Aufgaben der Schülerbücher.

Begleitmaterial
Grammar and Skills Trainer
Der Trainer schult die relevanten Skills und Kompetenzen und bindet diese mit weiteren vertiefenden Texten und Materialien thematisch an die Units des Schülerbuches an.
Darüber hinaus werden die wesentlichen grammatischen Phänomene in vielfältigen Übungen wiederholt und in der Anwendung gefestigt. Wie im Schülerband sind die grammatischen Übungen immer kontextuell angebunden und damit sinnvoll in den Unterricht integrierbar.
Die beigefügte CD-ROM enthält einen umfassenden Lösungsteil und Transkripte. Video- und Audiomaterial ist über Webcodes verfügbar.

Die Audio-CDs enthalten neben reinen Hörtexten eine Vielfalt von Songs, Interviews, politischen Reden zur Schulung des Hörverstehens ( listening comprehension).
Die beigefügten Booklets enthalten die umfassend annotierten Transkripte der Hörtexte, die nicht im Schülerband abgedruckt sind.

Teachers' Manual / BiBox für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer
Die Lehrerhandbücher bieten neben ausführlichen Lösungen zu den Aufgabenapparaten des jeweiligen Schülerbuches eine Vielzahl von methodischen Vorschlägen und Hintergrundinformationen.
Die BiBox für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer ist ein effizientes, online und offline verfügbares Instrument zur Unterrichtsdurchführung. Sie enthält jeweils das digitale Schulbuch, das umfangreiche Lehrerhandbuch sowie ausgewählte Dateien der Audio-CD.

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Pathway und Pathway Advanced - Englisch für die gymnasiale Oberstufe - Ausgabe Niedersachsen u.a.

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Die Lehr- und Arbeitsbücher und Pathway Advanced orientieren sich bei Themenauswahl und methodischer Fokussierung an den Vorgaben des Kerncurriculums für die gymnasiale Oberstufe in Niedersachsen. Bei der Konzeption der Schülerbände wurde viel Wert auf die Auswahl motivierender Texte und hochwertiger Bildmaterialien gelegt. Das übersichtliche Layout wurde an die Bedürfnisse heutiger Schülergenerationen angepasst.

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The American Dream, Immigration, Racial inequality,

Values, Religion, etc.

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Gestalten Sie Ihren Unterricht jetzt so aktuell und flexibel wie nie zuvor - und das unter Berücksichtigung aller neuen Vorgaben, Themen und Kompetenzen Das hybride Konzept von Context Das gedruckte Schulbuch ist Teil des hybriden Konzepts von Context: Nur in Kombination mit den Topics in Context-Themenheften sowie den vertiefenden digitalen Inhalten in der Cornelsen Lernen App sichern sie eine optimale Vorbereitung auf das Abitur.

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Wirth & Horn - Informationssysteme GmbH - www.wirth-horn.de

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Great Immigrant Stories: Kurzgeschichtensammlung inkl. Wortschatztrainer für Smartphone + Tablet | Klett Sprachen

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Great Immigrant Stories: Kurzgeschichtensammlung inkl. Wortschatztrainer für Smartphone + Tablet | Great Immigrant Stories enthält zu jeder Geschichte Background-Informationen zu den Autoren und jeweils einen Wortschatztrainer über die Klett Augmented-App.…

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Is it still possible to climb the ladder of fortune?

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The role of the USA in different wars yesterday and today

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The role of the USA in different wars yesterday and today

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In which wars in the past have the USA taken active part?
Which wars did they support and do they support now? What were and are the possible motives (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea.....)?

Is the Cold War over? The role of the USA in the war between RF and Ukraine.

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"Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love."
- Michelle Obama, former first lady, lawyer and author

"I was a poor kid. I came from nothing. We didn't have any money; a lot of times we didn't have any food, and now, all of a sudden, I'm a superhero in a Marvel movie? Talk about the American dream, man - I'm living it."
- Dave Bautista, American actor

"I love entrepreneurship because that's what makes this country grow, and if I can help companies grow, I am creating jobs; I am setting foundations for future generations. It sends the message that the American Dream is alive and well."
- Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur, television personality, media proprietor, and investor

"The American Dream is a term that is often used but also often misunderstood. It isn't really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that."
- Mark Rubio, United States Senator for Florida

"The American dream comes from opportunity. The opportunity comes from our founding principles, our core values that's held together and protected by the Constitution. Those ideas are neither Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, white, or black. Those are American ideologies."
- Ted Yoho, United States Representative

"The American Dream I believe in is one that provides anyone willing to work hard enough with the opportunity to succeed."
- Tammy Duckworth, former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and United States Senator for Illinois since 2017

"The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. (It is not) "... a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
- James Truslow Adams, defining the American Dream in Epic of America, 1931.

"Our workforce and our entire economy are strongest when we embrace diversity to its fullest, and that means opening doors of opportunity to everyone and recognizing that the American Dream excludes no one."

- Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of Labor

"When we make college more affordable, we make the American Dream more achievable."
- William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the U.S.

"A basic element of the American dream is equal access to education as a lubricant of social and economic mobility."
- Nicholas Kristof, journalist

"I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country."
- Whoopi Goldberg, actress and comedian

"The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation."
- Charles B. Rangel, U.S. Congress

"To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom."
- Maya Lin, architect

"For many, the American dream has become a nightmare."
- Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator

"I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream."
- Bruce Springsteen, musician

"My father worked in the Post Office. A lot of double shifts. All his friends were in the same situation - truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, grocery clerks. Blue collar guys punching the clock and working long, hard hours. The thought that sustained them was the one at the center of the American Dream."
- Gary David Goldberg, writer

"In the end, the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor."
- Julian Castro, U.S. Secretary of Housing & Urban Development

"I think the American Dream used to be achieving one's goals in your field of choice - and from that, all other things would follow. Now, I think the Dream has morphed into the pursuit of money: Accumulate enough of it, and the rest will follow."
- Buzz Aldrin, astronaut

"To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It's a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard, it is possible."
-Cristina Saralegui, journalist

"There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American Dream."
-Archibald Macleish, poet.

"I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I feel that I am a citizen of the American Dream and that the revolutionary struggle of which I am a part is a struggle against the American nightmare."
-Eldridge Cleaver, writer and activist

"The American Dream may be slipping away. We have overcome such challenges before. To recover the Dream requires knowing where it came from, how it lasted so long and why it matters so much."
-Jon Meacham, editor

"The American Dream belongs to all of us."
-Kamala Harris, California Attorney General

"The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream."
-Robert Reich, economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor

"The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now."
-Rita Dove, poet
Selected Books by Speakers at the Roosevelt University 2016 Conference on the American Dream Reconsidered

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Quotes on the American Dream - American Dream Reconsidered Conference

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"Barack knows the American Dream because he's lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love." -Michelle Obama, former first lady, lawyer and author "I was a poor kid.

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https://www.nj.com/njv_shenemans_sketchpad/2012/09/american_dream_architectural_n.html

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202303/1288104.shtml
https://www.gutefrage.net/frage/versteht-jemand-das-cartoon

https://leisagrant.wordpress.com/anthology-intro/the-american-dream-cartoon/

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‘American Dream’ is an awful name for this awful building. They should have just called it ‘Swamp Mall’. I’d go to ‘Swamp Mall’. It sounds like a reality show. •The Ledger’s editorial on American Dream…

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What does "democracy" mean? To which extent do the USA meet the criteria of the concept today?

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The American Dream in political speeches. pp.19-42

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The American Dream in political speeches. pp.19-42

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Hispanic and Afircan American Dreams

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EinFach Englisch Unterrichtsmodelle - Political Speeches - Historical & Topical Issues

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Dieses Unterrichtsmodell bezieht sich auf folgende Textausgabe: Schöningh, Bestell-Nr.: 041234 Dieses Unterrichtsmodell enthält Vorschläge zur Bearbeitung und Analyse von 33 politischen Reden aus dem englischsprachigen Raum (USA, Großbritannien, Indien, Südafrika). Die Bandbreite der Themen reicht dabei von The power of words, The American Dream und British democracy bis hin zu Postcolocial times und Globalisation. Im ersten Component werden zusätzlich die wichtigsten rhetorischen Stilmittel sowie eine Strategie zur Analyse von politischen Reden erarbeitet.
Die Textgattung political speech ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Oberstufenunterrichts im Fach Englisch. Die Fähigkeit, eine politische Rede zu verstehen und analysieren zu können, ist aber nicht nur im schulischen Kontext bedeutsam, sondern wird den Schülerinnen und Schülern auch im weiteren Verlauf ihres Lebens dienlich sein. Die oben genannten Bereiche sind zentrale und vorgegebene Themen der Oberstufe, zu welchen eine Auswahl der Reden getroffen werden kann.
Die Textauswahl Political Speeches lässt sich ab Jahrgangsstufe 10 einsetzen. Dieses Modell liefert einen praxisorientierten Leitfaden zur Behandlung im Unterricht. Contents:
Die Textsammlung Political Speeches – Historical and Topical Issues – Konzeption des Unterrichtsmodells – Klausuren – Components
Component 1: The power of words
Component 2: The American dream: The Hispanic American dream – The Black American dream
Component 3: British democracy: British political forces – Participation – Britain and Europe
Component 4: Postcolonial times: India – South Africa – Reactions in Britain
Component 5: Globalisation: The global threat of terrorism – Global warming

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Immigrant dreams: series of articles la times

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Immigrant dreams: series of articles la times

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Immigrant Dreams: Our landmark poll surveys the lives of one-sixth of the nation

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The national debate over immigration has raged for decades but often ignores the lives of actual immigrants.

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(Evtl. für Einstiege)
1. Money on my mind (HVME)
2. I need a dollar (Aloe Blacc)
3. The Folks Who Live on the Hill (David Allen)

https://zinginstruments.com/songs-about-being-broke/

https://singersroom.com/songs-about-being-broke-and-having-financial-struggles/

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21 Songs about Being Broke and Having Financial Struggles

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Are you facing financial struggles? Out of money? Then here are some of the best songs about being broke to remind you you’re not alone.

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1. 8 Mile
2. The Middles (series)
3. The Maid (series)
4. Documentary "The Divide" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMP8fHgyxOQ

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Surveillance in the USA

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FC3DHTxmW8AEM_0I.jpg&tbnid=ZJYE61oTG-oghM&vet=12ahUKEwjk-9Sp0IuCAxUnkv0HHeoNBZIQMygoegUIARC4AQ..i&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FRonPaul%2Fstatus%2F824377886039801856&docid=BfPLkxOJmpVGfM&w=1200&h=630&q=cartoons%20American%20nightmare&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwjk-9Sp0IuCAxUnkv0HHeoNBZIQMygoegUIARC4AQ

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Has the American Dream Become the American Nightmare? https://t.co/hiWXKRSoP7

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Has the American Dream Become the American Nightmare? https://t.co/hiWXKRSoP7 https://t.co/pc6QjtvxjY

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AD politics Gen Z: article including stats from NPR

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AD politics Gen Z: article including stats from NPR

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For young Americans, politics breaks the American dream instead of building it

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Gen Z and millennial voters should dominate the electorate in coming years. A poll from the Sine Institute, exclusively obtained by NPR, shows how 18- to 34-year-old Americans feel about the future.

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Art and satire: different variants of one painting

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Art and satire: different variants of one painting

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Maybe We Should Stop Calling Smartphones 'Phones'

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Feb 3, 2011 - Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest.

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Opioid crisis in the US

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Watch Painkiller | Netflix Official Site

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The causes and consequences of America’s opioid epidemic unfold in this drama following its perpetrators, victims and an investigator seeking the truth.

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Lesson ideas:

https://film-english.com/2022/02/11/dont-look-up-extensive-viewing-guide/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/daily-news-lessons/2022/04/lesson-plan-for-earth-day-examine-real-dont-look-up-moments-through-history-and-today

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Marginalized groups acknowledged in US: Australian view, article ABC

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Marginalized groups acknowledged in US: Australian view, article ABC

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Like so many visitors to New York, this week I made the pilgrimage to the Statue of Liberty. I say pilgrimage because that is what it is.

I go every time I am in this city.

I made this trip with thousands of others because we believe, or maybe we just so desperately want to believe.

Its true name is Liberty Enlightening the World - Lady Liberty offering a haven to the tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to be free.

What greater dream could there be? Yet liberty is in the eye of the beholder.

What we see depends on who we are. From which side of history we see the world.

The writer James Baldwin was asked: What is liberty? "I suppose almost nobody really asks themselves that question," he said.

If we do, we certainly don't have the same answer.

Caught between a dream and reality

Frederick Douglass - born a slave and one of the great voices of freedom - called America's boasted liberty an "unholy licence".

The historian Tyler E Stovall called the Statue of Liberty "the perfect symbol of white freedom".

The statue was France's gift to America. Two nations formed out of the great revolutions that kickstarted modernity.

French scholar of America, Édouard René de Laboulaye, was soured by France's turn away from the dreams of the French Revolution.

Mourning the dashed hopes of the French Republic, Laboulaye looked to the American dream.

Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi crafted Laboulaye's dream.

In 1886, the statue was inaugurated in New York harbour.

America was still haunted by the Civil War. It was a nation that had been bathed in blood.

Despite the promise of liberty, in the decades ahead, the genocidal wars against Native Americans continued.

Chinese immigrants were attacked and killed. Chinese labourers were banned from migrating.

Puerto Rico was annexed. Hawaii was stolen.

Black people who thought they were free found out that American freedom was truly skin deep. Jim Crow laws kept them segregated and poor.

The Ku Klux Klan terrorised people. Black people had their homes destroyed and were lynched - hung from trees.

As Stovall said: "By the dawn of the 20th century, it was clear that America would remain a racialised white republic."

This is America, a nation still caught between dream and reality.

Its myths wrestle with its history.

Two Americas

Inside the information centre on Liberty Island, I come face to face with these two Americas: the nation of immigrants and the nation of slavery and genocide.

Each of us here reads from different pages of history. I see people from all over the world and hear different languages.

I hear people telling their children about their ancestors' journeys to this place, to begin again, to reinvent themselves.

It is remarkable.

But I am drawn to another story. I notice black people next to me. We are reading from our side.

There is a newspaper clipping from when the statue was unveiled. It is from the African American-owned Cleveland Gazette.

It reads:

"Shove the Bartholdi Statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the 'liberty' of this country [exists for the] coloured man."

There is a quote from the musician, actor and activist Harry Belafonte: "Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy."

There are not just black voices but the voices of others marginalised, oppressed and left out. There are the voices of women reminding us that Liberty may be a lady, but it was not designed for them.

And then there is Baldwin, as always so clear, so uncompromising and so right: "I would never know what this statue meant to others, she had always been an ugly joke to me."

What has changed? Where I am staying, in a mostly black neighbourhood of Brooklyn, flags hang from windows and the front of houses still having to remind us in 2023 that Black Lives Matter.

When I returned to the ferry pier, just across the park was the Museum of the American Indian and it told a story similar to mine; a story of First Nations people invaded, massacred, and wiped out by disease.

It is estimated that when white people arrived in the Americas there were more than 10 million Native Americans; by 1900 there were only 300,000 left.

Inside the museum, the great "heroes" of the founding of America are remembered differently.

George Washington, a founding father and the first president, is called Hanadahguyus - the Town Destroyer.

All presidents since have had the same name.

Australia's problem with truth

Founder-destroyer. Liberty-Tyranny. One day and two stories.

And we live with it all. All over the world, we live with the weight of history. For some of us, it is not a museum exhibit or a statue, it lives in our bones.

I thought of my country, Australia. There is no museum of Indigenous Australia. There are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander exhibits in the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Museum in Sydney, but no separate museum.

There are museums for immigration, a museum for Chinese-Australian history, even a surfing museum, but still, we wait for a First Nations museum.

A cultural precinct to be known as Ngurra ("home") will be located in Canberra, but that remains in the planning stages.

And where in our national monuments is the searing truth displayed at the Statue of Liberty? Where in our War Memorial do we read the truth of frontier massacres?

Where are the voices of people on our memorials who - like James Baldwin in America - tell a very different story of Australia?

America for so many is a lie still in search of liberty. A dream still not realised.

America is a paradox, a contradiction and yes, even an obscenity - but America can't hide from what it is.

Not like Australia.

After two centuries we are still only beginning our reckoning, still shaking ourselves from the Great Australian Silence.

Australia, like America, has been a haven for people fleeing their own countries, escaping war or terror, poverty and disaster. I know that for so many people it is a paradise.

But like America, Australia means different things to different people. We need to hear it all. Not with vengeance but because it needs to be said.

Just like the stories I read at the Statue of Liberty.

America, it is true, has a history problem. Australia still has a problem with truth.
Stan Grant is the ABC's international affairs analyst and presenter of Q+A on Thursday at 8.30pm. He also presents China Tonight on Monday at 9:35pm on ABC TV, and Tuesday at 8pm on the ABC News Channel.

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America has a history problem. Meanwhile, Australia still has a problem with truth

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The Statue of Liberty offers a haven to the tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to be free. What greater dream could there be? Yet liberty is in the eye of the beholder, it depends on who we are, writes Stan Grant.

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Film "The Green Mile"

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The Green Mile is a 1999 American prison fantasy crime drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name. It stars Tom Hanks as a death row corrections officer during the U.S. Great Depression who witnesses supernatural events that occur after an enigmatic inmate ( Michael Clarke Duncan) is brought to his facility. David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Doug Hutchison and James Cromwell appear in supporting roles.

The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $290 million on a $60 million budget. It was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Duncan, Best Sound and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

In a Louisiana assisted-living home in 1999, Paul Edgecomb begins to cry while watching the film . His companion Elaine becomes concerned, and Paul explains to her that the film reminded him of the events of 1935, which took place when he was a prison officer, in charge of death row, what they refer to as the "Green Mile".

In 1935, Paul supervises officers Brutus Howell, Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and Percy Wetmore at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Paul, who suffers from a severe bladder infection, receives John Coffey, a physically imposing but mentally challenged black man, into his custody. John had been sentenced to death after being convicted of raping and murdering two white girls. One of the other inmates is a Native-American named Arlen Bitterbuck, who is charged with several murders and is the first to be executed. Percy demonstrates a severe sadistic streak, but, as the nephew of Louisiana's First Lady, he cannot be held to account; he is particularly abusive towards inmate Eduard ("Del") Delacroix, breaking his fingers, killing his pet mouse, Mr. Jingles, and repeatedly calling him "". In exchange for resigning from the penitentiary and accepting a job at an insane asylum, Percy is allowed by Paul to oversee Del's execution; at the execution, Percy deliberately avoids soaking the sponge used to conduct electricity to Del's head, leading to Del suffering a gruesome and agonizing death with Paul and the others in attendance.

John begins to demonstrate supernatural powers; he cures Paul's bladder infection, resurrects Mr. Jingles, and heals Melinda Moores, wife of the prison's chief warden, of a brain tumor. This last affliction he releases into Percy, who under its influence shoots prisoner William Wharton to death. Wharton had from the moment of his arrival been a troublemaker; he assaulted the guards as he was being escorted into the block, made mischief on two occasions that later caused Paul to order him restrained in the block's padded cell, groped Percy, racially insulted John, and revealed psychically to John that he is, in fact, responsible for the crime for which John was condemned. John then reveals the story psychically to Paul, and, when doing so, he also releases his supernatural energy into Paul. Percy is committed to the insane asylum.

Although distraught over the notion of being executed when innocent, John tells Paul that he wishes to die, as he views the world as a cruel place and constantly feels the cruelty of humanity like shards of glass in his head. Mentioning that he had never seen a movie before, John watches Top Hat with the other guards as a last request. John is executed that night; he asks the customary hood not be placed over his head, as he is afraid of the dark. Back in the present, Paul concludes his story by telling Elaine that John's was the last execution that he and Brutus supervised; they both subsequently resigned from the prison and took jobs in the juvenile system.

