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Social inequality in united states
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The Park Avenue: Money,Power and the American Dream is a film outlining the story about New York's residents in 740 Parks Avenue and South Bronx .Also, its river division between the wealthiest (rich people) and the poor. This documentary focus on the inequality that shakes the entire city and demonstrates how these individuals sustain their lives with remarkable influence from the political and fiscal system that takes control over the society in the city.The impact of suffer and poverty that stroke South Bronx and the Harlem River through 30 years following salary cut downs and high inflation rates.In difference on the 740 Park Avenue is described as a street with a lot of money and political power. In addition,states that residents
The small river that divides the Washington Heights and Harlem from the South Bronx area, makes up "one of the largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our nation" (Kozol 3). This segregation increases the inequality problems by overpopulating the inner-cities that do not offer as many employment opportunities. As a result of the inequalities in this district, the children are not allowed as many opportunities as other fortunate individuals may receive growing up in a separate society. Kozol seems to think that the odds of these South Bronx children obtaining wealth and moving out of the area are ...
“It was if there was a social moat that divided these two New Yorks.” This quote from the movie The Central Park Five, explains the divide between the poor part of New York, such as Harlem, and the upper class areas. This divide was caused by an economic crisis that changed the social dynamics of the city. This change allowed for consequences such as the injustice of the Central Park Five and the causes of this injustice can be explained by three different theoretical perspectives: the Structural Functionalist Perspective, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective.
In Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream is a documentary by Alex Gibney whom shows how wealthiest Americans whom live Manhattan 740 Park Avenue are able to control most population’s wealth. As well, the psychology effect wealth has on people.
The Frontline documentary “Two American Families” produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), portrays the life of two typical middle class families living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Frontline Video, 2013). This follows the life of the Neumann family and the Stanley family as they pursue the ideal type of life, The American Dream from 1991 through 2011 (Frontline Video, 2013). Although, the pursuit for their fantasy quickly turned into a fight for economical struggle (Frontline Video, 2013). These struggles were all brought upon by the new shaping economy (Frontline Video, 2013).
When most people were young, he or she would sit by the window and wonder off imagining of what their future would hold. Most people have the same vision called the American Dream. The American Dream is a façade that money is entirety and can make a person feel content. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, that American Dream is portrayed through the character Billy Pilgrim. According to Vonnegut, “He married his fiancée, finished his education, and was set up in Ilium by his father-in-law. Ilium is a particularly good city for optometrists because General Forge and Foundry Company is there. Every employee is required to own a pair of safety glasses, and to wear them in areas where manufacturing is going on” (24). According to society, Billy Pilgrim would be considered a successful individual, for his life was set up for him by family, including a well-paying job and a family. Although the American Dream seems like the perfect life, money truly cannot buy anyone’s happiness. Billy was a prime example of someone who had it all but was still struggling to accept his life as a whole...
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
The idea of the American Dream is it began as an idea people could thrive from, but became detrimental through corruption. Society’s necessity for material goods and money for personal happiness distorts the American dream. One’s morals will be compromised once one decides to live a life for the sole purpose of following a corrupted ideal. In Hunter S. Thompson’s literary work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his viewpoint of the American Dream is expressed. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written by Hunter S. Thompson, expresses the decline of society’s morals due to materialistic needs. Thompson proves through symbolism and characterization that society‘s corrupted perception of the American Dream provokes an individual’s morals to decline.
Ann Petry’s The Street is more than a story of racism and poverty in America. This novel is about how the intersectionality of identities limit African-Americans from achieving equality in the dominant race’s society. The protagonist, Lutie Johnson has three barriers dragging her down. She is not only a woman, but a black woman that is also a lower class single mother. In the novel Lutie faces the realities of the American Dream, which for African- Americans is literally just a dream. Lutie also experiences the harsh effects of poverty and how it shapes one’s life.
