Oral Myths And Heroes Anglais

Notion Myths and heroes

Documents : - Dreaming of America (picture)

- « You tired, you poor »(text)

American Land (song)

« The tortilla Curtain » (text)

The notion I'm going to deal with is « Myths and heroes ». The word « myth » can have several definitions. In fact, it can be a legendary story about imaginary characters such as spiderman for example but it can be also a belief which is common in a community countries but which is not built. For example, witches can be called a myth. In America, one of the most famous myth is the American Dream. But I think it should be interesting to wonder if American Dream is a founding myth of the USA. In a first part, I will talk about the attractiveness of America but in a second time, I will show you that America is not necessary a dream. To speak about this I'd like to use four documents : a picture which is untitled Dreaming of America, An extract of a story by Rupert Morgan which is called You tired, you poor, the lyrics of the song American Land by Bruce Springsteen and finally an exctract of an essay written by T.C. Boyle which is untitled The tortilla Curtain.

I- America : The attractive land

America is verry attractive. In fact, since a long time, a lot of people want to come in USA because it is defined like a « Land of opportunity » as Bruce Springsteen say in his song through the sentence « There's treasure for the takin, for any hard working man ». In the story by Rupert Morgan, it's what it is illustrated too. The main character Bridget is happy when she arrived on New York and she thinks that America is « the land of new beginnings » Mexican, for example, lived in the misery. So, they dreamed to have a better life, a good one, with job, money, a good lifestyle and so one. It's why, Mexican like other communities migrated to America. America is the land of opportunity but it's also a nation of Immigrants. In fact, in the 19th and 20th century, a lot of people migrated to America for differents reasons (war refugee, misery in there countries etc), in Ellis Island. Ellis Island were the place where there was the Statue of Liberty and this place was a symbol of freedom and a synonym of happiness for them. Indeed, in his song, the singer say « The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews // Come across the water a thousand miles from home » . This is a proof that America was a Nation of Immigrants. In the picture, this aspect of America is also represented. In this picture we can see Uncle Sam who is welcomed europeans imigrants. Uncle Sam in this picture is an allegory of the American Dream and he gives us a very positive view of America, an idealistic one.

II- America and drawbacks

It's true that USA are a « welcoming land » but there are some consequences and drawbacks. - Traversée longue et difficile, hygiène / trie des migrants pour monter,Quartier par nationnalité : pas d'intégration / racisme, Pour certains rêve américain : ok mais pour d'autres : décu ça reste un REVE , trouver du travail : pas facile et si pas de boulot pas de sous = pauvres.

Conclusion :

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