Elaine realizes that, since he had a grown son in 1935, Paul must be much older than he looks. Paul reveals that he is 108 years old. He is kept alive by the power that John passed on to show his psychic memories. Del's mouse, Mr. Jingles, is also still alive. Paul is shown later attending Elaine's funeral, and muses that if John's power could make a mouse live for as long as Mr. Jingles has, how much longer does he himself have left?

Darabont adapted the novel into a screenplay in under eight weeks.

The film was shot at Warner Hollywood Studios, West Hollywood, California, and on location in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Blowing Rock, North Carolina and the old Tennessee State Prison.

Hanks and Darabont met at an Academy Award luncheon in 1994. Stephen King stated he envisioned Hanks in the role and was happy when Darabont mentioned his name. Hanks was originally supposed to play elderly Paul Edgecomb as well, but the makeup tests did not make him look credible enough to be an elderly man. Because of this Greer was hired to play the older Edgecomb.

Duncan credited his casting to Bruce Willis, with whom he had worked on the film Armageddon one year earlier. According to Duncan, Willis introduced him to Darabont after hearing of the open call for John Coffey. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal was considered for the role of John Coffey.[citation needed ]

Morse had not heard about the script until he was offered the role. He stated he was in tears by the end of it. Darabont wanted Cromwell from the start, and after he read the script, Cromwell was moved and agreed.

The official film soundtrack, Music from the Motion Picture The Green Mile, was released on December 19, 1999 by Warner Bros. It contains 37 tracks, primarily instrumental tracks from the film score by Thomas Newman. It also contains four vocal tracks: " Cheek to Cheek" by Fred Astaire, " I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" by Billie Holiday, " Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" by Gene Austin, and " Charmaine" by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.

The film was released on VHS and DVD on June 13, 2000. The film earned $17.45 million in combined DVD and VHS rental revenue by June 18, 2000.

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 78% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10. The critical consensus states "Though The Green Mile is long, critics say it's an absorbing, emotionally powerful experience". The film also has a score of 61 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert gave the film ​ stars out of 4, writing "The film is a shade over three hours long. I appreciated the extra time, which allows us to feel the passage of prison months and years".

Awards and honors

2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films

2000 Broadcast Music Incorporated Film & TV Awards

2000 Black Reel Awards

Won - Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor - Michael Clarke Duncan

2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

Won - Favorite Actor - Drama - Tom Hanks

Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actor - Drama - Michael Clarke Duncan

Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actress - Drama - Bonnie Hunt

2000 Bram Stoker Awards

2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

1999 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Michael Clarke Duncan

Nominated - Most Promising Actor - Michael Clarke Duncan

2000 Directors Guild of America

Nominated - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures - Frank Darabont

2000 Golden Globe Awards

2000 NAACP Image Awards

2000 MTV Movie Awards

2000 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Awards)

Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Dialogue and ADR - Mark A. Mangini, Julia Evershade

Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Effects and Foley - Mark A. Mangini, Aaron Glascock, Howell Gibbens, David E. Stone, Solange S. Schwalbe

2000 People's Choice Awards

Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture

Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture

2001 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Nebula Award)

Nominated - Best Script - Frank Darabont

2000 Screen Actors Guild Awards

Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Cast

Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Michael Clarke Duncan

4th Golden Satellite Awards

Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture - Doug Hutchison

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The Green Mile is a 1999 American prison fantasy crime drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on Stephen King's 1996 novel of the same name. It stars Tom Hanks as a death row corrections officer during the U.S.

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American Beauty is a 1999 American black comedy- drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his feature directorial debut. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, an advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari. Annette Bening stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane. Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney co-star. Academics have described the film as satirizing how beauty and personal satisfaction are perceived by the American middle class; further analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.

After being filmed in California from December 1998 to February 1999, American Beauty was released in North America on September 17, 1999, receiving widespread critical and popular acclaim. It was the second-best-reviewed American film of the year behind Being John Malkovich and grossed over $350 million worldwide against its $15-million budget. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on Mendes, Spacey and Ball; criticism tended to focus on the familiarity of the characters and setting. DreamWorks launched a major campaign to increase American Beauty's chances of Oscar success following its controversial Best Picture snubs for Saving Private Ryan (1998) the previous year.

At the 72nd Academy Awards, the film won five Oscars, including Best Picture, along with Best Director for Mendes, Best Actor for Spacey, Best Original Screenplay for Ball, and Best Cinematography for Hall. The film was nominated for and won many other awards and honors, mainly for directing, writing, and acting.

Middle-aged media executive Lester Burnham hates his job and is unhappily married to neurotic and ambitious real estate agent Carolyn. Their 16-year-old daughter, Jane, abhors her parents and has low self-esteem. Retired US Marine colonel Frank Fitts, his near-catatonic wife Barbara, and their teenage son Ricky move in next door. Ricky documents the world around him with a camcorder, collecting recordings on videotape in his bedroom, while using his part-time catering jobs as a front for dealing marijuana. A strict and abusive disciplinarian, Frank has previously had Ricky committed to a psychiatric hospital and sent to a military academy. Gay couple Jim Olmeyer and Jim Berkley, also neighbors to the Burnhams, welcome the Fitts family. Frank later reveals his homophobia when angrily discussing the encounter with Ricky.

During a dance routine at a school basketball game, Lester becomes infatuated with Jane's friend, Angela. He starts having sexual fantasies about her, in which red rose petals are a recurring motif. Carolyn begins an affair with married business rival Buddy Kane. Lester is informed by his supervisor that he is to be laid off; Lester blackmails him into giving him an indulgent severance package and starts working at a drive-through restaurant. He buys his dream car, a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, and starts working out after overhearing Angela teasing Jane that she would have sex with him if he improved his physique. He begins smoking marijuana supplied by Ricky and flirts with Angela. The girls' friendship wanes when Jane starts a relationship with Ricky, whom Angela scoffs at.

Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity when she and Kane order a meal at Lester's restaurant but reacts with smug satisfaction. Buddy fears a costly divorce and ends the affair, while Carolyn is humiliated and simultaneously frustrated by her lack of professional success. Frank, suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship, finds footage Ricky captured by chance of Lester lifting weights while naked and wrongly concludes they are sexually involved. He viciously accuses Ricky of prostitution, which Ricky falsely admits to in order to goad his father into throwing him out. Carolyn, sitting distraught in her car, withdraws a handgun from the glove box. At home, Jane is arguing with Angela over her flirtation with Lester when Ricky interrupts to ask Jane to leave with him for New York City. He calls Angela ugly, boring, and ordinary.

Frank tentatively approaches Lester, then breaks down and tearfully embraces him. Lester begins to comfort Frank until Frank attempts to kiss him. Lester gently rebuffs him, saying he has misunderstood, and Frank walks back out into the rain. Lester finds Angela sitting alone in the dark. He consoles her, saying she is beautiful and anything but ordinary. He asks what she wants, and she says she does not know. She asks him what he wants, and he says he has always wanted her. He takes her to the couch and as he begins to undress her, Angela admits her virginity. Lester is taken aback to realize her apparent experience was a veil for her innocence, and he cannot continue. He comforts her as they share their frustrations. Angela goes to the bathroom as Lester smiles at a family photograph, when an unseen figure shoots Lester in the back of the head at point-blank range. Ricky and Jane find Lester's body. Carolyn is in her closet, discarding her gun and crying hysterically as she hugs Lester's clothing. A bloodied Frank, wearing surgical gloves, returns home: a gun is missing from his collection.

Lester's closing narration describes meaningful experiences during his life. He says that, despite his death, he is happy there is still so much beauty in the world.

Scholars and academics have offered many possible readings of American Beauty; film critics are similarly divided, not so much about the quality of the film, as their interpretations of it. Described by many as about "the meaning of life" or "the hollow existence of the American suburbs", the film has defied categorization by even the filmmakers. Mendes is indecisive, saying the script seemed to be about something different each time he read it: "a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through American suburbia, a series of love stories; ... it was about imprisonment, ... loneliness, [and] beauty. It was funny; it was angry, sad."

Literary critic and author Wayne C. Booth concludes that the film resists any one interpretation: "[ American Beauty] cannot be adequately summarized as 'here is a satire on what's wrong with American life'; that plays down the celebration of beauty. It is more tempting to summarize it as 'a portrait of the beauty underlying American miseries and misdeeds', but that plays down the scenes of cruelty and horror, and Ball's disgust with mores. It cannot be summarized with either Lester or Ricky's philosophical statements about what life is or how one should live." He argues that the problem of interpreting the film is tied with that of finding its center-a controlling voice who "[unites] all of the choices". He contends that in American Beauty's case, it is neither Mendes nor Ball. Mendes considers the voice to be Ball's, but even while the writer was "strongly influential" on set, he often had to accept deviations from his vision, particularly ones that transformed the cynical tone of his script into something more optimistic. With "innumerable voices intruding on the original author's," Booth says, those who interpret American Beauty "have forgotten to probe for the elusive center". According to Booth, the film's true controller is the creative energy "that hundreds of people put into its production, agreeing and disagreeing, inserting and cutting".

The theme of imprisonment is evoked in this scene showing Lester's reflection in the monitor behind columns of data, which resembles an inmate in a jail cell.[8][9]

Mendes called American Beauty a rite of passage film about imprisonment and escape from imprisonment. The monotony of Lester's existence is established through his gray, nondescript workplace and characterless clothing. In these scenes, he is often framed as if trapped, "reiterating rituals that hardly please him". He masturbates in the confines of his shower; the shower stall evokes a jail cell and the shot is the first of many where Lester is confined behind bars or within frames, such as when he is reflected behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor, "confined [and] nearly crossed out".

The academic and author Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester's journey is the story's center. His sexual reawakening through meeting Angela is the first of several turning points as he begins to "[throw] off the responsibilities of the comfortable life he has come to despise". After Lester shares a joint with Ricky, his spirit is released and he begins to rebel against Carolyn. Changed by Ricky's "attractive, profound confidence", he is convinced that Angela is attainable and sees that he must question his "banal, numbingly materialist suburban existence"; he takes a job at a fast-food outlet, which allows him to regress to a point when he could "see his whole life ahead of him".

When Lester is caught masturbating by Carolyn, his angry retort about their lack of intimacy is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her. By confronting the issue and Carolyn's "superficial investments in others", he is trying to "regain a voice in a home that [only respects] the voices of mother and daughter". His final turning point comes when he and Angela almost have sex; after she confesses her virginity, he no longer thinks of her as a sex object, but as a daughter. He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". With these final scenes, Mendes intended to show him at the conclusion of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the refrigerator, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which he walks "to meet his fate". Having begun to act his age again, Lester achieves closure. As he smiles at a family photo, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; the slow pan reflects the peace of his death. His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.

Like other American films of 1999-such as , Bringing Out the Dead and , American Beauty instructs its audience to "[lead] more meaningful lives". The film argues the case against conformity, but does not deny that people need and want it; even the gay characters just want to fit in. Jim and Jim, the Burnhams' other neighbors, are a satire of "gay bourgeois coupledom", who "[invest] in the numbing sameness" that the film criticizes in heterosexual couples. The feminist academic and author Sally R. Munt argues that American Beauty uses its "art house" trappings to direct its message of nonconformity primarily to the middle classes, and that this approach is a " cliché of bourgeois preoccupation; ... the underlying premise being that the luxury of finding an individual 'self' through denial and renunciation is always open to those wealthy enough to choose, and sly enough to present themselves sympathetically as a rebel."

Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the film's thematic center is its direction to the audience to "look closer". The opening combines an unfamiliar viewpoint of the Burnhams' neighborhood with Lester's narrated admission that this is the last year of his life, forcing audiences to consider their own mortality and the beauty around them. It also sets a series of mysteries; Anker asks, "from what place exactly, and from what state of being, is he telling this story? If he's already dead, why bother with whatever it is he wishes to tell about his last year of being alive? There is also the question of how Lester has died-or will die." Anker believes the preceding scene-Jane's discussion with Ricky about the possibility of his killing her father-adds further mystery.

Professor Ann C. Hall disagrees; she says by presenting an early resolution to the mystery, the film allows the audience to put it aside "to view the film and its philosophical issues". Through this examination of Lester's life, rebirth and death, American Beauty satirizes American middle class notions of meaning, beauty and satisfaction. Even Lester's transformation only comes about because of the possibility of sex with Angela; he therefore remains a "willing devotee of the popular media's exaltation of pubescent male sexuality as a sensible route to personal wholeness". Carolyn is similarly driven by conventional views of happiness; from her belief in " house beautiful" domestic bliss to her car and gardening outfit, Carolyn's domain is a "fetching American millennial vision of Pleasantville, or Eden". The Burnhams are unaware that they are "materialists philosophically, and devout consumers ethically" who expect the "rudiments of American beauty" to give them happiness. Anker argues that "they are helpless in the face of the prettified economic and sexual stereotypes ... that they and their culture have designated for their salvation."

The film presents Ricky as its "visionary, ... spiritual and mystical center". He sees beauty in the minutiae of everyday life, videoing as much as he can for fear of missing it. He shows Jane what he considers the most beautiful thing he has filmed: a plastic bag, tossing in the wind in front of a wall. He says capturing the moment was when he realized that there was "an entire life behind things"; he feels that "sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it... and my heart is going to cave in." Anker argues that Ricky, in looking past the "cultural dross", has "[grasped] the radiant splendor of the created world" to see God. As the film progresses, the Burnhams move closer to Ricky's view of the world. Lester only forswears personal satisfaction at the film's end. On the cusp of having sex with Angela, he returns to himself after she admits her virginity. Suddenly confronted with a child, he begins to treat her as a daughter; in doing so, Lester sees himself, Angela, and his family "for the poor and fragile but wondrous creatures they are". He looks at a picture of his family in happier times, and dies having had an epiphany that infuses him with "wonder, joy, and soul-shaking gratitude"-he has finally seen the world as it is.

According to Patti Bellantoni, colors are used symbolically throughout the film, none more so than red, which is an important thematic signature that drives the story and "[defines] Lester's arc". First seen in drab colors that reflect his passivity, Lester surrounds himself with red as he regains his individuality. The American Beauty rose is repeatedly used as symbol; when Lester fantasizes about Angela, she is usually naked and surrounded by rose petals. In these scenes, the rose symbolizes Lester's desire for her. When associated with Carolyn, the rose represents a "façade for suburban success". Roses are included in almost every shot inside the Burnhams' home, where they signify "a mask covering a bleak, unbeautiful reality". Carolyn feels that "as long as there can be roses, all is well". She cuts the roses and puts them in vases, where they adorn her "meretricious vision of what makes for beauty" and begin to die. The roses in the vase in the Angela-Lester seduction scene symbolize Lester's previous life and Carolyn; the camera pushes in as Lester and Angela get closer, finally taking the roses-and thus Carolyn-out of the shot. Lester's epiphany at the end of the film is expressed by rain and the use of red, building to a crescendo that is a deliberate contrast to the release Lester feels. The constant use of red "lulls [the audience] subliminally" into becoming used to it; consequently, it leaves the audience unprepared when Lester is shot and his blood spatters on the wall.

Pennington argues that American Beauty defines its characters through their sexuality. Lester's attempts to relive his youth are a direct result of his lust for Angela, and the state of his relationship with Carolyn is in part shown through their lack of sexual contact. Also sexually frustrated, Carolyn has an affair that takes her from "cold perfectionist" to more of a carefree soul who "[sings] happily along with" the music in her car. Jane and Angela constantly reference sex, through Angela's descriptions of her supposed sexual encounters and the way the girls address each other. Their nude scenes are used to communicate their vulnerability. By the end of the film, Angela's hold on Jane has weakened until the only power she has over her friend is Lester's attraction to her. Col. Fitts reacts with disgust to meeting Jim and Jim; he asks, "How come these faggots always have to rub it in your face? How can they be so shameless?" To which Ricky replies, "That's the thing, Dad-they don't feel like it's anything to be ashamed of." Pennington argues that Col. Fitts' reaction is not homophobic, but an "anguished self-interrogation".

With other turn-of-the-millennium films such as (1999), In the Company of Men (1997), American Psycho (2000), and Boys Don't Cry (1999), American Beauty "raises the broader, widely explored issue of masculinity in crisis". Professor Vincent Hausmann charges that in their reinforcement of masculinity "against threats posed by war, by consumerism, and by feminist and queer challenges", these films present a need to "focus on, and even to privilege" aspects of maleness "deemed 'deviant'". Lester's transformation conveys "that he, and not the woman, has borne the brunt of [lack of being]" and he will not stand for being emasculated. Lester's attempts to "strengthen traditional masculinity" conflict with his responsibilities as a father. Although the film portrays the way Lester returns to that role positively, he does not become "the hypermasculine figure implicitly celebrated in films like Fight Club". Hausmann concludes that Lester's behavior toward Angela is "a misguided but nearly necessary step toward his becoming a father again".

Hausmann says the film "explicitly affirms the importance of upholding the prohibition against incest"; a recurring theme of Ball's work is his comparison of the taboos against incest and homosexuality. Instead of making an overt distinction, American Beauty looks at how their repression can lead to violence. Col. Fitts is so ashamed of his homosexuality that it drives him to murder Lester. Ball said, "The movie is in part about how homophobia is based in fear and repression and about what [they] can do." The film implies two unfulfilled incestuous desires: Lester's pursuit of Angela is a manifestation of his lust for his own daughter, while Col. Fitts' repression is exhibited through the almost sexualized discipline with which he controls Ricky. Consequently, Ricky realizes that he can only hurt his father by falsely telling him he is homosexual, while Angela's vulnerability and submission to Lester reminds him of his responsibilities and the limits of his fantasy. Col. Fitts represents Ball's father, whose repressed homosexual desires led to his own unhappiness. Ball rewrote Col. Fitts to delay revealing him as homosexual.

American Beauty follows a traditional narrative structure, only deviating with the displaced opening scene of Jane and Ricky from the middle of the story. Although the plot spans one year, the film is narrated by Lester at the moment of his death. Jacqueline Furby says that the plot "occupies ... no time [or] all time", citing Lester's claim that life did not flash before his eyes, but that it "stretches on forever like an ocean of time". Furby argues that a "rhythm of repetition" forms the core of the film's structure. For example, two scenes have the Burnhams sitting down to an evening meal, shot from the same angle. Each image is broadly similar, with minor differences in object placement and body language that reflect the changed dynamic brought on by Lester's new-found assertiveness. Another example is the pair of scenes in which Jane and Ricky film each other. Ricky films Jane from his bedroom window as she removes her bra, and the image is reversed later for a similarly "voyeuristic and exhibitionist" scene in which Jane films Ricky at a vulnerable moment.

Lester's fixation on Angela is symbolized by a discordant, percussive musical motif that temporarily replaces a diegetic instrumental version of "On Broadway".

Lester's fantasies are emphasized by slow- and repetitive-motion shots; Mendes uses double-and-triple cutbacks in several sequences, and the score alters to make the audience aware that it is entering a fantasy. One example is the gymnasium scene-Lester's first encounter with Angela. While the cheerleaders perform their half-time routine to " On Broadway", Lester becomes increasingly fixated on Angela. Time slows to represent his "voyeuristic hypnosis" and Lester begins to fantasize that Angela's performance is for him alone. "On Broadway"-which provides a conventional underscore to the onscreen action-is replaced by discordant, percussive music that lacks melody or progression. This nondiegetic score is important to creating the narrative stasis in the sequence; it conveys a moment for Lester that is stretched to an indeterminate length. The effect is one that Stan Link likens to "vertical time", described by the composer and music theorist Jonathan Kramer as music that imparts "a single present stretched out into an enormous duration, a potentially infinite 'now' that nonetheless feels like an instant". The music is used like a visual cue, so that Lester and the score are staring at Angela. The sequence ends with the sudden reintroduction of "On Broadway" and teleological time.

