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The focal novel I am using for this project is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This novel is about two men, George and Lennie. George and Lennie are migrant ranch workers bouncing from ranch to ranch throughout California during the Great Depression. George has to look out for Lennie as Lennie is a massive man with mental disabilities who is unaware of his own strength. The story focuses on their life on the ranch and their pursuit of the American Dream while hitting on the topics of death, friendship, and what is considered the right thing.

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The companion novel that I would use in relation to Of Mice and Men is F. Scott Fitzgerald's American classic, The Great Gatsby. This novel is about a young man named Jay Gatsby and his endless pursuit of his true love Daisy Buchanan. Throwing lavish party after lavish party, Gatsby fights to rekindle the relationship against all odds. Taking place during the roaring 20's, this book hits on the topics of love, greed, and the American Dream.

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https://depts.drew.edu/lib/archives/online_exhibits/king/speech/theamericandream.pdf

This speech was given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In the speech Dr. King speaks about what the American Dream is and can be. He also talks about the injustices going on in the United States at the time and how those injustices dictate the achievement of the American Dream. The speech discusses a multitude of subjects but focuses on how the American Dream isn't at the time attainable for everyone but with changes to society the American Dream can become a real thing once again.

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"O.K. Someday—we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs and—"

"An' live off the fatta the lan'," Lennie shouted. "An' have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that George."

This quote relates to the thematic question because this is the American Dream George and Lennie are chasing. This is what keeps them going and what pushes them to work hard. They know that if they work hard on the ranch and save up their money they can one day have a farm of their own.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZb2NOHPA2A
This movie clip is from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. In the clip the character portrayed by Will Smith tells his son to not practice basketball because he was bad and his son will probably be bad as well and he doesn't want his son wasting his time on basketball. He then tells his son to never let someone tell him he can't do anything and he tells his son that he can accomplish anything that he works hard for. The overall message of this movie is showing that hard work can lead to fulfilling your dreams and that the American Dream is attainable if you work hard enough for it.

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"Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a cathouse all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. An' I could do all that every damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool."

This quote relates to essential question because it shows what George's dream is and how he has to sacrifice things in order to achieve a different dream. He is showing that in order to make other dreams attainable you have to sacrifice things and give up on other dreams.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxS31Sa8y-Q
This video is a news report done by CBS Sunday Morning where they explore the modern American Dream. In it they talk about what exactly the American Dream was and now currently is and how it changes for everybody. They also discuss how attainable it is for real people who are interviewed during the segment.

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"Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all. . . .’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder."

This quote is saying that in America, anything is possible. The American Dream is alive and well and the possibilities for success are endless in New York City and in a more broad sense America as a whole. It is saying that even a poor man like Gatsby can attain his dreams and create a fortune of his own.

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Let America Be America Again

by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

This poem talks about everything America is supposed to be: the hopes, the dreams, the opportunities. But the author quickly shows us that isn't the America he sees. This shows us that America and the dreams that is promises aren't what they seem. The author also points out the downfalls and disadvantages many people in America face and it brings to light America and the American Dream are it's all they're cracked up to be.

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"Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.

That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money—that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king’s daughter, the golden girl."

This quote ties into the thematic question because it is showing Gatsby's love for Daisy is rooted in wealth and money (the American Dream) and she is a representation of the dream itself.

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"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther."

This quote is distinctly talking about the American Dream. The green light represents the hopes and dreams. We see the possibility and hope of those dreams but they seem to fade before us. Even as we work hard and do what it takes to attain our own American Dream sometimes we can't reach it and it will fade before us.

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"I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it."

This quote from Crooks ties into the thematic question because he is saying that just because you have a dream doesn't mean it will come true, especially if your dream is one that doesn't have much of shot at happening in the first place. He is saying a lot of people have dreams and especially during the Great Depression attaining such a dream is far fetched and doesn't have much of a shot at ever happening.

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This painting represents life on the ranch and the hard work it takes for George and Lennie to attain their American Dream. In order to attain their dreams they must work hard. There is no easy way to attaining the dream they have set out for and this piece of art represents part of the process of what it takes to attain the dreams they have.