Themenzusammenfassungen für das Englisch Abitur Leistungskurs:
The American Dream
- American History (Landmarks, Revolution, Independence Day, Bill of Rights, Uncle Sam, Frontier, Individualism)
- USA Immigration (Asian, Irish, Italian ...)
- Great Depression
- Gun Laws
African American...
The American Dream:
- American Dream
➢ The dream of a land in which life should be better, richer and fuller for everybody
and where it is possible to realize the full potential regardless of the background
➢ Opportunities for each according to his ability and achievement
➢ Individual freedom to make a better life for yourself (self- reliance)
➢ Patriotism, positive thinking, optimism, pragmatism, can-do-attitude very important
➢ It can be the dream of racial equality and justice for all, the dream of success
through education and hard work
➢ Historically the dream of the West and the frontier
• Westward movement reached the Pacific coast and the expansion came to an
end
• America had to seek new frontiers and challenges in many aspects
➢ Pros: self-reliance, success, equality and justice for all
- American Nightmare
➢ Self-critical awareness that American ideals have failed, and the promises have not
come true
➢ US had become a wasteful consumer society of lonely individuals (not like the
Puritans wanted it to be)
➢ Growing gap between rich and poor with a government doing not enough to close it
➢ Cons: manipulative, being too selfish, society of lonely individuals
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as an incarnation of the American Dream
➢ Lived a modest life in Austria without even a fridge or a phone
➢ Several jobs: actor, bodybuilder, politician
➢ Became fascinated of America, wanted to be a part of it
➢ Wanted to be big and singled out by being the best in something (bodybuilding)
➢ Later Mr. Universe and a Hollywood star
➢ More and more involved in politics (Republican Party) and then the governor of
California (2x)
➢ Always turned his dreams into reality and got new aims
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, - Willy Loman as the opposite
➢ Had a little job for little money (travelling salesman)
➢ Wanted to be a well-respected businessman in his firm, asked his younger boss
➢ Couldn’t go from rags to riches and failed (also because of his age)
➢ The boss told him to take a pause and ask his sons for help concerning money
- The Pushcart Peddlers
➢ Written in 1979 by Murray Schisgal
➢ Shimmel Shitzman (naive)
• New in America for starting a business
• Buys a business from Cornelius
• Falls in love with Maggie -> reason for his change
• Later turns to Sam Stone to imitate Cornelius (partnership)
• Wants to become a producer as Sam Stone to produce something with Maggie
➢ Cornelius J. Hollingsworth III (cunning)
• Selling bananas on a pushcart in New York
• Got a new identity, real name is Elias Crapavarnishkes (also sells a new
identity to Shimmel)
• Manipulates Shimmel by selling him his pushcart and then selling bananas at
the same location and getting more percentage
➢ Maggie Cutwell (snooty)
• Sells flowers on a pushcart
• Says she is an actor
• Pretends to like Shimmel/Sam because she thinks that he can make her a star
American History:
- Landmarks in US History
➢ The first permanent English settlement in Jamestown (1607)
• Money and trade (tobacco)
➢ Mayflower Compact from the Pilgrim Fathers 1620
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, • Puritans leave England on the Mayflower (ship) to escape religious
persecution and for equal laws
• Pilgrim Fathers sign a contract to establish a form of self-government
➢ The Puritans (social and religious movement)
• Puritans wanted to cleanse the Church of England from Catholicism
• Believed that they were “God’s Chosen People” and America was their
“Promised Land” (New Canaan) and wanted to spread the message of the
bible there and rejected any kind of amusement -> also a term to describe
conservative and strict-minded people
• Belief that hard work, discipline, self-improvement lead to success
• Shaped many aspects of the civil religion, such as integrity, education, work,
individual freedom
➢ New Canaan (“Promised Land”)
• Biblical background: Canaan was the land to which Moses led people to free
them from Egyptian slavery
• Those who were fleeing to America hoped that it would be their “Promised
Land” and named the colonies “New Canaan”
• “City upon a hill” -> American exceptionalism, America as an example to all
the other countries
➢ “New Amsterdam” (1626)
• Settlement along the coast owned by the Dutch West India Company
• First African slaves
➢ New Amsterdam renamed to “New York” by the English (1664)
➢ 13 separate colonies owned by the British (1733)
➢ Acts by the British to control American colonies (1751-65) leads to rising anger
➢ Boston Massacre (1770)
➢ Boston Tea Party (1773)
• Colonists (Americans) throwing tea into the harbor with the slogan “no
taxation without representation” because they had no political voice
➢ War of Independence (1775)
➢ Independence Day (4th July 1776, “birthday” of the US)
• Declaration of Independence for all colonies signed by the Founding
Fathers (political leaders like Franklin, Washington, Jefferson)
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, o all men are created equal
o unalienable rights like life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
o governments to secure these rights (otherwise people have the right to
abolish it and form a new one to effect safety and happiness)
• Freedom from British rule
• Ceremonies, turned into a popular spectacle, important holiday
➢ All former colonies from Britain became the USA (1783)
➢ Constitution of the US (1789) with a system of shared power to rule
➢ Bill of Rights (1791) to guarantee basic civil rights (freedom of religion/speech/press)
• First amendment to the US constitution
➢ Uncle Sam (nickname for the government)
• Used in a negative way during the war against England (1812)
• Lost its meaning when the government pictured the terms to recruit
volunteers for the World Wars
➢ The Stars and Stripes (American flag 1818)
• 13 red and white stripes + 13 stars on blue background = founding states
• White for purity, red for endurance and bravery, blue for justice
• A new star for every new state (now 50)
➢ Individualism (concept of Americans first mentioned in 1841)
• Idea of self-reliance and responsibility for one’s own fate
• If a person has freedom and opportunity to develop, he/she will have success
• “If you work hard, you prosper. If you fail, it’s your own fault”
• Most important because it’s a law of the nature given by God
➢ Manifest Destiny (1848 completed)
• Justification for the territorial expansion (stretching from east to west coast)
and imperialism
• US as global mediator in political conflicts -> one of the largest countries in
the world
• Mission to democratize/develop the world
• (Picture with an angel/God guiding Puritans to their “Promised Land” to
establish New Israel with equal laws and rights and bring new technology)
➢ Frontier
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