According to Drew Miller of , the soundtrack "[gives] unconscious voice" to the characters' psyches and complements the subtext. The most obvious use of pop music "accompanies and gives context to" Lester's attempts to recapture his youth; reminiscent of how the counterculture of the 1960s combated American repression through music and drugs, Lester begins to smoke cannabis and listen to rock music. Mendes' song choices "progress through the history of American popular music". Miller argues that although some may be over familiar, there is a parodic element at work, "making good on [the film's] encouragement that viewers look closer". Toward the end of the film, Thomas Newman's score features more prominently, creating "a disturbing tempo" that matches the tension of the visuals. The exception is " Don't Let It Bring You Down", which plays during Angela's seduction of Lester. At first appropriate, its tone clashes as the seduction stops. The lyrics, which speak of "castles burning", can be seen as a metaphor for Lester's view of Angela-"the rosy, fantasy-driven exterior of the 'American Beauty'"-as it burns away to reveal "the timid, small-breasted girl who, like his wife, has willfully developed a false public self".

Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus that accompanied the Amy Fisher trial in 1992. He shelved the play after deciding that the story would not work on stage. After spending the next few years writing for television, Ball revived the idea in 1997 when attempting to break into the film industry after several frustrating years writing for the television sitcoms Grace Under Fire and . He joined the United Talent Agency, where his representative, Andrew Cannava, suggested he write a spec script to "reintroduce [himself] to the town as a screenwriter". Ball pitched three ideas to Cannava: two conventional romantic comedies and American Beauty. Despite the story's lack of an easily marketable concept, Cannava selected American Beauty because he felt it was the one for which Ball had the most passion. While developing the script, Ball created another television sitcom, . He channeled his anger and frustration at having to accede to network demands on that show-and during his tenures on Grace Under Fire and Cybill-into writing American Beauty.

Ball did not expect to sell the script, believing it would act as more of a calling card, but American Beauty drew interest from several production bodies. Cannava passed the script to several producers, including Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who took it to DreamWorks. With the help of executives Glenn Williamson and Bob Cooper, and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as studio partner, Ball was convinced to develop the project at DreamWorks; he received assurances from the studio-known at the time for its more conventional fare-that it would not "iron the [edges] out". In an unusual move, DreamWorks decided not to option the script; instead, in April 1998, the studio bought it outright for $250,000, outbidding Fox Searchlight Pictures, October Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Lakeshore Entertainment. DreamWorks planned to make the film for $6-8 million.

Jinks and Cohen involved Ball throughout the film's development, including casting and director selection. The producers met with about twenty interested directors, several of whom were considered A-list at the time. Ball was not keen on the more well-known directors because he believed their involvement would increase the budget and lead DreamWorks to become "nervous about the content". Nevertheless, the studio offered the film to Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis; neither accepted. In the same year, Mendes (then a theater director) revived the musical in New York with fellow director Rob Marshall. Beth Swofford of the Creative Artists Agency arranged meetings for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if film direction was a possibility. Mendes came across American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts at Swofford's house, and knew immediately that it was the one he wanted to make; early in his career, he had been inspired by how the film Paris, Texas (1984) presented contemporary America as a mythic landscape and he saw the same theme in American Beauty, as well as parallels with his own childhood. Mendes later met with Spielberg; impressed by Mendes' productions of and Cabaret, Spielberg encouraged him to consider American Beauty.

Mendes found that he still had to convince DreamWorks' production executives to let him direct. He had already discussed the film with Jinks and Cohen, and felt they supported him. Ball was also keen; having seen Cabaret, he was impressed with Mendes' "keen visual sense" and thought he did not make obvious choices. Ball felt that Mendes liked to look under the story's surface, a talent he felt would be a good fit with the themes of American Beauty. Mendes' background also reassured him, because of the prominent role the playwright usually has in a theater production. Over two meetings-the first with Cooper, Walter Parkes, and Laurie MacDonald, the second with Cooper alone-Mendes pitched himself to the studio. The studio soon approached Mendes with a deal to direct for the minimum salary allowed under Directors Guild of America rules-$150,000. Mendes accepted, and later recalled that after taxes and his agent's commission, he only earned $38,000. In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that it had contracted Mendes to direct the film.

"I think I was writing about ... how it's becoming harder and harder to live an authentic life when we live in a world that seems to focus on appearance. ... For all the differences between now and the [1950s], in a lot of ways this is just as oppressively conformist a time. ... You see so many people who strive to live the unauthentic life and then they get there and they wonder why they're not happy. ... I didn't realize it when I sat down to write [ American Beauty], but these ideas are important to me."

Ball was partly inspired by two encounters he had in the early 1990s. In about 1991-92, Ball saw a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center. He watched the bag for ten minutes, saying later that it provoked an "unexpected emotional response". In 1992, Ball became preoccupied with the media circus that accompanied the Amy Fisher trial. Discovering a comic book telling of the scandal, he was struck by how quickly it had become commercialized. He said he "felt like there was a real story underneath [that was] more fascinating and way more tragic" than the story presented to the public, and attempted to turn the idea into a play. Ball produced around 40 pages, but stopped when he realized it would work better as a film. He felt that because of the visual themes, and because each character's story was "intensely personal", it could not be done on a stage. All the main characters appeared in this version, but Carolyn did not feature strongly; Jim and Jim instead had much larger roles.

Ball based Lester's story on aspects of his own life. Lester's re-examination of his life parallels feelings Ball had in his mid-30s; like Lester, Ball put aside his passions to work in jobs he hated for people he did not respect. Scenes in Ricky's household reflect Ball's own childhood experiences. Ball suspected his father was homosexual and used the idea to create Col. Fitts, a man who "gave up his chance to be himself". Ball said the script's mix of comedy and drama was not intentional, but that it came unconsciously from his own outlook on life. He said the juxtaposition produced a starker contrast, giving each trait more impact than if they appeared alone.

In the script that was sent to prospective actors and directors, Lester and Angela had sex; by the time of shooting, Ball had rewritten the scene to the final version. Ball initially rebuffed counsel from others that he change the script, feeling they were being puritanical; the final impetus to alter the scene came from DreamWorks' then-president Walter Parkes. He convinced Ball by indicating that in Greek mythology, the hero "has a moment of epiphany before ... tragedy occurs". Ball later said his anger when writing the first draft had blinded him to the idea that Lester needed to refuse sex with Angela to complete his emotional journey-to achieve redemption. Jinks and Cohen asked Ball not to alter the scene right away, as they felt it would be inappropriate to make changes to the script before a director had been hired. Early drafts also included a flashback to Col. Fitts' service in the Marines, a sequence that unequivocally established his homosexual leanings. In love with another Marine, Col. Fitts sees the man die and comes to believe that he is being punished for the "sin" of being gay. Ball removed the sequence because it did not fit the structure of the rest of the film-Col. Fitts was the only character to have a flashback-and because it removed the element of surprise from Col. Fitts' later pass at Lester. Ball said he had to write it for his own benefit to know what happened to Col. Fitts, though all that remained in later drafts was subtext.

Ball remained involved throughout production; he had signed a television show development deal, so had to get permission from his producers to take a year off to be close to American Beauty. Ball was on-set for rewrites and to help interpret his script for all but two days of filming. His original bookend scenes-in which Ricky and Jane are prosecuted for Lester's murder after being framed by Col. Fitts-were excised in post-production; the writer later felt the scenes were unnecessary, saying they were a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see " Editing"). Ball and Mendes revised the script twice before it was sent to the actors, and twice more before the first read-through. The script was written between June 1997 and February 1998.

The shooting script features a scene in Angela's car in which Ricky and Jane talk about death and beauty; the scene differed from earlier versions, which set it as a "big scene on a freeway" in which the three witness a car crash and see a dead body. The change was a practical decision, as the production was behind schedule and they needed to cut costs. The schedule called for two days to be spent filming the crash, but only half a day was available. Ball agreed, but only if the scene could retain a line of Ricky's where he reflects on having once seen a dead homeless woman: "When you see something like that, it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look right back." Jane asks: "And what do you see?" Ricky: "Beauty." Ball said, "They wanted to cut that scene. They said it's not important. I said, 'You're out of your fucking mind. It's one of the most important scenes in the movie!' ... If any one line is the heart and soul of this movie, that is the line." Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway sequence; set in a schoolyard, it presents a "turning point" for Jane in that she chooses to walk home with Ricky instead of going with Angela. By the end of filming, the script had been through ten drafts.

The principal actors and actresses
First row: Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Mena Suvari, Kevin Spacey
Second row: Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Allison Janney

Mendes had Spacey and Bening in mind for the leads from the beginning, but DreamWorks executives were unenthusiastic. The studio suggested several alternatives, including Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, and John Travolta to play Lester (the role was also offered to Chevy Chase, but he turned it down), while Helen Hunt or Holly Hunter were proposed to play Carolyn. Mendes did not want a big star "weighing the film down"; he felt Spacey was the right choice based on his performances in the 1995 films The Usual Suspects and , and 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross. Spacey was surprised; he said, "I usually play characters who are very quick, very manipulative and smart. ... I usually wade in dark, sort of treacherous waters. This is a man living one step at a time, playing by his instincts. This is actually much closer to me, to what I am, than those other parts." Mendes offered Bening the role of Carolyn without the studio's consent; although executives were upset at Mendes, by September 1998, DreamWorks had entered negotiations with Spacey and Bening.

Spacey loosely based Lester's early "schlubby" deportment on Walter Matthau. During the film, Lester's physique improves from flabby to toned; Spacey worked out during filming to improve his body, but because Mendes shot the scenes out of chronological order, Spacey varied postures to portray the stages. Before filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment (1960), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate "the way [Lemmon] moved, the way he looked, the way he was in that office and the way he was an ordinary man and yet a special man". Spacey's voiceover is a throwback to Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is also narrated in retrospect by a dead character. Mendes felt it evoked Lester's-and the film's-loneliness. Bening recalled women from her youth to inform her performance: "I used to babysit constantly. You'd go to church and see how people present themselves on the outside, and then be inside their house and see the difference." Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a " PTA president coif" hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail-order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a "spotless suburban manor". To help Bening get into Carolyn's mindset, Mendes gave her music that he believed Carolyn would like. He lent Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song " Don't Rain on My Parade", which she enjoyed and persuaded the director to include it for a scene in which Carolyn sings in her car.

Kirsten Dunst was offered the role of Angela Hayes but she turned it down.

For the roles of Jane, Ricky, and Angela, DreamWorks gave Mendes carte blanche. By November 1998, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari had been cast in the parts-in Birch's case, despite the fact she was 16 years old and was deemed underage for a brief nude scene, which her parents had to approve. Child labor representatives accompanied Birch's parents on set during the filming of the nude scene. Bentley overcame competition from top actors under the age of 25 to be cast. The 2009 documentary My Big Break followed Bentley, and several other young actors, before and after he landed the part. To prepare, Mendes provided Bentley with a video camera, telling the actor to film what Ricky would. Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney were cast (as Buddy Kane and Barbara Fitts) after filming began in December 1998. Mendes gave Janney a book of paintings by Edvard Munch. He told her, "Your character is in there somewhere." Mendes cut much of Barbara's dialogue, including conversations between Colonel Frank Fitts and her, as he felt that what needed to be said about the pair-their humanity and vulnerability-was conveyed successfully through their shared moments of silence. Chris Cooper plays Colonel Frank Fitts, Scott Bakula plays Jim Olmeyer, and Sam Robards plays Jim Berkley. Jim and Jim were deliberately depicted as the most normal, happy-and boring-couple in the film. Ball's inspiration for the characters came from a thought he had after seeing a "bland, boring, heterosexual couple" who wore matching clothes: "I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring." Ball also included aspects of a gay couple he knew who had the same forename.

Mendes insisted on two weeks of cast rehearsals, although the sessions were not as formal as he was used to in the theater, and the actors could not be present at every one. Several improvisations and suggestions by the actors were incorporated into the script. An early scene showing the Burnhams leaving home for work was inserted later on to show the low point that Carolyn and Lester's relationship had reached. Spacey and Bening worked to create a sense of the love that Lester and Carolyn once had for one another; for example, the scene in which Lester almost seduces Carolyn after the pair argues over Lester's buying a car was originally "strictly contentious".

Principal photography lasted about 50 days, from December 14, 1998 to February 1999. American Beauty was filmed on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at Hancock Park and Brentwood in Los Angeles. The aerial shots at the beginning and end of the film were captured in Sacramento, California, and many of the school scenes were shot at South High School in Torrance, California; several extras in the gym crowd were South High students. The film is set in an upper middle-class neighborhood in an unidentified American town. Production designer Naomi Shohan likened the locale to Evanston, Illinois, but said, "it's not about a place, it's about an archetype... The milieu was pretty much Anywhere, USA-upwardly mobile suburbia." The intent was for the setting to reflect the characters, who are also archetypes. Shohan said, "All of them are very strained, and their lives are constructs." The Burnhams' household was designed as the reverse of the Fitts'-the former a pristine ideal, but graceless and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's desire to at least give it the appearance of a "perfect all-American household"; the Fitts' home is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry".

The film used aerial shots of Sacramento, California, at the beginning and end of the film to show where the Burnhams live.[125]

The production selected two adjacent properties on the Warner backlot's "Blondie Street" for the Burnham and Fitts' homes. The crew rebuilt the houses to incorporate false rooms that established lines of sight-between Ricky and Jane's bedroom windows, and between Ricky's bedroom and Lester's garage. The garage windows were designed specifically to obtain the crucial shot toward the end of the film in which Col. Fitts-watching from Ricky's bedroom-mistakenly assumes that Lester is paying Ricky for sex. Mendes made sure to establish the line of sight early on in the film to make the audience feel a sense of familiarity with the shot. The house interiors were filmed on the backlot, on location, and on soundstages when overhead shots were needed. The inside of the Burnhams' home was shot at a house close to Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; the inside of the Fitts' home was shot in the city's Hancock Park neighborhood. Ricky's bedroom was designed to be cell-like to suggest his "monkish" personality, while at the same time blending with the high-tech equipment to reflect his voyeuristic side. The production deliberately minimized the use of red, as it was an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams' home uses cool blues, while the Fitts' is kept in a "depressed military palette".

Mendes' dominating visual style was deliberate and composed, with a minimalist design that provided "a sparse, almost surreal feeling-a bright, crisp, hard edged, near Magritte-like take on American suburbia"; Mendes constantly directed his set dressers to empty the frame. He made Lester's fantasy scenes "more fluid and graceful", and Mendes made minimal use of steadicams, feeling that stable shots generated more tension. For example, when Mendes used a slow push in to the Burnhams' dinner table, he held the shot because his training as a theater director taught him the importance of putting distance between the characters. He wanted to keep the tension in the scene, so he only cut away when Jane left the table. Mendes used a hand-held camera for the scene in which Col. Fitts beats Ricky. Mendes said the camera provided the scene with a "kinetic ... off-balance energy". He also went hand-held for the excerpts of Ricky's camcorder footage. Mendes took a long time to get the quality of Ricky's footage to the level he wanted. For the plastic-bag footage, Mendes used wind machines to move the bag in the air. The scene took four takes; two by the second unit did not satisfy Mendes, so he shot the scene himself. He felt his first take lacked grace, but for the last attempt, he changed the location to the front of a brick wall and added leaves on the ground. Mendes was satisfied by the way the wall gave definition to the outline of the bag.

Mendes avoided using close-ups, believing the technique was overused. He also mentioned Spielberg's advice to imagine an audience silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to keep in mind that it was being shot for display on a 40-foot (10 m) screen. Spielberg-who visited the set a few times-also advised Mendes not to worry about costs if he had a "great idea" toward the end of a long working day. Mendes said, "That happened three or four times, and they are all in the movie." Despite Spielberg's support, DreamWorks and Mendes fought constantly over the schedule and budget, although the studio interfered little with the film's content. Spacey, Bening and Hall worked for significantly less than their usual rates. American Beauty cost DreamWorks $15 million to produce, slightly above their projected sum. Mendes was so dissatisfied with his first three days' filming that he obtained permission from DreamWorks to reshoot the scenes. He said, "I started with a wrong scene, actually, a comedy scene. And the actors played it way too big: ... it was badly shot, my fault, badly composed, my fault, bad costumes, my fault ...; and everybody was doing what I was asking. It was all my fault." Aware that he was a novice, Mendes drew on the experience of Hall: "I made a very conscious decision early on, if I didn't understand something technically, to say, without embarrassment, 'I don't understand what you're talking about, please explain it.'"

Mendes encouraged some improvisation; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, the director asked Spacey to improvise several euphemisms for the act in each take. Mendes said, "I wanted that not just because it was funny ... but because I didn't want it to seem rehearsed. I wanted it to seem like he was blurting it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control-I wanted him to break through." Spacey obliged, eventually coming up with 35 phrases, but Bening could not always keep a straight face, which meant the scene had to be shot ten times. The production used small amounts of computer-generated imagery. Most of the rose petals in Lester's fantasies were added in post-production, although some were real and had the wires holding them digitally removed. When Lester fantasizes about Angela in a rose-petal bath, the steam was real, save for in the overhead shot. To position the camera, a hole had to be cut in the ceiling, through which the steam escaped; it was instead added digitally.

American Beauty was edited through Christopher Greenbury and Tariq Anwar; Greenbury began in the position, but had to leave halfway through post-production because of a scheduling conflict with Me, Myself & Irene (2000). Mendes and an assistant edited the film for ten days between the appointments. Mendes realized during editing that the film was different from the one he had envisioned. He believed he had been making a "much more whimsical, ... kaleidoscopic" film than what came together in the edit suite. Instead, Mendes was drawn to the emotion and darkness; he began to use the score and shots he had intended to discard to craft the film along these lines. In total, he cut about 30 minutes from his original edit.

The opening included a dream in which Lester imagines himself flying above the town. Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against bluescreen, but removed the sequence as he believed it to be too whimsical-"like a Coen brothers movie"-and therefore inappropriate for the tone he was trying to set. The opening in the final cut reused a scene from the middle of the film where Jane tells Ricky to kill her father. This scene was to be the revelation to the audience that the pair was not responsible for Lester's death, as the way it was scored and acted made it clear that Jane's request was not serious. However, in the portion he used in the opening-and when the full scene plays out later-Mendes used the score and a reaction shot of Ricky to leave a lingering ambiguity as to his guilt. The subsequent shot-an aerial view of the neighborhood-was originally intended as the plate shot for the bluescreen effects in the dream sequence.

Mendes spent more time recutting the first ten minutes than the rest of the film taken together. He trialed several versions of the opening; the first edit included bookend scenes in which Jane and Ricky are convicted of Lester's murder, but Mendes excised these in the last week of editing because he felt they made the film lose its mystery, and because they did not fit with the theme of redemption that had emerged during production. Mendes believed the trial drew focus away from the characters and turned the film "into an episode of ". Instead, he wanted the ending to be "a poetic mixture of dream and memory and narrative resolution". When Ball first saw a completed edit, it was a version with truncated versions of these scenes. He felt that they were so short that they "didn't really register". Mendes and he argued, but Ball was more accepting after Mendes cut the sequences completely; Ball felt that without the scenes, the film was more optimistic and had evolved into something that "for all its darkness had a really romantic heart".

Conrad Hall was not the first choice for director of photography; Mendes believed he was "too old and too experienced" to want the job, and he had been told that Hall was difficult to work with. Instead, Mendes asked Frederick Elmes, who turned the job down because he did not like the script. Hall was recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, because of Hall's work on Without Limits (1998), which Cruise had executive produced. Mendes was directing Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman in the play The Blue Room during preproduction on American Beauty, and had already storyboarded the whole film. Hall was involved for one month during preproduction; his ideas for lighting the film began with his first reading of the script, and further passes allowed him to refine his approach before meeting Mendes. Hall was initially concerned that audiences would not like the characters; he only felt able to identify with them during cast rehearsals, which gave him fresh ideas on his approach to the visuals.

