When I registered for the course for my minor, I chose this one as it seemed to have the most interesting subject matter. I can say that I was right and enjoyed our discussions about the American Dream. My overall idea about the American Dream has not changed, but become stronger in the fact that it does not exist. I knew that the American Dream was ultimately inaccessible for most Americans and our talks on race, social status, and economic history have strengthened that. I did not realize how many Americans actually adhered to the idea of the American Dream until this course, which I found surprising. I figured everyone understood how inaccessible the Dream was. My favorite part of the course was the creative freedom in the Freewrites and our personal discussions of the American Dream in the Zoom breakout rooms. My least favorite part was the structure of the canvas page, as I found it hard to navigate and overall understand due to organizational differences between Dr. Mintler and I (I organize vertically whereas the Canvas was organized horizontally). I would say the course is designed well for first year students on Zoom, and could transfer well to in person when the time comes. I liked discussing songs and other forms of creative media in class because I found them to be the most engaging for everyone. The more of those the better, in my opinion.
The American Dream represented in Media