1. F I T Z G E R A L D ’ S T H E G R E A T
G A T S B Y , M I D N I G H T C O W B O Y ( 1 9 6 9 ) ,
A N D B L A C K N A T I O N A L I S M
The American Dream
2. What is the American Dream?
Happiness
Personal
Social and geographic mobility (American)
As portrayed in literature, cinema,
and music, the American Dream is
deeply personal, can be difficult to
attain and reflects the inequality in
America.
3. Significance in the order of artworks
The 3 artworks examine the American Dream from
different perspectives of American Society.
The Great Gatsby – white male
Midnight Cowboy – poor immigrant
Malcolm X and Public Enemy – oppressed minority
4. The Great Gatsby
Personal component:
reinvents himself because
of his love for
Daisy, unique dream.
American component: to be
with Daisy, Gatsby yearns
to reinvent himself and
move socially.
Keep in mind: Gatsby
achieves the American
component, and is a white
male.
5. The Great Gatsby
―I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn’t believe it
would come and perhaps he no longer cared. If that
was true he must have felt that he had lost the old
warm world, paid a high price for living too long with
a single dream‖ (172).
Wealth didn’t do it for Gatsby. He rose up, and by
many people’s definitions of the American dream, he
was living it. At the same time, his American Dream
was personal, and he did not fulfill it.
6. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Miami Dreaming
Background: Ratso Rizzo (NYC) and Joe Buck
(Texas)
Joe’s Dream
Ratso’s Dream
Commonality: Quest for happiness
Difficulty (see clip)
7. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Benefits of the dream: provides hope, a reason to
continue, and a goal.
Downfall of the dream: it doesn’t happen
overnight, or necessarily at all, difficulty in achieving
it is depressing.
8. Black Nationalism
―I see America through
the eyes of the victim. I
don’t see any American
Dream—I see an
American nightmare‖ –
Malcolm X
10. Public Enemy
Party For Your To Fight
―For the original Black Asiatic man, cream of the
Earth, and was here first, and some devils prevent
this from being known, but you check out the books
they own, even masons they know it but refuse to
show it, yo. But it’s proven and fact, and it takes a
nation of millions to hold us back.‖
11. Public Enemy
Blacks and other minorities are deprived of an equal
opportunity to pursue the American dream.
Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold
Us Back (1988) responds to that and attacks the
oppressiveness of the white man.
12. Works Cited
Images and videos:
http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profile
s/X/Malcolm-X-9396195-1-402.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsXStA_NUTQ
http://movieclips.com/P2o3-midnight-cowboy-movie-miami-dreaming/
http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/t/the-great-
gatsby/9780743273565_custom-s6-c10.jpg?t=1340884943
http://www.adioslounge.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/01/publicenemy.jpg