Hall's approach was to create peaceful compositions that evoked classicism, to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events and allow audiences to take in the action. Hall and Mendes first discussed the intended mood of a scene, but he was allowed to light the shot in any way he felt necessary. In most cases, Hall first lit the scene's subject by "painting in" the blacks and whites, before adding fill light, which he reflected from beadboard or white card on the ceiling. This approach gave Hall more control over the shadows while keeping the fill light unobtrusive and the dark areas free of spill. Hall shot American Beauty in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio in the Super 35 format, primarily using Kodak Vision 500T 5279 35 mm film stock. He used Super 35 partly because its larger scope allowed him to capture elements such as the corners of the petal-filled pool in its overhead shot, creating a frame around Angela within. He shot the whole film at the same T-stop (T1.9); given his preference for shooting that wide, Hall favored high-speed stocks to allow for more subtle lighting effects.

Hall used Panavision Platinum cameras with the company's Primo series of prime and zoom lenses. Hall employed Kodak Vision 200T 5274 and EXR 100T 5248 stock for scenes with daylight effects. He had difficulty adjusting to Kodak's newly introduced Vision release print stock, which, combined with his contrast-heavy lighting style, created a look with too much contrast. Hall contacted Kodak, who sent him a batch of 5279 that was five percent lower in contrast. Hall used a 1/8th strength Tiffen Black ProMist filter for almost every scene, which he said in retrospect may not have been the best choice, as the optical steps required to blow Super 35 up for its anamorphic release print led to a slight amount of degradation; therefore, the diffusion from the filter was not required. When he saw the film in a theater, Hall felt that the image was slightly unclear and that had he not used the filter, the diffusion from the Super 35-anamorphic conversion would have generated an image closer to what he originally intended.

A shot where Lester and Ricky share a cannabis joint behind a building came from a misunderstanding between Hall and Mendes. Mendes asked Hall to prepare the shot in his absence; Hall assumed the characters would look for privacy, so he placed them in a narrow passage between a truck and the building, intending to light from the top of the truck. When Mendes returned, he explained that the characters did not care if they were seen. He removed the truck and Hall had to rethink the lighting; he lit it from the left, with a large light crossing the actors, and with a soft light behind the camera. Hall felt the consequent wide shot "worked perfectly for the tone of the scene". Hall made sure to keep rain, or the suggestion of it, in every shot near the end of the film. In one shot during Lester's encounter with Angela at the Burnhams' home, Hall created rain effects on the foreground cross lights; in another, he partly lit the pair through French windows to which he had added material to make the rain run slower, intensifying the light (although the strength of the outside light was unrealistic for a night scene, Hall felt it justified because of the strong contrasts it produced). For the close-ups when Lester and Angela move to the couch, Hall tried to keep rain in the frame, lighting through the window onto the ceiling behind Lester. He also used rain boxes to produce rain patterns where he wanted without lighting the entire room.

Thomas Newman's score was recorded in Santa Monica, California. He used mainly percussion instruments to create the mood and rhythm, the inspiration for which was provided by Mendes. Newman "favored pulse, rhythm, and color over melody", making for a more minimalist score than he had previously created. He built each cue around "small, endlessly repeating phrases"-often, the only variety through a "thinning of the texture for eight bars". The percussion instruments included tablas, bongos, cymbals, piano, xylophones, and marimbas; also featured were guitars, flute, and world music instruments. Newman also used electronic music and on "quirkier" tracks employed more unorthodox methods, such as tapping metal mixing bowls with a finger and using a detuned mandolin. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script: "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve [that]."

The soundtrack features songs by Newman, Bobby Darin, The Who (" The Seeker"), Free, Eels, The Guess Who, Bill Withers, Betty Carter, Peggy Lee, The Folk Implosion, Gomez, and Bob Dylan, as well as two cover versions- The Beatles' " Because", performed by Elliott Smith, and Neil Young's " Don't Let It Bring You Down", performed by Annie Lennox. Produced by the film's music supervisor Chris Douridas, an abridged soundtrack album was released on October 5, 1999, and went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. An album featuring 19 tracks from Newman's score was released on January 11, 2000 and won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. considered the score to be one of Newman's best, saying it "[enabled] the film's transcendentalist aspirations". In 2006, the magazine chose the score as one of twenty essential soundtracks it believed spoke to the "complex and innovative relationships between music and screen storytelling".

DreamWorks contracted Amazon.com to create the official website, marking the first time that Amazon had created a special section devoted to a feature film. The website included an overview, a photo gallery, cast and crew filmographies, and exclusive interviews with Spacey and Bening. The film's tagline-"look closer"-originally came from a cutting pasted on Lester's workplace cubicle by the set dresser. DreamWorks ran parallel marketing campaigns and trailers-one aimed at adults, the other at teenagers. Both trailers ended with the poster image of a girl holding a rose.

Reviewing the posters of several films of the year, David Hochman of Entertainment Weekly rated American Beauty's highly, saying it evoked the tagline; he said, "You return to the poster again and again, thinking, this time you're gonna find something." DreamWorks did not want to test screen the film; according to Mendes, the studio was pleased with it, but he insisted on one where he could question the audience afterward. The studio reluctantly agreed and showed the film to a young audience in San Jose, California. Mendes claimed the screening went very well.

The film had its world premiere on September 8, 1999, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. Three days later, the film appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival. With the filmmakers and cast in attendance, it screened at several American universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, New York University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Northwestern University.

Graph showing the number of theaters in which American Beauty played in North America in 1999-2000. After the film's Golden Globe success in January 2000, DreamWorks re-expanded its market presence to 1,990 theaters.[156][157]

On September 15, 1999, American Beauty opened to the public in limited release at three theaters in Los Angeles and three in New York. More theaters were added during the limited run, and on October 1, the film officially entered wide release by screening in 706 theaters across North America. The film grossed $8,188,587 over the weekend, ranking third at the box office. Audiences polled by the market research firm CinemaScore gave American Beauty a "B+" grade on average. The theater count hit a high of 1,528 at the end of the month, before a gradual decline. Following American Beauty's wins at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, DreamWorks re-expanded the theater presence from a low of 7 in mid-February, to a high of 1,990 in March. The film ended its North American theatrical run on June 4, 2000, having grossed $130.1 million.

American Beauty had its European premiere at the London Film Festival on November 18, 1999; in January 2000, it began to screen in various territories outside North America. It debuted in Israel to "potent" returns, and limited releases in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland followed on January 21. After January 28 opening weekends in Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain and Norway, American Beauty had earned $7 million in 12 countries for a total of $12.1 million outside North America. On February 4, American Beauty debuted in France and Belgium. Expanding to 303 theaters in the United Kingdom, the film ranked first at the box office with $1.7 million. On the weekend of February 18-following American Beauty's eight nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards -the film grossed $11.7 million from 21 territories, for a total of $65.4 million outside North America. The film had "dazzling" debuts in Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and New Zealand.

As of February 18, the most successful territories were the United Kingdom ($15.2 million), Italy ($10.8 million), Germany ($10.5 million), Australia ($6 million), and France ($5.3 million). The Academy Award nominations meant strong performances continued across the board; the following weekend, American Beauty grossed $10.9 million in 27 countries, with strong debuts in Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea. Other high spots included robust returns in Argentina, Greece, and Turkey. On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted strongly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, markets traditionally "not receptive to this kind of upscale fare". The impressive South Korean performance continued, with a return of $1.2 million after nine days. In total, American Beauty grossed $130.1 million in North America and $226.2 million internationally, for $356.3 million worldwide.

American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9, 2000, and on DVD with the DTS format on October 24, 2000. Before the North American rental release on May 9, Blockbuster Video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of extra copies for its "guaranteed title" range, whereby anyone who wanted to rent the film would be guaranteed a copy. Blockbuster and DreamWorks could not agree on a profit-sharing deal, so Blockbuster ordered two-thirds the number of copies it originally intended. DreamWorks made around one million copies available for rental; Blockbuster's share would usually have been about 400,000 of these. Some Blockbuster stores only displayed 60 copies, and others did not display the film at all, forcing customers to ask for it. The strategy required staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation; Blockbuster claimed it was only "[monitoring] customer demand" due to the reduced availability. Blockbuster's strategy leaked before May 9, leading to a 30 percent order increase from other retailers.

In its first week of rental release, American Beauty made $6.8 million. This return was lower than would have been expected had DreamWorks and Blockbuster reached an agreement. In the same year, The Sixth Sense made $22 million, while made $8.1 million, though the latter's North American theatrical performance was just 29 percent that of American Beauty. Blockbuster's strategy also affected rental fees; American Beauty averaged $3.12, compared with $3.40 for films that Blockbuster fully promoted. Only 53 percent of the film's rentals were from large outlets in the first week, compared with the usual 65 percent.

The DVD release included a behind-the-scenes featurette, film audio commentary from Mendes and Ball, and a storyboard presentation with discussion from Mendes and Hall. In the film commentary, Mendes refers to deleted scenes he intended to include in the release. However, these scenes are not on the DVD, as he changed his mind after recording the commentary; Mendes felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.

On September 21, 2010, Paramount Home Entertainment released American Beauty on Blu-ray, as part of Paramount's Sapphire Series. All the extras from the DVD release were present, with the theatrical trailers upgraded to HD.

American Beauty received overwhelming praise upon release, chiefly for Spacey, Mendes and Ball. reported that "no other 1999 movie has benefited from such universal raves." It was the best-received title at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it won the People's Choice award after a ballot of the festival's audiences. TIFF's director, Piers Handling, said, " American Beauty was the buzz of the festival, the film most talked-about."

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 87% of 190 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "Flawlessly cast and brimming with dark, acid wit, American Beauty is a smart, provocative high point of late '90s mainstream Hollywood film." According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on 34 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".

Writing in , Todd McCarthy said the cast ensemble "could not be better"; he praised Spacey's "handling of innuendo, subtle sarcasm, and blunt talk" and the way he imbued Lester with "genuine feeling". Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Spacey was at his "wittiest and most agile" to date. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who awarded the film four out of four stars, singled Spacey out for successfully portraying a man who "does reckless and foolish things [but who] doesn't deceive himself". Kevin Jackson of Sight & Sound said Spacey impressed in ways distinct from his previous performances, the most satisfying aspect being his portrayal of "both sap and hero".

Writing in Film Quarterly, Gary Hentzi praised the actors, but said that characters such as Carolyn and Col. Fitts were stereotypes. Hentzi accused Mendes and Ball of identifying too readily with Jane and Ricky, saying the latter was their "fantasy figure"-a teenaged boy who's an absurdly wealthy artist able to "finance [his] own projects". Hentzi said Angela was the most believable teenager, in particular with her "painfully familiar" attempts to "live up to an unworthy image of herself". Maslin agreed that some characters were unoriginal, but said their detailed characterizations made them memorable.

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said the actors coped "faultlessly" with what were difficult roles; he called Spacey's performance "the energy that drives the film", saying the actor commanded audience involvement despite Lester not always being sympathetic. "Against considerable odds, we do like [these characters]," Turan concluded. He stated that the film was layered, subversive, complex, and surprising, concluding it was "a hell of a picture".

Maslin felt that Mendes directed with "terrific visual flair", saying his minimalist style balanced "the mordant and bright" and that he evoked the "delicate, eroticized power-playing vignettes" of his theater work. Jackson said Mendes' theatrical roots rarely showed, and that the "most remarkable" aspect was that Spacey's performance did not overshadow the film. He said that Mendes worked the script's intricacies smoothly, to the ensemble's strengths, and staged the tonal shifts skillfully. McCarthy believed American Beauty a "stunning card of introduction" for film débutantes Mendes and Ball. He said Mendes' "sure hand" was "as precise and controlled" as his theater work. McCarthy described Hall's involvement as fortunate for Mendes, as the cinematographer was "unsurpassed" at conveying the themes of a work. Turan agreed that Mendes' choice of collaborators was "shrewd", naming Hall and Newman in particular. Turan suggested that American Beauty may have benefited from Mendes' inexperience, as his "anything's possible daring" made him attempt beats that more seasoned directors might have avoided. Turan felt that Mendes' accomplishment was to "capture and enhance [the] duality" of Ball's script-the simultaneously "caricatured ... and painfully real" characters. Hentzi, while critical of many of Mendes and Ball's choices, admitted the film showed off their "considerable talents".

Turan felt Ball's lack of constraint when writing the film was the reason for its uniqueness, in particular the script's subtle changes in tone. McCarthy said the script was "as fresh and distinctive" as any of its American film contemporaries, and praised how it analyzed the characters while not compromising narrative pace. He called Ball's dialogue "tart" and said the characters-Carolyn excepted-were "deeply drawn". One other flaw, McCarthy said, was the revelation of Col. Fitts' homosexuality, which he said evoked "hoary Freudianism". Jackson said the film transcended its clichéd setup to become a "wonderfully resourceful and sombre comedy". He said that even when the film played for sitcom laughs, it did so with "unexpected nuance". Hentzi criticized how the film made a mystery of Lester's murder, believing it manipulative and simply a way of generating suspense.

McCarthy praised the production and costume design, and said the soundtrack was good at creating "ironic counterpoint[s]" to the story. Hentzi concluded that American Beauty was "vital but uneven"; he felt the film's examination of "the ways which teenagers and adults imagine each other's lives" was its best point, and that although Lester and Angela's dynamic was familiar, its romantic irony stood beside "the most enduring literary treatments" of the theme, such as . Nevertheless, Hentzi believed that the film's themes of materialism and conformity in American suburbia were "hackneyed". McCarthy conceded that the setting was familiar, but said it merely provided the film with a "starting point" from which to tell its "subtle and acutely judged tale". Maslin agreed; she said that while it "takes aim at targets that are none too fresh", and that the theme of nonconformity did not surprise, the film had its own "corrosive novelty".

A few months after the release of American Beauty, reports of a backlash appeared in the American press. In the years since the film's release, its critical regard has waned. A significant factor was its themes being seen as trivial after 9/11 and the Great Recession of late 2007 to 2009.

In 2005, named American Beauty as one of 20 "most overrated movies of all time." Mendes accepted the inevitability of the critical reappraisal, saying in 2008, "I thought some of it was entirely justified-it was a little overpraised at the time."

In 2017, allegations of sexual assault against actor Kevin Spacey surfaced at the height of the MeToo movement, including by victims who were underage at the time of the allegations. This led many critics and one of Spacey's accusers, actor Anthony Rapp, to find uncomfortable parallels between Spacey and Lester Burnham, his character in American Beauty.

In 2019, on the twentieth anniversary of the film's release, The Huffington Post's Matthew Jacobs wrote that "the film's reputation has tumbled precipitously," adding, "Plenty of classics undergo cultural reappraisals [...] but few have turned into such a widespread punchline."

In The Guardian, critic Guy Lodge wrote "the pushback against American Beauty in the intervening two decades has been swift and merciless - taking root well before Spacey's personal and professional downfall, though that certainly hasn't helped. Ask film critics of various ages about it now and you will tend to meet with a uniform sneer, along with a blanket dismissal of its cheap-shot picket-fence satire, its broad characterisation, its purportedly misogynistic view of career women, or its awestruck command of metaphor as flimsy and floaty as, well, a plastic bag dancing in the breeze." Lodge also stated, "You might hear grudging acknowledgement of its formal artistry, including the satin tactility of the late Conrad L Hall's cinematography, or the eerie, echo-y, endlessly imitated percussion of Thomas Newman's once-ubiquitous score. But that, too, is tempered with dismissiveness toward its makers."

Similar to Matthew Jacobs' assessment, Stephanie Zacharek for wrote, "In 2019, beating up on Sam Mendes' multi-Oscar-winning American Beauty [...] is so painfully easy that it seems unfair. The Best Picture winner has fallen largely out of fashion; it rarely appears on critics' lists of favorite movies, and its memory seems to have faded for most moviegoers, too." Zacharek concluded, " American Beauty is a movie about a privileged white guy who feels bad about himself and tries to rectify that by exploding his life-only to lose it all in the end. It's about a man who thought he had control, but didn't-and who can't, at the very least, relate to that? In the context of his own crisis of self-absorption, Lester Burnham couldn't see the real collision course looming ahead, a future of lost jobs and foreclosures, of madhouse doublespeak issuing from the mouths of people whose job it is to lead us, of wars that can't be won and thus keep being fought. Maybe it takes a look back at a ridiculous movie to show us how much we've really lost. Whatever Ball's 'authentic life' really is, you can bet it's not being lived on Instagram."

Nonetheless, other critics still defend the artistic value of the film. In 2014, on the occasion of the fifteen anniversary of the movie, Entertainment Weekly's Ashley Fetters stated that American Beauty stands as "a classic, if not a masterpiece." Guy Lodge acknowledged the film's flaws but admitted it still "turns out to be an exquisitely presented time capsule, a snapshot of middle-class, notionally liberal white society entering a spasm of panic at the turn of both the century and the Clinton era. Its satire isn't sophisticated, but it's pointed, identifiable, and still often cuttingly funny, emblematic of a tone of withering pre- millennial snark that has since been earnestly outmoded, and not for the wittier. It was never intended as straightforward drama, but as garish suburban burlesque: a distorted funhouse mirror reflection of America already at its ugliest, with its performances and petal-strewn visuals expertly heightened to match." Lodge concluded, "Twenty years on, American Beauty isn't as clever as we thought it was, though it's inadvertently aged into a kind of wounded, embattled wisdom. Perhaps it's worth looking closer".

The film was spoofed by the animated sitcom , the 2001 Todd Solondz film Storytelling, the teen movie spoof Not Another Teen Movie, and in the 2005 DreamWorks animated film Madagascar.

American Beauty was not considered an immediate favorite to dominate the American awards season. Several other contenders opened at the end of 1999, and US critics spread their honors among them when compiling their end-of-year lists. The Chicago Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Film Critics Association named the film the best of 1999, but while the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized American Beauty, they gave their top awards to other films. By the end of the year, reports of a critical backlash suggested American Beauty was the underdog in the race for Best Picture; however, at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2000, American Beauty won Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

As the nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards approached, a frontrunner had not emerged. DreamWorks had launched a major campaign for American Beauty five weeks before ballots were due to be sent to the 5,600 Academy Award voters. Its campaign combined traditional advertising and publicity with more focused strategies. Although direct mail campaigning was prohibited, DreamWorks reached voters by promoting the film in "casual, comfortable settings" in voters' communities. The studio's candidate for Best Picture the previous year, Saving Private Ryan, lost to Shakespeare in Love, so the studio took a new approach by hiring outsiders to provide input for the campaign. It hired three veteran consultants, who told the studio to "think small".

Nancy Willen encouraged DreamWorks to produce a special about the making of American Beauty, to set up displays of the film in the communities' bookstores, and to arrange a question-and-answer session with Mendes for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dale Olson advised the studio to advertise in free publications that circulated in Beverly Hills-home to many voters-in addition to major newspapers. Olson arranged to screen American Beauty to about 1,000 members of the Actors Fund of America, as many participating actors were also voters. Bruce Feldman took writer Alan Ball to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Ball attended a private dinner in honor of Anthony Hopkins, meeting several voters who were in attendance.

In February 2000, American Beauty was nominated for eight Academy Awards; its closest rivals, The Cider House Rules and The Insider, received seven nominations each. In March 2000, the major industry labor organizations all awarded their top honors to American Beauty; perceptions had shifted-the film was now the favorite to dominate the Academy Awards. American Beauty's closest rival for Best Picture was still The Cider House Rules, from Miramax. Both studios mounted aggressive campaigns; DreamWorks bought 38 percent more advertising space in Variety than Miramax. On March 26, 2000, American Beauty won five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

At the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, American Beauty won six of the 14 awards for which it was nominated: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress (Bening), Best Cinematography, Best Film Music and Best Editing.

