For the past month, we have been discussing and reading texts about different ideas of life in America and what is the best approach to having a fair and prosperous life in the United States. We’ve analyzed the loss of rural, white identity in “We Celebrate 100 Years”, the price any society is willing to pay for a happy community in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, the role of government in our daily lives and businesses in “Have a Coke and a Tax” and “Fixing Capitalism”, texts specifically discussing utopia and the American dream in “Keeping the Dream Alive” and the short Utopia excerpt, and the effects of implicit bias on minorities in America in “The New Jim Crow”.
So, what do you think? What approach or ideology would better enable all Americans to have better, more fair and prosperous lives for themselves and their families? In other words, should the United States, in order to ensure better lives for Americans, have a system that has more utopian ideals or more American dream ideals? You must take a position on this for the purposes of the essay, but you can arrive at one of four conclusions: 1) You emphasize utopian ideals but also think some American dream qualities also apply; 2) You emphasize American dream ideals but also think some utopian qualities also apply; 3) You believe almost exclusively in the ideals of utopia; 4) You believe almost exclusive in American dream ideals.
Your job for this essay, then, is to argue your position and convince and persuade your readers that your position is the right one. You will do this by using a minimum of two of the above texts we’ve read and discussed (you may use all seven texts, if you want), and you must use two additional texts not from this course.