Dystopia- A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control, Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about, when given the definition of a dystopia famous literary works such as 1984 or A Brave New World seem to flutter the mind, but we don’t think of popular books of today that can make just as big of a dystopian impact. Chuck Palahniuk’s gruesomely truthful novel, Fight Club, gives readers a raw look on just how miserable and monotonous the “American Dream” can become. In the generic definition of dystopia it is stated that a dystopia is a futuristic universe, Fight Club is not a futuristic universe, it is a mirror on how society is today. Dystopian authors usually are writing their novel as a warning on how society is going to become, but Palahniuk didn’t write any predictions, he wrote a novel on how society exactly was when he wrote the novel. The narrator of this aggressive tale is trapped in his own life and trying to find absolutely anything to fill the hole of self petty that he created himself because he chose to follow the “American Dream” which ultimately makes his life even more horrible than it was before. Fight Club is based off of real life events that actually happened to Palahniuk himself. In an interview with DVD talk the question, “How much of this was based on real things?” is asked and Palahniuk answers with the startling answer “Everything except for the clubs themselves.” By making the novel almost 100 percent accurate, Palahniuk is showing readers that this is exactly how society is, the world is actually this bad and it is on...
Park Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of New York City, home to the ultra rich, the top tier of the American upper class, the 1% (Park Avenue). Those who reside on Park Avenue not only have vast amounts of wealth, but an immense amount of influence that has turned the tables in their favor. But, if you go a couple of miles north of Park Avenue and cross the Harlem River, you arrive at the other side of Park Avenue, otherwise known as the Bronx, one of the poorest districts in all of New York (Park Avenue). Here you see the real hardships average Americans must navigate through in order to put food on the table and provide shelter for their families. 40% of the 700,000 residents who live in the Bronx live in poverty making less than $40 a day (Park Avenue).
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
The 2008 documentary The End of Poverty? is a film that focuses around global poverty and how it became the tragedy that it is today. Poverty was created by acts of military conquest, slavery and colonization that led to the confiscation of individual’s property and forced labor. However, today the problem remains because wealthy countries who take advantage of developing third world countries. The film interviews several activists who discuss how the issues became and several ways in which they could be eliminated, as well as interviews from individuals who are experiencing it firsthand.
Under the American Dream, one’s disability can sometimes be neglected and still obtain an equal opportunity as others to receive normal education. Despite Forrest’s disability, he is able to “pursue excellence” and achieve his personal best, which may even make him more successful, compared to others.
In today’s society the term “American Dream” is perceived as being successful and usually that’s associated with being rich or financially sound. People follow this idea their entire life and usually never stop to think if they are happy on this road to success. Most will live through thick and thin with this idealization of the “American Dream” usually leading to unhappiness, depression and even suicide. The individual is confused by society’s portrayal of the individuals who have supposedly reached the nirvana of the “American Dream”. In the play “Death of a Salesman” Willy thinks that if a person has the right personality and he is well liked it’s easy to achieve success rather than hard work and innovation. This is seen when Willy is only concerned how Biff’s class mates reacted to his joke of the teachers lisp. Willy’s dream of success for his son Biff who was very well liked in High School never actually became anything. Biff turned into a drifter and a ranch worker. In the play “Seize the Day” Tommy who is financially unstable also pursues the idea of getting to the “American Dream” and becoming wealthy. He foolishly invests his last seven hundred dollars and eventually loses it leaving him broke and out of work. In both plays following the American Dream is followed in different characters and in both the characters are far away from it leaving them broke and forgotten by almost everyone.
The American Dream is the belief that anyone can rise from rags to riches. The movie, Gran Torino, does an excellent job demonstrating the achievement of the American Dream. The movie demonstrates these ideas through Thao Vang Lor, and Walt’s Gran Torino. Thao fulfills the American Dream in the movie and the car serves as a symbol of the dream for both Thao and Walt. Thao is a classic example of a boy being able to rise from unfavorable circumstances toward a future with many opportunities.