In March 2000, the Publicists Guild of America recognized DreamWorks for the best film publicity campaign.

In April 2000, controversy arose when the 2000 MTV Movie Awards initially nominated American Beauty for their annual award for Best Kiss between Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham and Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes. DreamWorks rejected MTV's request for a clip, stating that they did not want to glorify the "inappropriate" kiss between the characters, a 42-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl. MTV rescinded the film's nomination afterward.

In 2006, the Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay number 38 on its list of the 101 greatest screenplays.

1. Some postmodernist readings would posit no need for an identified voice; see ^ Death of the Author.

2. According to Hausmann, "These films appear to suggest that [the film theorist] ^ Kaja Silverman's wish 'that the typical male subject, like his female counterpart, might learn to live with lack'-namely, the 'lack of being' that remains 'the irreducible condition of subjectivity'-has not yet been fulfilled." See Silverman, Kaja (1992). Male Subjectivity at the Margins (New York: Routledge): 65+20. ISBN 9780415904193.

3. ^ Kramer uses the analogy of looking at a sculpture: "We determine for ourselves the pacing of our experience: we are free to walk around the piece, view it from many angles, concentrate on some details, see other details in relationship to each other, step back and view the whole, see the relationship between the piece and the space in which we see it, leave the room when we wish close our eyes and remember, and return for further viewings."

4. Another example comes with the songs that Carolyn picks to accompany the Burnhams' dinners-upbeat "^ elevator music" which is later replaced with more discordant tunes that reflect the "escalating tension" at the table. When Jane plays "Cancer for the Cure", she switches off after a few moments because her parents return home. The moment reinforces her as someone whose voice is "cut short", as does her lack of association with as clearly defined genres as her parents.

5. Mendes had considered the idea before; he almost took on ^ The Wings of the Dove (1997) and had previously failed to secure financing for an adaptation of the play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which he directed in 1992. The play made it to the screen in 1998 as Little Voice, without Mendes' involvement.

6. One of which director of photography Conrad Hall had filmed for ^ Divorce American Style (1967).

7. The shot references a similar one in ^ Ordinary People (1980). Mendes included several such homages to other films; family photographs in the characters' homes were inserted to give them a sense of history, but also as a nod to the way Terrence Malick used still photographs in (1973). A shot of Lester's jogging was a homage to Marathon Man (1976) and Mendes watched several films to help improve his ability to evoke a "heightened sense of style": The King of Comedy (1983), All That Jazz (1979) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

8. ^ The scene at the fast food outlet where Lester discovers Carolyn's affair.

9. ^ Mendes said, "So at the end of the film I got up, and I was terribly British, I said, 'So, who kind of liked the movie?' And about a third of them put up their hands, and I thought, 'Oh shit.' So I said, 'OK, who kind of didn't like it?' Two people. And I said, 'Well, what else is there?' And a guy in the front said, 'Ask who really liked the movie.' So I did, and they all put up their hands. And I thought, 'Thank you, God.'"

10. ^ "Theaters" refers to individual movie theaters, which may have multiple auditoriums. Later, "screens" refers to single auditoriums.

11. According to the firm, men under 21 gave ^ American Beauty an "A+" grade; women under 21 gave it an "A". Men in the 21-34 age group gave the film a "B+"; women 21-34 gave it an "A−". Men 35 and over awarded a "B+"; women 35 and over gave a "B".

12. The ^ Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, the Producers Guild of America, the American Society of Cinematographers, and the Directors Guild of America

Footnotes

Sources

Anker, Roy M. (2004). "The War of the Roses: Meaning and Epiphany in American Beauty". Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: 345-363. ISBN 0-8028-2795-0.

Bellantoni, Patti (2005). If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die. Oxford, UK: Focal Press. pp. 25-27. ISBN 978-0-240-80688-4.

Booth, Wayne C. (Spring 2002). "Is There an 'Implied' Author in Every Film?". College Literature. West Chester, Pennsylvania: West Chester University. 29 (2): 124-131. ISSN 0093-3139.

Chumo II, Peter N. (January 2000). "American Beauty: An Interview with Alan Ball". Creative Screenwriting Magazine. Los Angeles: Creative Screenwriters Group. 7 (1): 26-35. ISSN 1084-8665.

Furby, Jacqueline (Winter 2006). "Rhizomatic Time and Temporal Poetics in American Beauty". Film Studies. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press (9): 22-28. ISSN 1362-7937.

Hall, Ann C. (2006). Fahy, Thomas Richard (ed.). "Good Mourning, America: Alan Ball's American Beauty". Considering Alan Ball. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company: 23-32. ISBN 978-0-7864-2592-1.

Hausmann, Vincent (2004). "Envisioning the (W)hole World "Behind Things": Denying Otherness in American Beauty". Camera Obscura. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. 19 (1): 112-149. doi:10.1215/02705346-19-1_55-113. ISSN 1529-1510. S2CID 191626647.

Hentzi, Gary (Winter 2000). "American Beauty". Film Quarterly. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 54 (2): 46-50. doi:10.1525/fq.2000.54.2.04a00060. ISSN 0015-1386.

Kazan, Nicholas (March 2000). "True Beauty". Written by. Los Angeles: Writers Guild of America, West: 24-37. ISSN 1055-1948.

Kemp, Philip (January 2000). "The Nice Man Cometh". Sight & Sound. London, UK: British Film Institute. 10 (1): 24-26. ISSN 0037-4806.

Link, Stan (Spring 2004). "Nor the Eye Filled with Seeing: The Sound of Vision in Film Author(s)". American Music. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Society for American Music. 22 (1): 76-90. doi:10.2307/3592968. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 3592968.

Lowenstein, Stephen, ed. (2008). "Sam Mendes on American Beauty". My First Movie: Take Two. New York: Pantheon: 243-275. ISBN 978-0-375-42347-5.

Mendes, Sam; Ball, Alan (October 2000). American Beauty, The Awards Edition: Audio commentary [DVD; Disc 1/2]. (Los Angeles: DreamWorks).

Munt, Sally R. (September 2006). "A Queer Undertaking: Anxiety and reparation in the HBO television drama series Six Feet Under". Feminist Media Studies. London, UK: Routledge. 6 (3): 263-279. doi:10.1080/14680770600802017. ISSN 1471-5902. S2CID 142634066.

Pennington, Jody W. (2007). The History of Sex in American Film. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 103-107. ISBN 978-0-275-99226-2.

Probst, Christopher (March 2000). "American Beauty". American Cinematographer. Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers. 81 (3): 80-82. ISSN 0002-7928.

Probst, Christopher; Heuring, David; Holben, Jay; Thomson, Patricia (June 2000). "Impeccable Images". American Cinematographer. Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers. 81 (6): 74-109. ISSN 0002-7928.

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American Beauty is a 1999 American black comedy- drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his feature directorial debut. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, an advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari.

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1. The USA - a home to many

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Ernst Klett Verlag - Green Line Oberstufe Ausgabe ab 2021 Produktdetails

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The American Dream or American Nightmare?

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Ernst Klett Verlag - Green Line Oberstufe Ausgabe BE, BB, MV ab 2015 Produktdetails

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Der Ernst Klett Verlag bietet Ihnen eine breitgefächerte Auswahl an Schulbüchern, Lernsoftware und Materialien für Lernende und Lehrende. Besuchen Sie unseren Onlineshop und überzeugen Sie sich selbst von unseren Produkten

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Klett: The American Dream in Film (2014)

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Klett: The American Dream in Film (2014)

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Ideal für Schüler und Lehrkräfte:

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Study Guide

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Ideal für Schüler und Lehrkräfte: Unterrichtsfertige Arbeitsblätter zu Patriotismus in der amerikanischen Nachkriegsgeschichte, zum politischen Hintergrund im Nahen Osten, zu 9/11 und Friedensbemühungen Unterrichtsvorschläge für die und postreading Phase, Fragen und Antworten zum Roman, Kapitelzusammenfassungen, Klausurvorschläge Film- und Medienideen für motivierendes Arbeiten im Klassenzimmer Erfahren Sie mehr über die Reihe

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As Homeland began its eighth and final season on Sunday, there was a strong sense that it was ending at the right time. When it bows out on 26 March (3 May in the UK) it will be on its 96th episode. Eight seasons is a rare accomplishment for a scripted drama these days, and it's amazing it has got this far. The show arrived in 2011 with a barnstorming first season that filled the gap left by 24.

The premise was a doozy: missing marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody ( Damian Lewis), who had been presumed dead, is freed from years of imprisonment under terrorist Abu Nazir and returns home a hero. However, CIA officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) sees the truth: Brody is a double agent, turned in captivity and primed for atrocity. As Carrie cried conspiracy, it was dismissed as the product of her bipolar disorder. Her condition was at once her superpower and her fatal flaw; in her manic phase she spotted connections no other agent could, but she also saw things that weren't there. The job she needed to survive was almost certainly going to kill her. It was the tightrope Danes walked each week, and it won her a Primetime Emmy and critical praise.

Of course, it was a given that Carrie and Brody would write a bad romance. As brilliant, beautiful and broken as her, he matched her energy every time they faced off. A heady mix of betrayal and lust between mortal enemies developed. It didn't hurt that Danes and Lewis had the kind of chemistry that can carry an entire series if it needs to. Once viewers are invested in a relationship, they are on the hook. The heavy lifting storytellers are accustomed to becomes light work.

When a divisive finale in season one caused consternation, viewers tuned in to see how these two patched things up. Of course, it eventually ended with Brody hanging from a giant crane in Iran. There would be no last-minute reprieve or glorious resurrection. Three seasons in, Homeland had slaughtered its beloved son. What direction would it take? Could Homeland survive without him?

'A heady mix of betrayal and lust' ... Claire Danes and Damian Lewis as Carrie and Brody. Photograph: Showtime/Everett/Rex Features

As it turned out, Homeland thrived. Carrie became the Drone Queen, the CIA's youngest-ever station chief, carrying out her unique brand of car-bomb diplomacy with the relish of the true fanatic. While her relationship with father-figure Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin) increasingly became the heart of the show, what was most impressive was how events on-screen mirrored real life. In the Berlin-set fifth season, it depicted an attempted terrorist attack on a European capital in the same timeframe as the November 2015 attacks in Paris. Then, season six opened with president-elect Elizabeth Keane at war with the intelligence community at the same time Donald Trump and the National Security establishment went to the mat in Washington.

The eerie resonance continued with sock puppet-stuffed troll farms, foreshadowing Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians from the notorious Internet Research Agency and when the Kremlin co-opted "alt-right" goons for their own ends, Homeland had fake news master Yevgeny Gromov sowing discord. It was starting to get more than a bit spooky.

These plots weren't just blind luck. The annual conference of showrunners, stars, the intelligence community and state department officials has been crucial to the show's prescience. The week-long event was a grounding in the state of affairs that Danes referred to as a "massive, terribly unnerving download about what's really happening and what is likely to happen". It allowed Homeland to stay ahead of the game and ensure that, particularly in its later seasons, there was no more relevant show on TV.

None of which is to argue for a stay of execution. Eight seasons is an epic innings for a show that could easily have run out of ideas a lot earlier - 24's more desperate episodes bear witness to that. Homeland deserves to go out on top. Apart from everything else, Carrie looks as if she could do with the break. Its greatest achievement was its reinvention as a commentary on the war on US enemies, foreign and domestic. In the end, then, Homeland became that rarest of oddities: a show improved by its midlife crisis.

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Homeland: the show that became a work of genius - after you stopped watching

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As its final season kicks off, here's how the terrorism thriller went from the Carrie-Brody chemistry show to the most unnervingly prescient TV of our time

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Biden's speech on the end of war in Afghanistan

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Biden's speech on the end of war in Afghanistan

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State Dining Room

3:28 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan - the longest war in American history.

We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible. No nation - no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today.

The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.

For weeks, they risked their lives to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our Allies and partners, and others onboard planes and out of the country. And they did it facing a crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country. And they did it knowing ISIS-K terrorists - sworn enemies of the Taliban - were lurking in the midst of those crowds.

And still, the men and women of the United States military, our diplomatic corps, and intelligence professionals did their job and did it well, risking their lives not for professional gains but to serve others; not in a mission of war but in a mission of mercy. Twenty servicemembers were wounded in the service of this mission. Thirteen heroes gave their lives.

I was just at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer. We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay but we should never, ever, ever forget.

In April, I made the decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.

That assumption - that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown - turned out not to be accurate.

But I still instructed our national security team to prepare for every eventuality - even that one. And that's what we did.

So, we were ready when the Afghan Security Forces - after two decades of fighting for their country and losing thousands of their own - did not hold on as long as anyone expected.

We were ready when they and the people of Afghanistan watched their own government collapse and their president flee amid the corruption and malfeasance, handing over the country to their enemy, the Taliban, and significantly increasing the risk to U.S. personnel and our Allies.

As a result, to safely extract American citizens before August 31st - as well as embassy personnel, Allies and partners, and those Afghans who had worked with us and fought alongside of us for 20 years - I had authorized 6,000 troops - American troops - to Kabul to help secure the airport.

As General McKenzie said, this is the way the mission was designed. It was designed to operate under severe stress and attack. And that's what it did.

Since March, we reached out 19 times to Americans in Afghanistan, with multiple warnings and offers to help them leave Afghanistan - all the way back as far as March. After we started the evacuation 17 days ago, we did initial outreach and analysis and identified around 5,000 Americans who had decided earlier to stay in Afghanistan but now wanted to leave.

Our Operation Allied Rescue [Allies Refuge] ended up getting more than 5,500 Americans out. We got out thousands of citizens and diplomats from those countries that went into Afghanistan with us to get bin Laden. We got out locally employed staff of the United States Embassy and their families, totaling roughly 2,500 people. We got thousands of Afghan translators and interpreters and others, who supported the United States, out as well.

Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave. Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan.

The bottom line: Ninety [Ninety-eight] percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave.

And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out. Secretary of State Blinken is leading the continued diplomatic efforts to ensure a safe passage for any American, Afghan partner, or foreign national who wants to leave Afghanistan.

In fact, just yesterday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that sent a clear message about what the international community expects the Taliban to deliver on moving forward, notably freedom of travel, freedom to leave. And together, we are joined by over 100 countries that are determined to make sure the Taliban upholds those commitments.

It will include ongoing efforts in Afghanistan to reopen the airport, as well as overland routes, allowing for continued departure to those who want to leave and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

The Taliban has made public commitments, broadcast on television and radio across Afghanistan, on safe passage for anyone wanting to leave, including those who worked alongside Americans. We don't take them by their word alone but by their actions, and we have leverage to make sure those commitments are met.

Let me be clear: Leaving August the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline; it was designed to save American lives.

My predecessor, the former President, signed an agreement with the Taliban to remove U.S. troops by May the 1st, just months after I was inaugurated. It included no requirement that the Taliban work out a cooperative governing arrangement with the Afghan government, but it did authorize the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban's top war commanders, among those who just took control of Afghanistan.

And by the time I came to office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.

The previous administration's agreement said that if we stuck to the May 1st deadline that they had signed on to leave by, the Taliban wouldn't attack any American forces, but if we stayed, all bets were off.

So we were left with a simple decision: Either follow through on the commitment made by the last administration and leave Afghanistan, or say we weren't leaving and commit another tens of thousands more troops going back to war.

That was the choice - the real choice - between leaving or escalating.

I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit. The decision to end the military airlift operations at Kabul airport was based on the unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisors - the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all the service chiefs, and the commanders in the field.

Their recommendation was that the safest way to secure the passage of the remaining Americans and others out of the country was not to continue with 6,000 troops on the ground in harm's way in Kabul, but rather to get them out through non-military means.

In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul after the Taliban seized power, we engaged in an around-the-clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases, walking Americans into the airport.

Again, more than 5,500 Americans were airlifted out. And for those who remain, we will make arrangements to get them out if they so choose.

As for the Afghans, we and our partners have airlifted 100,000 of them. No country in history has done more to airlift out the residents of another country than we have done. We will continue to work to help more people leave the country who are at risk. And we're far from done.

For now, I urge all Americans to join me in grateful prayer for our troops and diplomats and intelligence officers who carried out this mission of mercy in Kabul and at tremendous risk with such unparalleled results: an airma- - an airlift that evacuated tens of thousands to a network of volunteers and veterans who helped identifies [identify] those needing evacuation, guide them to the airport, and provided them for their support along the way.

We're going to continue to need their help. We need your help. And I'm looking forward to meeting with you.

And to everyone who is now offering or who will offer to welcome Afghan allies to their homes around the world, including in America: We thank you.

I take responsibility for the decision. Now, some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and "Couldn't this have be done - have been done in a more orderly manner?" I respectfully disagree.

Imagine if we had begun evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a breakdown in confidence and control of the government, and it still would have been a very difficult and dangerous mission.

The bottom line is: There is no evacuatio- - evacuation from the end of a war that you can run without the kinds of complexities, challenges, and threats we faced. None.

There are those who would say we should have stayed indefinitely for years on end. They ask, "Why don't we just keep doing what we were doing? Why did we have to change anything?"

The fact is: Everything had changed. My predecessor had made a deal with the Taliban. When I came into office, we faced a deadline - May 1. The Taliban onslaught was coming.

We faced one of two choices: Follow the agreement of the previous administration and extend it to have - or extend to more time for people to get out; or send in thousands of more troops and escalate the war.

To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask: What is the vital national interest? In my view, we only have one: to make sure Afghanistan can never be used again to launch an attack on our homeland.

Remember why we went to Afghanistan in the first place? Because we were attacked by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda on September 11th, 2001, and they were based in Afghanistan.

We delivered justice to bin Laden on May 2nd, 2011 - over a decade ago. Al Qaeda was decimated.

I respectfully suggest you ask yourself this question: If we had been attacked on September 11, 2001, from Yemen instead of Afghanistan, would we have ever gone to war in Afghanistan - even though the Taliban controlled Afghanistan in 2001? I believe the honest answer is "no." That's because we had no vital national interest in Afghanistan other than to prevent an attack on America's homeland and their fr- - our friends. And that's true today.

We succeeded in what we set out to do in Afghanistan over a decade ago. Then we stayed for another decade. It was time to end this war.

This is a new world. The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan. We face threats from al-Shabaab in Somalia; al Qaeda affiliates in Syria and the Arabian Peninsula; and ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq, and establishing affiliates across Africa and Asia.

The fundamental obligation of a President, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America - not against threats of 2001, but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.

That is the guiding principle behind my decisions about Afghanistan. I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and spending billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan.

But I also know that the threat from terrorism continues in its pernicious and evil nature. But it's changed, expanded to other countries. Our strategy has to change too.

We will maintain the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries. We just don't need to fight a ground war to do it. We have what's called over-the-horizon capabilities, which means we can strike terrorists and targets without American boots on the ground - or very few, if needed.

We've shown that capacity just in the last week. We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our servicemembers and dozens of innocent Afghans.

And to ISIS-K: We are not done with you yet.

As Commander-in-Chief, I firmly believe the best path to guard our safety and our security lies in a tough, unforgiving, targeted, precise strategy that goes after terror where it is today, not where it was two decades ago. That's what's in our national interest.

And here's a critical thing to understand: The world is changing. We're engaged in a serious competition with China. We're dealing with the challenges on multiple fronts with Russia. We're confronted with cyberattacks and nuclear proliferation.

We have to shore up America's competitive[ness] to meet these new challenges in the competition for the 21st century. And we can do both: fight terrorism and take on new threats that are here now and will continue to be here in the future.

And there's nothing China or Russia would rather have, would want more in this competition than the United States to be bogged down another decade in Afghanistan.

