March 9- American Dream and Raisin questions

We began by talking about the American Dream and students wrote on the following questions:

1.    Why do people from other countries immigrate to America?

2.    When we talk about "The American Dream", what do we mean? What are some of the obstacles to achieving the American Dream?

3.    Which groups of people have had trouble attaining "The American Dream"? Try to come up with five or more.

4.    Given the obstacles that some Americans have to overcome, what makes the American Dream appealing?

Now write out your own thoughts on the American dream:

• Do you want the American Dream?
• Is this something your family has achieved? Is trying to achieve?
• Are there any problems with the American Dream?

Then we began reading Raisin in the Sun...

Read pages 3-7 (when Ruth begins speaking)

Answer the following questions:

Why does the author go to such lengths to describe the furnishings of the Younger family’s apartment? 

What do these furnishings and the state they are in say about the family’s lives?