As we turn the page on the foreign policy that has guided our nat- - our nation the last two decades, we've got to learn from our mistakes.

To me, there are two that are paramount. First, we must set missions with clear, achievable goals - not ones we'll never reach. And second, we must stay clearly focused on the fundamental national security interest of the United States of America.

This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.

We saw a mission of counterterrorism in Afghanistan - getting the terrorists and stopping attacks - morph into a counterinsurgency, nation building - trying to create a democratic, cohesive, and unified Afghanistan -- something that has never been done over the many centuries of Afghans' [Afghanistan's] history.

Moving on from that mindset and those kind of large-scale troop deployments will make us stronger and more effective and safer at home.

And for anyone who gets the wrong idea, let me say it clearly. To those who wish America harm, to those that engage in terrorism against us and our allies, know this: The United States will never rest. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth, and we will - you will pay the ultimate price.

And let me be clear: We will continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid. We'll continue to push for regional diplomacy and engagement to prevent violence and instability. We'll continue to speak out for basic rights of the Afghan people, especially women and girls, as we speak out for women and girls all around the globe. And I've been clear that human rights will be the center of our foreign policy.

But the way to do that is not through endless military deployments, but through diplomacy, economic tools, and rallying the rest of the world for support.

My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I'm the fourth President who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for President, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. And today, I've honored that commitment. It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan.

After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.

After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan - a cost that researchers at Brown University estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years in Afghanistan - for two decades - yes, the American people should hear this: $300 million a day for two decades.

If you take the number of $1 trillion, as many say, that's still $150 million a day for two decades. And what have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities? I refused to continue in a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.

And most of all, after 800,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan - I've traveled that whole country - brave and honorable service; after 20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel, including 13 lives lost just this week, I refused to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan.

We've been a nation too long at war. If you're 20 years old today, you have never known an America at peace.

So, when I hear that we could've, should've continued the so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don't think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation.

Maybe it's because my deceased son, Beau, served in Iraq for a full year, before that. Well, maybe it's because of what I've seen over the years as senator, vice president, and president traveling these countries.

A lot of our veterans and their families have gone through hell - deployment after deployment, months and years away from their families; missed birthdays, anniversaries; empty chairs at holidays; financial struggles; divorces; loss of limbs; traumatic brain injury; posttraumatic stress.

We see it in the struggles many have when they come home. We see it in the strain on their families and caregivers. We see it in the strain of their families when they're not there. We see it in the grief borne by their survivors. The cost of war they will carry with them their whole lives.

Most tragically, we see it in the shocking and stunning statistic that should give pause to anyone who thinks war can ever be low-grade, low-risk, or low-cost: 18 veterans, on average, who die by suicide every single day in America - not in a far-off place, but right here in America.

There's nothing low-grade or low-risk or low-cost about any war. It's time to end the war in Afghanistan.

As we close 20 years of war and strife and pain and sacrifice, it's time to look to the future, not the past - to a future that's safer, to a future that's more secure, to a future that honors those who served and all those who gave what President Lincoln called their "last full measure of devotion."

I give you my word: With all of my heart, I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America.

Thank you. Thank you. And may God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.

3:54 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Biden on the End of the War in Afghanistan | The White House

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State Dining Room 3:28 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan - the longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety.

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Table of Contents

1. First Red Scare: 1917-1920

2. Cold War Concerns About Communism

3. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee

4. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

5. Hysteria and Growing Conservatism

6. Red Scare Impact

The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s. (Communists were often referred to as "Reds" for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.) The Red Scare led to a range of actions that had a profound and enduring effect on U.S. government and society. Federal employees were analyzed to determine whether they were sufficiently loyal to the government, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, as well as U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, investigated allegations of subversive elements in the government and the Hollywood film industry. The climate of fear and repression linked to the Red Scare finally began to ease by the late 1950s.

First Red Scare: 1917-1920

In the United States, labor strikes were on the rise, and the press sensationalized them as being caused by immigrants bent on bringing down the American way of life. The Sedition Act of 1918 targeted people who criticized the government, monitoring radicals and labor union leaders with the threat of deportation.

The fear turned to violence with the 1919 anarchist bombings, a series of bombs targeting law enforcement and government officials. Bombs went off in a wide number of cities including Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, D.C., and New York City.

The first Red Scare climaxed in 1919 and 1920, when United States Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer ordered the Palmer raids, a series of violent law-enforcement raids targeting leftist radicals and anarchists. They kicked off a period of unrest that became known as the "Red Summer."

Cold War Concerns About Communism

Did you know? FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was quick to equate any kind of protest with communist subversion, including the civil rights demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr. Hoover labeled King a communist and covertly worked to intimidate and discredit the civil rights leader.

Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI

The information obtained by the FBI proved essential in high-profile legal cases, including the 1949 conviction of 12 prominent leaders of the American Communist Party on charges that they had advocated the overthrow of the government. Moreover, Hoover's agents helped build the case against Julius Rosenberg (1918-53) and his wife, Ethel Rosenberg (1915-53), who were convicted of espionage in 1951. The Rosenbergs were executed two years later.

Hysteria and Growing Conservatism

Public concerns about communism were heightened by international events. In 1949, the Soviet Union successfully tested a nuclear bomb and communist forces led by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) took control of China. The following year saw the start of the Korean War (1950-53), which engaged U.S. troops in combat against the communist-supported forces of North Korea. The advances of communism around the world convinced many U.S. citizens that there was a real danger of "Reds" taking over their own country. Figures such as McCarthy and Hoover fanned the flames of fear by wildly exaggerating that possibility.

As the Red Scare intensified, its political climate turned increasingly conservative. Elected officials from both major parties sought to portray themselves as staunch anticommunists, and few people dared to criticize the questionable tactics used to persecute suspected radicals. Membership in leftist groups dropped as it became clear that such associations could lead to serious consequences, and dissenting voices from the left side of the political spectrum fell silent on a range of important issues. In judicial affairs, for example, support for free speech and other civil liberties eroded significantly. This trend was symbolized by the 1951 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dennis v. United States, which said that the free-speech rights of accused Communists could be restricted because their actions presented a clear and present danger to the government.

Red Scare Impact

Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level, and thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. While a small number of the accused may have been aspiring revolutionaries, most others were the victims of false allegations or had done nothing more than exercise their democratic right to join a political party.

Though the climate of fear and repression began to ease in the late 1950s, the Red Scare has continued to influence political debate in the decades since. It is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties.

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Red Scare: Cold War, McCarthyism & Facts | HISTORY

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The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War era.

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A Question of Blood. Ernest Haycox (short story)

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A Question of Blood. Ernest Haycox (short story)

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Die Sammlung Great Short Shorts umfasst zwölf klassische Kurzgeschichten mit einer großen Auswahl an Themen - ob Liebesgeschichte, Krimi oder Gespenstergeschichte - für jeden Geschmack ist etwas dabei:

B. Virginia Lee: Cards Don't Lie

MacKinlay Kantor: A Man Who Had No Eyes

Morley Callaghan: Lunch Counter

John O'Connor: Neilly and the Fir Tree

Pearl S. Buck: The Refugee

Andrew Garve: The Man Who Wasn't Scared

James Thurber: The Curb in the Sky

Doris Lessing: Flight

Richard Hughes: The Ghost

May C. Jenkins: I Can Play "Schools"

Katherine Mansfield: The Singing Lesson

Ernest Haycox: A Question of Blood

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Zwölf klassische Kurzgeschichten der englischsprachigen Literatur. Short stories für die Sekundarstufe 2.

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https://freedombeyondwealth.com/new-american-dream/

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As times have changed so has the nostalgic "American Dream". For many the American Dream is more like an inhumane nightmare perpetuating systems of debt and false senses of security rather than freedom and ownership. To criticize the ideals of this American Dream would be a pointless waste-of-time; however, when you compare it to the everyday realities that so many citizens go through...maybe it's worth reevaluating.

Household and Income

The days of the well-paying one income household (with the two kids, dog, and a picket fence) has recently been replaced with people fleeing into apartments because of unbearable thirty year mortgage payments. Now with this migration one would think that the price of homes would go down. In reality though the prices of apartments have just been on the rise. According to authors Kathryn Vasel and Tal Yellin in their piece "Where Rents are Rising the Fastest" nationwide rents rose 4.3% in May" this year. (At the time of this posting the market is currently reverting back to its previous state. Hopefully we all have learned a lesson from the crash; however, according to a few experts some companies have reverted back to risky loan practices). The image on the right illustrates the effect of an increased interest in apartment rentals and its effect on housing industry. The key really is making home ownership more lucrative and safer.

Family Concerns

The previously mentioned one income household has turned into couples now needing two incomes-just to make the minimum payments for their multitude of debt. In an article discussing median household debts; author Frank Bass reported that "the total median household debt hit its high[est] of $74,619 in 2010". From the year 2000-2011 "the typical secured debt for households (between age 35-44 years old) rose from $97,917 to $128,500". That is an increase of 31.2%. This culture of debt has not just affected those with children, but has changed the mindset of those in relationships in general. How? It has become commonplace for many men and women to put off getting married and having children-not because they're not in love-but because of the stigma that weddings and children have as being "financial burdens".

From Luxury to Necessity

It's almost impossible to think that many of the items that we view as necessary to survive in today's economy were actually considered luxuries when first introduced. The topic briefly discussed in this section will be credit cards. Credit cards transitioned from a luxury item to a must-have, as individuals need to have great credit scores in order to make simple purchases without paying ridiculously high interest rates. In the article The Evolution of Credit Cards, "The history of credit cards began in the farming communities of the early 20th century." According to Lewis Mandell, who is also quoted in the above mentioned article, "When we were more of a farming nation we were driven by credit. Every sort of general store in the more rural regions extended credit to farmers...The more farming-oriented a society was, the more dependent they were on consumer credit." In this particular instance it makes sense. If a merchant lent farmers seeds-the farmers could grow the seeds, sell the crops, and use the money pay back the merchant. This would allow the merchant to purchase more seeds and continue the cycle. This is the same cycle used today by banks (i.e. business loans) because in theory this seems like a great idea until you take into account interest rates. Originally there were state laws that "prohibited banks in one state from lending money to people in another. States set their own interest rate ceilings, so an out-of-state bank couldn't lend at their own higher rates to another state's citizens." Of course this was appealed in the Supreme Court case Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis vs. First of Omaha Service Corp. which according to Pat Curry (author of How a Supreme Court ruling killed off usury laws for credit card rates) "The Supreme Court ruled, essentially, that state usury laws don't apply to nationally chartered banks based in other states. Plus, nationally chartered banks can 'export' the interest rates allowed in their own states to customers throughout the country." Basically instead of states competing against each other-leading to lower interest rates; banks moved, became chartered by the federal government and interest rates increased dramatically. Which is why nowadays you have to have an excellent credit score-not to get approved for a loan-but to get a reasonable interest rate!

Food

Have you ever overheard an older person say something like 'I remember when [insert food here] was twenty-five cents when I was growing up'? Well, if you think about the price of food is also an important aspect of the American Dream-there is no point of having a family if you can not feed them. Unfortunately, the cost of food has steadily been on the rise-a trend that is most likely to continue in the future. "Meats, particularly beef, are among the food items which saw the steepest rise in price, with beef and veal rising 16.7% since January of 2014" according to Katey Troutman in her article From Farm to Table: 6 Reasons Why Food Costs So Damn Much. Now there are plenty of reasons why food prices are going up ranging from inflation, competition, increased oil prices, etc. but at the end of the day when is it time to say enough. Our organic/freshly farmed food has been replaced with chemically-processed/GMO alternatives. Why? According to the companies it was to meet the demands of the consumers. But according to an consumerreports.org article "More than 70 percent of of Americans say they don't want genetically modified organisms in their food." In a more recent poll done by ABC news it was determined that when it came to GMO foods "52 percent [of Americans] believe such foods are unsafe, and an additional 13 percent are unsure about them." So why don't more people just by organic? Unfortunately, once again it comes down to the cost of food; a point that was illustrated in a scene from the documentary Food, INC when a family was showed making food decisions solely based on price-not nutrition.

Conclusion

If you noticed all of the points mentioned had a financial aspect that prevented the full achievement of the dream. From owning a home, having children, even getting food-it seems that for many chasing the American dream leads to nothing but a cycle of systematic debt. The traditional American Dream is exactly that traditional...old, outdated. The NEW American Dream for so many people today is simply working hard to scrape up enough money just to get by.
Featured Photo credit: outburstscartoons.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/american-nightmare08.jpg

© Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved www.freedombeyondwealth.com

Freedom Beyond Wealth believes in "financial advice for real life" which is why we publish free easy to understand articles discussing various financial situations and topics. To learn more about the financial services we offer contact us or follow us on social media.

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As times have changed so has the nostalgic "American Dream". For many the American Dream is more like an inhumane nightmare perpetuating systems of debt and

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https://www.hugendubel.de/de/taschenbuch/kim_johnson-this_is_my_america-41824110-produkt-details.html

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Kim Johnson: This Is My America bei hugendubel.de. Online bestellen oder in der Filiale abholen.

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This Is My America, Taschenbuch von Kim Johnson bei hugendubel.de. Online bestellen oder in der Filiale abholen.

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https://youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps?si=TShSd1EH4z0SNY3J

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Social Inequalities Explained in a $100 Race - Please Watch to the End. Thanks.

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Abi Box

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Childish Gambino - This Is America (Official Video)

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https://thepunktheory.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/book-vs-movie-the-hate-u-give/

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Abi Workshop The United States. Klett (2010)

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Abi Workshop The United States. Klett (2010)

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https://www.klett.de/produkt/isbn/978-3-12-601004-7

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A classic novel: Harper Lee’s - To Kill a Mockingbird

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abi-box en qp 2024 ii lk: overcoming prejudice in society

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Die Abi-Box Englisch für das 2. Halbjahr des Abiturjahrgangs 2024 für den Leistungskurs enthält die vollständige Unterrichtsvorbereitung mit allen Materialien auf der Grundlage kompetenzorientierter Aufgaben auf der Basis der Operatoren sowie Methodenseiten zu den Themen: British (short) stories of injustice Mit dem Film „Gran Torino" Harper Lee: „To Kill a Mockingbird" Den Zugriff auf die digitale Lehrermappe als digitales Produkt mit erweiterten Bearbeitungsfunktionen erreichen Sie unter www.abi-boxen-plus.de oder über die Abi-Box+-App.

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Sun setting behind Twin Towers. (Photo by Robert Pirillo/Ovoworks/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

For a Google version of this lesson click here A note on teaching hard history: Most educators can recall exactly where they were and what they were doing when 9/11 unfolded. Today's generation of students does not share this collective memory, with today's high school seniors being born a few years after 2001.

Teaching 9/11 on its anniversary has its merits, as does teaching 9/11 within the curricular context of American and global history. We encourage educators to explore the wealth of resources provided in this lesson plan, to examine their own unanswered questions and biases, and to reflect on pedagogical practice before bringing in traumatic and provocative images of 9/11.

Check out "Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies" and consider how you might design lessons that engage with hard history with a trauma-informed lens. Read Learning for Justice's article "Debunking Stereotypes About Muslims and Islam" and incorporate media literacy education as you confront misinformation.

In addition, consider doing the following:

Preview your expectations or reminding your class about norms

Name clearly the topics; create time for participants to reflect and process

Teach with a trauma-informed lens

Consider the emotional response of your participants and yourself

Warm up activities (5-10 mins):
Note for instructors: Whether you're teaching about 9/11 on the anniversary of the attacks or as a part of your broader curriculum, starting with the questions participants have can set up an anchor and circular flow (returning to those questions to close out or build upon them in the end). Remind participants to be and stay curious and to practice the skill of writing and developing strong questions.

1. Generate: Participants write as many questions as they can about the September 11 attacks - without stopping to revise, edit, evaluate or answer their questions.

2. Reflect: Then, participants circle or mark their three most important questions - and briefly reflect on why they selected these three.

3. Turn & Talk: Participants turn and share their three questions, noting what may overlap or be different, and have partners share out questions to gauge what participants are curious about. This is also an opportunity to note any misinformation or incorrect assumptions participants may have to clarify & revisit. Read "Debunking Stereotypes About Muslims and Islam" by Learning for Justice to learn more.

Main activities (30-45 mins)
Directions: Choose one or more activity best suited to your class based on the many factors your role as a teacher requires you to know.
Part 1

1. Watch the 9/11 Memorial Museum's short film (3 minutes): This video outlines the events on the morning of 9/11. As participants listen, instruct them to watch for any answers to the questions they just constructed. CONTENT WARNING : This video contains images of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon after they are hit.

2. Optional: Take a detour into a robust timeline of the 9/11 attacks using this interactive guide at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum and pair it with this "Historical Timeline of Afghanistan" from PBS NewsHour . Focus on context-building, asking participants to investigate questions, connections and narratives they see represented.

3. Clarify and reflect (5-10 mins): Turning to talk with their partners again (or return to their notebook to write), what did participants notice about the short clip or (timelines) that answered some of their questions?

4. Together with their partner, what new questions can they create? Note: If a participant replies with "I don't have any questions," encourage them to practice the skill of questioning and examining what they think, why they think it and what they wonder. Encourage curiosity.

5. Share this infographic with participants. After reviewing, ask participants: What surprises them? Does anything connect to the questions they crafted?

via slideshow - see link at top of lesson
Ask participants: What stories do these numbers tell? What stories don't these numbers tell? (Can invite participants to update their list of questions here, pushing into open-ended questions vs. closed questions.)
Part 2

1. Watch The 9/11 Memorial & Museum has a trailer (3 minutes) for one of their programs featuring some personal connections individuals have to 9/11.

2. After watching the 9/11 Memorial & Museum clip, invite participants to write & reflect:

What did you notice, what surprised you, or what do you now wonder after hearing from some individuals who have a personal connection to that day?

Now that you've reviewed or learned some of the historical context of 9/11, what do you know or wonder about the legacy of 9/11? What impact has the 9/11 terrorist attacks had on the United States? Other countries? Ordinary and everyday people in the United States?

Turn & talk: Have participants share some of their ideas, questions and reflections with their partner.

Whole group: Invite participants to share any ideas, encourage questions and discuss together.

Part 3 (Choose one or more of the following activities)
Each night this week, PBS NewsHour features stories that examine some of the ways 9/11 transformed the nation and world. Choose one or more of the following available stories to discuss.

Watch "American Muslims remember how 9/11 changed America as they knew it" (from 2021 - 10 minutes)
As participants listen, have them track the perspective of each speaker and what they share about their personal experiences and connections to 9/11. Ask participants:

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

Does your community share anything in common with the communities of the speakers? How so?

How does (or did) 9/11 impact different communities? How so?

What other connections or questions can you craft?

NewsHour's Amna Nawaz says: "20 years later, there is now an entire generation of young American adults, including American Muslims, who don't have firsthand memories of [9/11], who did not live through the trauma, as all of us did."

How do you think the impact of 9/11 varies from generation to generation? What similarities or differences do you notice among your generation versus your parent's generation? And older generations?

Watch "How 9/11 weighs heavily on the generation born after the 9/11 attacks" (3 minutes)
As participants listen, preview the essential questions and ask them to listen for or track what they notice and wonder:

What are some of the ways these students' lives have been directly impacted by the legacy of 9/11?

What are some ways these students sees their generation's experience as different from past generations?

Closing (10-15 mins)
Watch "Middletown lost the most residents on 9/11 after NYC. Here's how the community is healing" (10 minutes)
As participants listen, preview the essential questions and ask them to listen for or track what they notice and wonder:

What is Middletown's connection to the 9/11 attacks?

What were the different perspectives shared on how families coped with the loss of loved ones in the attacks?

How does this feature story expand or inform what you already know about 9/11?

1. Look back over the questions you created at the start of class.

2. What's one question that has been answered today?

3. What's a new question you have or are thinking about? What's left unanswered for you? What are you wondering about?

4. What's the impact of 9/11 on your generation? What do you predict will be the legacy of 9/11 for future generations?

Watch "The direct line between national unity after 9/11 and partisan polarization in 2021" (10 minutes)
As participants listen, preview the essential questions and ask them to listen for or track what they notice and wonder:

Why is it important to understand the emotional reaction of U.S. citizens on the day of 9/11, according to Graff?

What is the connection that Graff makes between 9/11 and political polarization?

What do you think Graff means when he says 9/11 is slipping "from memory into history"? What are your first memories of learning about 9/11 or understanding the day's events and legacy?

Discussion questions: In small groups or as a whole class, discuss the following questions:

As a generation, what has shaped your view and understanding of 9/11? How so? How might this differ from other generations or communities?

What perspectives and narratives are you seeing and hearing surrounding the 20th anniversary of 9/11?

How do you think the legacy of 9/11 will continue to evolve?

Whose stories are being told? Is anyone's voice missing?

Circle back to warm up questions for clarifying and answering the unanswered questions. (Could be collected as an exit ticket or final turn and talk.)

1. Ask participants to write their own day poem connecting to the themes of hope and fear, of love and continuing, mimicking some of Clifton's style.

2. Do not require participants to write specifically about 9/11. Instead leave the invitation open for them to write about what they choose.

3. Or invite participants to identify vivid imagery, metaphors or symbols in the poem.

4. Compare Clifton's poem with excerpts from " With Their Eyes: September 11th - The View From A High School at Ground Zero. " What word choice evokes an emotional response in the reader? How does the physical structure of the poems impact the way it is read aloud? As writers, what writing moves might participants employ in their own writing?

Extension 1, Poetry Focus: Days before 9/11, poet Lucille Clifton welcomed a granddaughter into the world and remembers eating lunch on the day itself as she "watched on television the devastation of the Twin Towers." In her poem "September's Song: A Poem in Seven Days," she examines "love and continuing and fear and hope."

1. Inquire: What do trustworthy and credible charities and organizations look like?

2. Explore: What is being done locally in your area or state?

3. Understand: What don't you know? What questions do you have?

4. Apply: How could your class, school, or community support and welcome refugees?

5. What are the latest updates as to the Afghan refugees welfare and status in the U.S. and around the world?

Share this excerpt of Tuesday and Sunday from the longer poem with students , reading aloud together or ask participants to annotate a copy of the poem (or digitally with a partner using this Google Doc). [Note: September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday]
U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, load passengers aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 24, 2021. Picture taken August 24, 2021. U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen/Handout via REUTERS Kate Stevens, M.S. in Curriculum & Instruction, is an instructional coach and educator with more than a decade of experience in online, hybrid, and blended learning. In 2015, Kate was honored with Colorado Department of Education's Online & Blended Teacher of the Year. Connect with Kate on Twitter @KateTeaching.
Write in response:

Extension 2: Just over a year ago, more than 123,000 Afghan refugees, many fearing for their lives, were evacuated from Afghanistan and were resettled all over the world, including the United States. Thousands of Afghans did not make it out of the country before the U.S. military's departure on Aug. 30. Explore who, what, when, where and how of the refugees arriving in the U.S., and what local community organizations are still working to provide assistance. Read this NewsHour article for more information.

Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom's resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom's ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each morning.

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Lesson plan: 9/11 - Ways to reflect on the day's legacy

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Generate and discuss questions about the day of 9/11 and its legacy from more than two decades ago

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AbiBox: The USA between Tradition and Change

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AbiBox: The USA between Tradition and Change

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Die Abi-Box Englisch für das 2. Halbjahr des Abiturjahrgangs 2025 enthält die vollständige Unterrichtsvorbereitung mit allen Materialien auf der Grundlage kompetenzorientierter Aufgaben auf der Basis der Operatoren sowie Methodenseiten zu den Themen: American culture and society Dreams and realities Short story: Heads of the Colored People Land of many stories: Natives and newcomers Den Zugriff auf die digitale Lehrermappe als digitales Produkt mit erweiterten Bearbeitungsfunktionen erreichen Sie unter www.abi-boxen-plus.de oder über die Abi-Box+-App.

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Novel "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Novel "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Racism, the USA and Nigeria, US American values and the American Dream, gender

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Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu's life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze. It was Adichie's third novel, published on May 14, 2013, by Alfred A. Knopf.

Americanah is about Ifemelu and Obinze who, as teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, fall in love. Nigeria at the time is under military dictatorship, and people are seeking to leave the country. Ifemelu moves to the United States to study, where she struggles for the first time with racism and the many varieties of racial distinctions: for the first time, Ifemelu discovers what it means to be a "Black Person". Obinze had hoped to join her in the U.S. but he is denied a visa after 9/11. He goes to London, eventually becoming an undocumented immigrant after his visa expires.

Years later, Obinze returns to Nigeria and becomes a wealthy man as a property developer in the newly democratic country. Ifemelu gains success in the United States, where she becomes known for her blog about race in America, entitled "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black". When Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, the two consider reviving a relationship in light of their diverging experiences and identities during their many years apart.

Ifemelu - The protagonist. She is born in Lagos, Nigeria, and studies in America.

Obinze - Raised in Nsukka, Nigeria. His mother, a professor, taught him how to cook and fostered his love of books.

Obinze's Mother - Professor at Nsukka University and a widow. She struggles with outdated Nigerian attitudes towards women.

Ifemelu's Mother and Father - Ifemelu's mother is a devout evangelical Christian who fasts dangerously in order to drive the devil out of her family's life. Ifemelu's father is powerless to stop her. He unexpectedly loses his job at a federal agency and is unable to support his family.

Aunty Uju - Ifemelu's father's cousin. She acts as Ifemelu's older sister. She starts a relationship with the General, and gives birth to a son, Dike. After the General dies, Uju moves to America, where she struggles to continue the medical training she began in Nigeria.

Dike - The son of Aunty Uju and the General. Born in the United States, he is named after Uju's father, and given her surname. After his birth, Dike and Uju return to Nigeria where his first birthday is spent; soon after, his father dies in a plane crash. Dike and Uju flee Nigeria to escape the poverty that would result from his father's relatives confiscating their resources. He lives first in New York, then Massachusetts. At his mother's insistence, he attends a school where he is the only individual who is not white. His suicide attempt devastates his family and underlines the difficulty immigrant families face when trying to integrate into American society.

The General - Aunty Uju's lover and father of Dike.

Curt - Ifemelu's first American boyfriend, white.

Blaine - Ifemelu's second American boyfriend, a black assistant professor at Yale who writes a blog about race and popular culture. Ifemelu moves to New Haven to live with him.

Shan - Blaine's sister, a writer who is often critical of others.

Kosi - Obinze's wife and the mother of his child.

Buchi - Obinze and Kosi's daughter.

Ginika - Ifemelu's friend, whom she knew when she met Obinze.

Americanization is one of the most prominent themes in Americanah. In the context of the novel, America itself is a symbol of hope, wealth, social and economic mobility, and, ultimately, disappointment, as Ifemelu learns that the American Dream is a lie and that the advantages she enjoys there often come at a great price. Her Americanization is slow but distinct, and she gradually picks up the slang, adapts to her surroundings (for better or worse), and adopts American politics. Her views on gender and race change because of this, and her blog is devoted to exploring the issue of race as a non-American black in America. She's called Americanah when she returns to Nigeria, having picked up a blunt, American way of speaking and addressing problems. She resists this label, but it's evident to the reader that Ifemelu's years in America have changed her.

According to Idowu Faith, "no valid statement can be made on Americanah without deconstructing the term "Americanah" which, more or less, reveals the thesis of the narrative as well as the preoccupation of Adichie in the text." In Nigerian parlance, the term "Americanah" is an identity term based on a person's previous experience of living in America. In an interview, Adichie defines Americanah as describing those who have been to the US and return with American affectations, pretend not to understand their mother tongues any longer, and refuse to eat Nigerian food, making constant reference to their life in America.

From this understanding, it is clear that Ifemelu's decision to return home without worrying about being identified as an "Americanah" establishes that Adichie is proposing and charting a path for a new kind of migration story whose quintessence is return migration.

Adichie's explorations of sexual education and the perception of sex among youngsters in Nigeria plays a fundamental role in the journey of Ifemelu exploring her sexuality as an adolescent in a puritan post-colonial society.

While many of the migratory experiences in the novel work within migration theory, Adichie simultaneously transcends the borders of international migration theories by introducing a new factor that both influences migration and projects a new perspective on return migration. According to Dustmann and Weiss (2007:237), lack of economic opportunity and escape from natural disaster/persecution are two main reasons individuals migrate throughout history. While identifying the need to flee "choicelessness" as the main reason for much of the migration in the twenty-first century Nigerian setting of the novel, Adichie uses literary dimensions to shake up the foundations of theory. Consequently, the direction of this type of migration, how it affects the bonds of love, how it changes personalities and cultural views, and how it reinterprets identity become the novelist's major theoretical engagements. In addition, Adichie is concerned with how migration debases and elevates, how it barters and fulfills and, most significantly, how it reinvents.

Critics praised the novel, especially noting its range across different societies and reflection of global tensions. Writing for The New York Times, Mike Peed said, "'Americanah' examines blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, but it's also a steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience-a platitude made fresh by the accuracy of Adichie's observations." Peed concluded: "'Americanah' is witheringly trenchant and hugely empathetic, both worldly and geographically precise, a novel that holds the discomfiting realities of our times fearlessly before us. It never feels false." Reviewing the novel for The Washington Post, Emily Raboteau called Adichie "a hawkeyed observer of manners and distinctions in class," and said Adichie brings a "ruthless honesty about the ugly and beautiful sides of both" the United States and Nigeria. In the Chicago Tribune, Laura Pearson wrote, "Sprawling, ambitious and gorgeously written, 'Americanah' covers race, identity, relationships, community, politics, privilege, language, hair, ethnocentrism, migration, intimacy, estrangement, blogging, books and Barack Obama. It covers three continents, spans decades, leaps gracefully, from chapter to chapter, to different cities and other lives...[Adichie] weaves them assuredly into a thoughtfully structured epic. The result is a timeless love story steeped in our times." Tshilidzi Marwala links the Americanah to the rise of nationalism. In this regard, he thinks the story of Americanah evokes the image that the 21st century will be defined by the dialectical tension between the globalization, which is brought by technology, and the "othering" which is brought by the alienating characteristic of globalization. Accordingly, Marwala on reviewing Americanah states that "it seems that in the 21st century, the strangeness of othering, of enhancing difference rather than embracing our commonalities and the wedging of deep fissures in society continues unabated."

The book was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review. It won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction), and was shortlisted for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction of the United Kingdom. The Chicago Tribune awarded Adichie its 2013 Heartland Award for Fiction, "recogniz[ing Americanah as] a novel that engages with important ideas about race, and does so with style, wit and insight."

In March 2017, Americanah was picked as the winner for the "One Book, One New York" program, part of a community reading initiative encouraging all city residents to read the same book.

Americanah spent 78 weeks on NPR's Paperback Best-Seller list. Days after The New York Times named Americanah to its best books of 2013 list, Beyoncé also signaled her admiration of Adichie, sampling Adichie's TED Talk "We should all be feminists" on the song "***Flawless"; sales of Americanah soared and as of December 23, 2013, the book climbed to the number 179 spot on Amazon.com's list of its 10,000 best-selling books.

In 2014, it was announced that David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o would star in a film adaptation of the novel, to be produced by Brad Pitt and his production company Plan B. In 2018, Nyong'o told The Hollywood Reporter that she was developing a television miniseries based on the book, which she would produce and star in. It was announced on September 13, 2019, that HBO Max would air the miniseries in ten episodes, with actor and playwright Danai Gurira as writer and showrunner. On October 15, 2020, it was reported that the miniseries would not move forward due to scheduling conflicts.

Scholarly works related to Americanah

Esplin, Marlene. "The Right Not to Translate: The Linguistic Stakes of Immigration in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah." Research in African Literatures 49, no. 2 (2018): 73-86.

Hallemeier, Katherine. "TO BE FROM THE COUNTRY OF PEOPLE WHO GAVE": NATIONAL ALLEGORY AND THE UNITED STATES OF ADICHIE'S" AMERICANAH." Studies in the Novel 47, no. 2 (2015): 231-245.

Joshua, Nneoma Uchechukwu (2021-07-15). "Identity, Afropolitanism and the New African Diaspora: Adichie's Americanah, Habilah's travellers and Noo Saro Wiwa's Looking for Transwonderland". Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.

Kozieł, Patrycja. "Narrative strategy in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Americanah: the manifestation of migrant identity." Studies in African Languages and Cultures 49 (2015): 97-114.

Ojo, Akinleye Ayinuola. "Discursive Construction of Sexuality and Sexual Orientations in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah". Ibadan Journal of English Studies 7 (2018): 543-560-224.

McCoy, Shane A. "The "outsider within": counter-narratives of the "new" African diaspora in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah (2013)." Journal of the African Literature Association 11, no. 3 (2017): 279-294.

Sackeyfio, Rose A. "Revisiting Double Consciousness & Relocating the Self in Americanah." A Companion to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017): 213-227.

1. ^ "National Book Critics Circle Announces Award Winners for Publishing Year 2013". National Book Critics Circle. March 13, 2014. Archived from the original on March 14, 2014.

2. Stefanie Anna Reuter (2015): ^ "Becoming a Subject: Developing a Critical Consciousness and Coming to Voice in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah", in: Anja Oed (Hg.): Reviewing the Past, Negotiating the Future: The African Bildungsroman.

3. ^ Peed, Mike (June 7, 2013). "Realities of Race 'Americanah,' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie". The New York Times.

4. ^ New York Times (December 4, 2013). "The 10 Best Books of 2013". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 6, 2013.

5. ^ Brown, Mark (7 April 2014). "Donna Tartt heads Baileys women's prize for fiction 2014 shortlist". The Guardian.

6. ^ Weller, Chris (16 March 2017). "New Yorkers just selected a book for the entire city to read in America's biggest book club". Business Insider.

7. ^ Galloway, Stephen (January 25, 2018). "Lupita Nyong'o: From Political Exile to Oscar to Marvel's 'Black Panther'". The Hollywood Reporter.

8. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (October 15, 2020). "'Americanah' Drama From Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira Dead at HBO Max". The Hollywood Reporter.

9. ^ Joshua, Nneoma Uchechukwu (2021-07-15). "Identity, Afropolitanism and the New African Diaspora: Adichie'S Americanah, Habilah's travellers and Noo Saro Wiwa's looking for Transwonderland". Journal of African Studies. Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.

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Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university.

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New York zur Zeit der Roaring Twenties: Gewinner und Verlierer der New Yorker Gesellschaft gleichermaßen tummeln sich jeden Sommer auf den rauschenden Tanzparties des jungen Selfmade-Millionärs Jay Gatsby. Der zwielichtige Geschäftsmann aus mittellosen Verhältnissen möchte aber eigentlich nur eines: als "Great Gatsby" seine aus einer vermögenden Familie stammende Jugendliebe Daisy zurückgewinnen. Diese ist allerdings inzwischen verheiratet ...

F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1925 verfasster Roman gilt als Meisterwerk der amerikanischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Er ist zugleich ergreifende Liebesgeschichte und ausdrucksstarkes Bild der amerikanischen Gesellschaft des Jazz Age. Vor allem aber ist The Great Gatsby ein Roman über den American Dream, den die Schülerinnen und Schüler in seinen verschiedenen Facetten nachempfinden können.

Fitzgeralds Roman ist geeignet als Schullektüre in den Jahrgangsstufen 11 und 12. Die Textausgabe ist umfassend annotiert und mit lesebegleitenden while-reading-Aufgaben versehen.

Zu dieser Textausgabe ist folgendes Unterrichtsmodell erschienen: Schöningh, Bestell-Nr.: 041191

Erfahren Sie mehr über die Reihe

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EinFach Englisch Textausgaben - F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

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New York zur Zeit der Roaring Twenties: Gewinner und Verlierer der New Yorker Gesellschaft gleichermaßen tummeln sich jeden Sommer auf den rauschenden Tanzparties des jungen Selfmade-Millionärs Jay Gatsby. Der zwielichtige Ge­schäftsmann aus mittellosen Verhältnissen möchte aber eigentlich nur eines: als "Great Gatsby" seine aus einer vermögenden Familie stammende Jugendliebe Daisy zurückgewinnen.

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" Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written. . . . It will challenge her readers . . . [and] expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice." -The Washington Post

"A novel that puts its finger on the very pulse of the nation that we live in today . . . a fantastic read from beginning to end, as can always be expected from Picoult, this novel maintains a steady, page-turning pace that makes it hard for readers to put down. It also allows for conversations to be had and for people to sit back and look at their lives, actions (past and present) and wonder how they will move forward. This is a fantastic book not only because it addresses something that happens in America and around the world every day, but it also shows us that change is possible too." -San Francisco Book Review

"A gripping courtroom drama . . . Given the current political climate it is quite prescient and worthwhile. . . . This is a writer who understands her characters inside and out." -Roxane Gay, The New York Times Book Review

" Small Great Things embraces . . . empathy, hope and humility."

"[An] author at the top of her heart-rending game."-The National

"A gripping read about an issue of urgency."-The Vancouver Sun

"A book that needs to be read."-The Detroit News

"Exciting and fast-paced." -New York Journal of Books

"[Picoult] offers a thought-provoking examination of racism in America today, both overt and subtle. Her many readers will find much to discuss in the pages of this topical, moving book." -Booklist (starred review)

"Powerful . . . revelations abound."-The Free Lance-Star

"Picoult has outdone herself."-St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"A courageous and important work."-Minneapolis Star Tribune

"I couldn't put it down. Her best yet!" -New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman

"A compelling, can't-put-it-down drama with a trademark [Jodi] Picoult twist." -Good Housekeeping

"It's Jodi Picoult, the prime provider of literary soul food. This riveting drama is sure to be supremely satisfying and a bravely thought-provoking tale on the dangers of prejudice."

"Jodi Picoult is never afraid to take on hot topics, and in Small Great Things, she tackles race and discrimination in a way that will grab hold of you and refuse to let you go. . . . This page-turner is perfect for book clubs."

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Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult: 9780345544971 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * With richly layered characters and a gripping moral dilemma that will lead readers to question everything they know about privilege, power, and race, Small Great Things...

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Social studies, English, film

Estimated time

One 50-minute class period

Grade level

Middle or High School

Introduction

Students will learn about the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery during the Civil Rights Movement. They will examine the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and watch clips from the movie Selma. Most importantly, students will think critically about sources of information.

Warm-up activity

Pass out this HANDOUT with background on the Selma to Montgomery Marches.

The right to vote was first guaranteed to black men in 1870 with the passage of the 15th Amendment. But for nearly 100 years after, that right was systematically obstructed in many places across the nation.

Even now, voting rights remain contentious, with portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 having been struck down (NewsHour video here ) by the Supreme Court in 2013, and new voter ID laws sparking heated debate over the impact on voter participation.

Optional: You may also want to have students explore more of the history of the marches in the Extension activities section below.

Main activity

1. Explain to students that they are going to watch three short videos and analyze the content and critically think about the intended audiences for each different video.

2. Return to the HANDOUT's second page and answer the discussion questions on the marches of 1965. Be sure to give students enough time to write down their thoughts and space to express their ideas on what they are seeing.

Video | Selma - trailer | Paramount Pictures

Video | The Most Powerful Instrument | PBS ' Finding Your Roots

Video | The Story of Bloody Sunday| The History Channel

Extension activities

1. What is SNCC? The national civil rights group, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (known as SNCC), started organizing in the area in 1963, but faced considerable resistance, particularly from segregationist Sheriff Jim Clark who utilized local posses to intimidate, arrest and flat-out beat up those engaged in voter drives. In January of 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (a group of ministers leading nonviolent boycotts, marches and sit-ins to protest segregation across the South) arrived in Selma to assist the growing movement.

2. Literacy and Civics Tests : Alabama was a flashpoint for civil rights battles. Throughout the state, Black citizens applying to vote were repeatedly blocked by local registrars - known to give impromptu literacy and civics tests (literacy test lesson) featuring absurdly difficult questions designed to fail all takers. Watch the following clips from the movie Selma on what the right to vote meant to Selma movie clip showing what it was like trying to register to vote.

Furthermore, widespread poll taxes discouraged the poor and penalized those who chose to vote even if they succeeded in getting registered. By 1965, there were counties in Alabama where not a single black person had voted in any election for the previous 50 years.

In Selma, Alabama, where only 130 of 15,000 Black citizens were registered, citizens continued their long fight against institutionalized racism. Watch the "Give us the vote" video clip here:
"Selma" video clips courtesy of Paramount Pictures Lesson originally published in 2016 by Katie Gould, PBS NewsHour teacher resource produce, and has been updated as of 2023.
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Lesson plan: Selma to Montgomery Marches

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March 7 marks the anniversary of the Selma March. Lesson includes clips from the movie 'Selma'

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Short stories "Heads of the Coloured People"

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Short stories "Heads of the Coloured People"

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First we meet Riley, a very modern, culturally savvy black man who wears blue contacts, bleaches his hair, and is irked that his enjoyment of anime and comics conventions might mean he's "mistaken for a self-hating Uncle Tom". This opening story sets the tone for Nafissa Thompson-Spires's witty, mischievous short story collection, set mostly in California. Throughout, she dramatises the flawed interactions of people whose shared skin colour has ceased to be a bridge towards understanding. Riley may be sophisticated, but his sensitivity doesn't extend to Brother Man, an equally nerdy street seller.

Her tales focus on snobbish characters whose parents' wealth has made them "somehow unfit for black people". The book's title nods to the celebratory 19th-century sketches "Heads of the Colored People, Done With a Whitewash Brush" by the physician and abolitionist James McCune Smith. But instead of depicting working-class life, Thompson-Spires examines the black upper middle class who find themselves often isolated in historically "white spaces" such as Ivy League colleges. She portrays the emotional challenge to their mental health that is the downside of privilege.

In the hilariously meta "A Conversation About Bread" - a story about writing a story - the author teases white readers over whether they should be applauded for an act of solidarity, though hardly daring, in engaging with a black world that is beyond their life experience. An eavesdropping white woman is intrigued by the highfalutin language of two black graduates discussing the desirability of imitating the habits of white folk: croissants are acceptable but they "drew the line at brioche".

Composed entirely of letters of escalating spite, the point-scoring of the two PhD-boasting mothers is told with delicious brutality

Characters whose identity is constructed around their educational and financial achievements find that their peers, rather than becoming their allies, only sharpen their own sense of superiority. A story of two feuding black classmates in an expensive, predominantly white school develops into a sneering academic spat as each of their mothers wades in. Composed entirely of letters of escalating spite, the point-scoring of the two PhD-boasting women is told with delicious brutality.

Some stories turn towards the macabre, such as a young woman's fetishisation of an amputee. "Suicide, Watch" features a woman who is obsessive about updating her status on social networks. These coolly ironic and grimly funny tales brim with snap and verve, and this is a debut collection of daring and aplomb.

Heads of the Colored People is published by Chatto. To order a copy for £12.89 (RRP £14.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99..

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Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires review - coolly ironic stories

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Upper-middle-class black lives are mischievously dramatised in an American debut collection

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Precious: race, gender, domestic violence

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Precious: race, gender, domestic violence

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Hidden Figures | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

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Gerrymandering, explained | The Washington Post

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The American Dream

Dealing with Diversity

Equality and inaquality

The United States' place in the world

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Bundesland

Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Schulform

Abendgymnasium, Gymnasium Klassen 11-12/13, Integrierte Gesamtschule Klassen 11-13, Integrierte Sekundarschule Klassen 11-13, Kooperative Gesamtschule Klassen 11-12, Studienkolleg

Herausgeber/-in

Leithner-Brauns, Annette; Becker-Ross, Ingrid; Schwarz, Hellmut

Autor/-in

Maloney, Paul; Ringel-Eichinger, Angela; Hohwiller, Peter; von Bremen, Friederike; Sprunkel, Marcel; Thürwächter, Michael; Imig, Ulrich; Sedlatschek, Andreas; Freitag-Hild, Britta; Marzinzik, Markus; Loh, Sylvia; Bartscherer, Irene; Rietgraf, Birgit; Schoeneberg, Victoria; Meixner, Claudia; Jentsch, Elke; Gastpar, Veronika; Elsäßer, Ulrike; Spieler, Claudia; Wittbrodt, Inga; Porter, Neil; Fredrich, Gerit; Becker-Ross, Ingrid; Hözel-Fröndgen, Markus

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SchulbücherJetzt mitLeistungs- und Neigungsdifferenzierung auf drei Niveaus,Schulung von Sprachbewusstheit,interkulturellem Lernen mit Beispielen aus Kunst, Musik, Architektur und Fotografie in Culture Spots sowie1-2 Seiten Focus on Skills in jedem Kapitel.

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Coordinated groups of inauthentic accounts have been attempting to influence online conversations around the 2024 elections for the better part of a year, according to a recent investigation conducted by Cyabra, a social analysis firm.

According to the Israel-based firm, someone created thousands of automated Twitter accounts that appear to be praising former President Donald Trump and criticizing his political rivals on both sides of the aisle.

"What I found was so interesting about this bot farm [was] that it understood the nuances of the division within the Republican Party and it was exploiting that online," Jules Gross, a solutions engineer at Cyabra, told ABC News.

Gross said she reviewed hundreds of posts and found that these automated accounts -- or bots -- were going after Trump's potential 2024 rivals for the presidency.

As soon as Nikki Haley announced a bid for the presidency in February 2023, Gross said she saw bots accusing Haley of being disloyal to her onetime boss.

Around 40% of the conversation online about Haley was being controlled by inauthentic accounts versus just 2% before her announcement, according to Cyabra.

Haley hasn't been the only target; these bots also appeared to go after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to the firm.

Although DeSantis hasn't announced a bid, it hasn't stopped numerous fake accounts from insisting he not run in the 2024 election, Cyabra said in its report.

Gross said she has also found hundreds of posts accusing Republicans of not being loyal because they cooperated with Democrats.

"Whether it's Kevin McCarthy, or even Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and also Nikki Haley, the bots say these people are not Republican enough."

She added that the bots allege that "(t)hey are not true Republicans, they need to be more extreme."

Gross said Cyabra found three coordinated groups of inauthentic accounts created on one of three dates in April, October and November of 2022.

Gross said she was initially scanning conversations around prominent American politicians on Twitter when she noticed seemingly inauthentic accounts popping up among real ones.

"Once I filtered all of the fake profiles from the ones that were just created, on the same days, I could see that they were all promoting the same ideology online, possibly even posting the same exact posts online," Gross said. "And from that, we're able to deduce that is a coordinated activity."

While public perception may be that social media bots are rudimentary, some experts say these coordinated groups are getting more complex and harder to spot.

"Detecting bots is a very difficult challenge that requires analysis of a number of different parameters," said Sam Woolley, the program director at Propaganda Research Lab at the University of Texas, Austin. "You can't just look at two or three different things."

Cyabra said it looked at over 500 different behavioral parameters to identify whether these profiles were fake -- parameters like how many hours a day an account was active, the geographic location of their followers and if the content posted was original or repurposed.

As of Thursday, the three coordinated groups identified are still active on Twitter, Gross said. Most recently, Cyabra said these accounts have been posting and re-sharing posts about the health and whereabouts of Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania following his recent hospitalization for severe depression.

According to Cyabra, Elon Musk hired the data analysis firm to analyze bot activity on Twitter before he purchased the company.

ABC News has reached out to Twitter for comment.

"It shows just how likely it is that the conversations on social media surrounding the 2024 presidential election will be controlled and will be full of not just of disinformation and misinformation, but also harassment, disenfranchisement content, and all other sorts of forms of misleading information," warned Woolley.

Cyabra said it does not know who is behind these coordinated accounts.

Research found that bots have helped spread falsehoods and manipulate conversations in all major U.S. elections -- and many others worldwide -- since 2016. Bots spreading misinformation aren't specific to Twitter; networks of inauthentic accounts have been uncovered and taken down on Facebook and Instagram in the past, experts say.

But experts like Woolley say social media companies need to "take a stand and provide more clarity with what kinds of automation is unacceptable."

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How pro-Trump bots are sowing division in the Republican Party: Report

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Thousands of automated Twitter accounts appear to be praising Donald Trump and ridiculing his political rivals, according to a social analysis firm.

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Abitur-Prüfungsvorbereitung Englisch 978-3-12-801007-6 (klett.de)

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Gender-Affirming-Care Bans Are Spreading Across the U.S.

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Just this year, five states-Mississippi, Utah, South Dakota, Iowa, and Tennessee-have passed bans on gender-affirming care for minors.

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Genderbread_Person_v4_POSTER_18x26.pdf (wikimedia.org)

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Article: Laws restricting the rights of transgender people

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Article: Laws restricting the rights of transgender people

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States Passed a Record Number of Transgender Laws. Here’s What They Say.

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Many of the bills denied certain medical care to transgender people, while others targeted bathroom use and preferred personal pronouns.

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The following list is neither comprehensive nor incontrovertible, but it's an ever-improving list of definitions for terminology relating to LGBTQ+ identities & people, sexualities, and genders.

binder - : an undergarment used to alter or reduce the appearance of one's breasts (worn similarly to how one wears a sports bra). binding - : the (sometimes daily) process of wearing a binder. Binding is often used to change the way other's read/perceive one's anatomical sex characteristics, and/or as a form of gender expression.

biphobia - : a range of negative attitudes (e.g., fear, anger, intolerance, invisibility, resentment, erasure, or discomfort) that one may have or express toward bisexual individuals. Biphobia can come from and be seen within the LGBTQ community as well as straight society. biphobic - : a word used to describe actions, behaviors, or individuals who demonstrate elements of this range of negative attitudes toward bisexual people.

gender variant - : someone who either by nature or by choice does not conform to gender-based expectations of society (e.g. transgender, transsexual, intersex, genderqueer, cross-dresser, etc) .

gynesexual / gynephilic /"guy-nuh-seks-shu-uhl"/ - : being primarily sexually, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to woman, females, and/or femininity .

hermaphrodite - : an outdated medical term previously used to refer to someone who was born with some combination of typically-male and typically-female sex characteristics. It's considered stigmatizing and inaccurate. See intersex.

heteronormativity - : the assumption, in individuals and/or in institutions, that everyone is heterosexual and that heterosexuality is superior to all other sexualities. Leads to invisibility and stigmatizing of other sexualities: when learning a woman is married, asking her what her husband's name is. Heteronormativity also leads us to assume that only masculine men and feminine women are straight.

homophobia - : an umbrella term for a range of negative attitudes (e.g., fear, anger, intolerance, resentment, erasure, or discomfort) that one may have toward LGBTQ people. The term can also connote a fear, disgust, or dislike of being perceived as LGBTQ. homophobic - : a word used to describe actions, behaviors, or individuals who demonstrate elements of this range of negative attitudes toward LGBTQ people.

MSM / WSW - : men who have sex with men or women who have sex with women, to distinguish sexual behaviors from sexual identities: because a man is straight, it doesn't mean he's not having sex with men . Often used in the field of HIV/Aids education, prevention, and treatment.

Mx. / "mix" or "schwa" / - : an honorific (e.g. Mr., Ms., Mrs., etc.) that is gender neutral. It is often the option of choice for folks who do not identify within the gender binary: Mx. Smith is a great teacher.

polyamory (polyamorous) - : refers to the practice of, desire for, or orientation toward having ethical, honest, and consensual non-monogamous relationships (i.e. relationships that may include multiple partners). Often shortened to "poly."

queer - 1 : an umbrella term to describe individuals who don't identify as straight and/or cisgender. 2 : a slur used to refer to someone who isn't straight and/or cisgender. Due to its historical use as a derogatory term, and how it is still used as a slur many communities, it is not embraced or used by all LGBTQ people. The term "queer" can often be use interchangeably with LGBTQ (e.g., "queer people" instead of "LGBTQ people").

sex assigned at birth (SAAB) - : a phrase used to intentionally recognize a person's assigned sex (not gender identity). Sometimes called "designated sex at birth" (DSAB) or "sex coercively assigned at birth" (SCAB), or specifically used as "assigned male at birth" (AMAB) or "assigned female at birth" (AFAB): Jenny was assigned male at birth, but identifies as a woman.

transition / transitioning - : referring to the process of a transgender person changing aspects of themself (e.g., their appearance, name, pronouns, or making physical changes to their body) to be more congruent with the gender they know themself to be (as opposed to the gender they lived as pre-transitioning).

transphobia - : the fear of, discrimination against, or hatred of trans* people, the trans* community, or gender ambiguity. Transphobia can be seen within the queer community, as well as in general society. Transphobic - : a word used to describe an individual who harbors some elements of this range of negative attitudes, thoughts, intents, towards trans* people.

transvestite - : a person who dresses as the binary opposite gender expression ("cross-dresses") for any one of many reasons, including relaxation, fun, and sexual gratification (often called a "cross-dresser," and should not be confused with transsexual).

ze / zir / "zee", "zerr" or "zeer"/ - alternate pronouns that are gender neutral and preferred by some trans* people. They replace "he" and "she" and "his" and "hers" respectively. Alternatively some people who are not comfortable/do not embrace he/she use the plural pronoun "they/their" as a gender neutral singular pronoun.

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LGBTQ+ Vocabulary Glossary of Terms " The Safe Zone Project

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The following list is neither comprehensive nor incontrovertible, but it's an ever-improving list of definitions for terminology relating to LGBTQ+ identities & people, sexualities, and genders. binder - : an undergarment used to alter or reduce the appearance of one's breasts (worn similarly to how one wears a sports bra).

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World Trade Center, September 2001, by Christophe Agou

The attacks of September 11, 2001, shocked the nation. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and thousands more injured after Islamic extremists hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon; a fourth plane, bound for D.C., was brought down by intervening passengers in a fatal crash.

In the 18 years since the attacks, thousands more have died overseas in the war in Afghanistan fought because of the attacks, and domestically after exposure to the toxic dust and chemicals that filled the air as buildings and plane wreckage crumbled. Following the attacks, there was a national outpouring of grief, generosity, and patriotism. There was also a rise in hate and violence.

One of the first deadly hate crimes in the United States following the September 11 attacks was the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi.

Balbir Singh Sodhi and a nephew in Phoenix, Arizona

Balbir Singh Sodhi, an immigrant from India, came to the United States seeking the American dream of middle-class success. However, an act of senseless vengeance cut his life short. His killer, after complaining to friends in a bar about immigrants and the September 11 attacks, sought retaliation. When arrested, the murderer proclaimed, "I am a patriot" and told authorities that he wanted "to kill a Muslim."

Sodhi was not Muslim; he was Sikh (followers of a religion originating in northern India). The gunman, a 42-year-old airplane mechanic, sought to kill someone who looked like the photographs of Osama Bin Laden that had been widely shown on TV. He selected his victim based on his beard, dark skin, and turban.

As a member of the Sikh faith, Balbir Singh Sodhi wore this traditional turban.

The museum's collections rarely document crime, but staff saw this murder as an important piece of American history. Museum staff member Noriko Sanefuji worked closely with the victim's family to collect objects, including a turban that represented the personal and religious identity that led to Sodhi's death. The turban is currently on view in the museum's American Enterprise exhibition.

But why, you might ask, would a museum put an object related to September 11 in an exhibition on business history?

Sodhi was born in 1949 and raised in the village of Passiawal in northern India. At age 36, with limited economic opportunity and fearing the rising violence between Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims, Sodhi left the Punjab (the geopolitical area that cuts across northern India and eastern Pakistan) and immigrated to the United States. He left behind a wife and three children, promising to bring them to the United States as soon as possible.

Sodhi's ID to drive a San Francisco taxi.

Arriving in Los Angeles, he joined his brother, who had immigrated earlier. Sodhi found employment in a 7-Eleven store and later drove an airport shuttle van. In 1991, Sodhi moved to San Francisco and drove a taxi. Taxi driving is often dangerous. A friend was murdered while driving a taxi. Sodhi was also robbed while driving. He eventually decided to seek safer work. He and his brother moved to Arizona, pooled their money, and bought a gas station and convenience store.

People often speak of immigrant entrepreneurs as an example of American capitalism in action, celebrating a narrative of social and economic mobility. Indeed, many immigrants own and operate small businesses in a quest for achieving the American dream. A small business and working for oneself requires little start-up capital and is an avenue for many immigrants to avoid prejudice and language barriers. Immigrants create about 25% of new firms in the United States. Occasionally the businesses are wildly successful- Jerry Yang (born in Taiwan) started Yahoo, Sergey Brin (Russia) cofounded Google, and Andy Grove (Hungary) cofounded Intel -but these are exceptions, not the norm. Most businesses started by immigrants are small, and many fail.

Like many immigrants, Sodhi worked grueling 12-hour days to make ends meet and have enough money to send home to his family. During his 16 years in the United States, he was only able to return to India twice-the last time in 1992, to attend his daughter's wedding. Despite the challenges, however, he felt he was on the road to achieving the American dream.

Worried about public reaction after the September 11 attacks, Sodhi called his brother. "All Sikhs will be in trouble soon," Sodhi's brother recalled him saying. "The man they suspect, the one they show on television, has a similar face to us, and people don't understand the difference."

Sodhi had experienced violence against Sikhs in India after Sikh militant extremists assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. He feared that the Islamic extremist attacks of September 11 might trigger similar broad retaliatory violence by the American public. Seeking to distinguish the Phoenix-area Sikh community, he helped organize a press conference for Sunday, September 16, to express Sikh solidarity with fellow Americans and distinguish Sikhs from the Islamic extremists behind the attack.

On Saturday morning, September 15, Sodhi phoned his wife in India to tell her that he was safe and that everything was all right. Sadly, his optimism was misplaced. A few hours later, at 2:45 p.m., a gunman shot Sodhi five times in the back, killing him as he planted flowers in front of his gas station.

Sodhi was well respected by most of his customers. After his murder on September 15, 2001, this makeshift memorial quickly appeared.

Instead of obtaining the American dream of middle-class success, Sodhi experienced the American nightmare of hate and violence. Sodhi's death is just one of many examples of growing anti-immigrant rhetoric and violence in the United States. Yet the desire for opportunity continues to draw immigrants and refugees to the United States. Their hope that the nation will live up to its ideals gives them optimism.
Peter Liebhold is a co-curator of the American Enterprise exhibition in the Mars Hall of American Business.

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One of the first deadly hate crimes in the United States following the September 11 attacks was the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi.

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NOMADLAND | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

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The Ladder of Fortune by Currier and Ives

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The Ladder of Fortune is a painting by Currier and Ives which was uploaded on February 13th, 2012. The painting may be purchased as wall art, home decor, apparel, phone cases, greeting cards, and more. All products are produced on-demand and shipped worldwide within 2 - 3 business days.

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The Florida Project | Official Trailer HD | A24

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The Master | trailer #1 US (2012) Paul Thomas Anderson Joaquin Phoenix

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Selma Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr. Movie HD

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Daughters of the Dust (2K Restoration) | Official US Trailer

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The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Official Trailer 1 - Will Smith Movie

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Important moments in African-American History

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Important moments in African-American History