Recap by BV2

Topic recap sheet n°3 : The American Dream & how to climb the social ladder
Content / Documents :
Pictures : Freedom from want (N. Rockwell) / Migrant Mother (D. Lange)
Audio : the American dream today
Info graphics : How Americans set priorities
Text : The crooked ladder (a criminal’s guide to social mobility) + Peaky Blinders : crime to climb the
social ladder
Civilisation / Culture : the American work ethic / social “Darwinism”
2014 SOTU (Mad Men Reference) + Last State of the Union Address (make America great again)
 Picture(s) (description & meaning)
Description :
Woman worried and thoughtful. Deep expression of grief : she’s suffering. She’s
got her eyes on the horizon.
Meaning :
She thinks about her future. Safety/Protection for the children. Strong woman. It
evokes war time and deprivation. The photo was shot during the Great
Depression. (1936)
Description :
It’s a well-off family, they have smiling faces. There is a turkey on the table.
Meaning :
Thanksgiving dinner. It represents the affluent society. It’s a kind of idealized version
of American affluence. The painting is dated 1942 (attack on Pearl Harbor, the US
joins the Allied forces and enters WWII)
Graph (description & meaning)
This graph shows how to live the American Dream, according to the
American population. The top priority for the American is to have
personal freedom, with 78% of the votes. Very next comes the fact
to provide to your own life and your own aim. There is also the idea
of freetime, harmony with nature, and at last, with only 23 %, being
rich (cf Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo’s speech).
So the American Dream means having a cozy life for American
people, not becoming a “fat cat”.
It is surprising that being rich comes only at the end of the top 6,
because non-American people, who migrate to America, still see
the US as an opportunity to strike gold.
Vocabulary :
English
French
English
French
American values
The faith
The crooked ladder
Loan-sharking
Hard-work
Unemployment
Les valeurs américaines
A moo-moo
To migrate
The Great Depression
Old Glory
To defer
Like many a young
couple
Set a standard
Un marcel
Hope / hopeful
Religious duty
optimistic
To be right
The fat cats
To do away with
The aim
Espoir / plein d’espoir
Obama-care (or
Affordable Care Act)
Welfare
Struggle
Hardship
To Wear black
To feel in jeopardy
So far
To roam
La foi
Un ascenseur détourné
Prêt à haut taux d’intérêt
Travailler dur
Le chômage
accès à une couverture
maladie universelle pour tout
américain en faisant la
demande
Allocation chômage
Une lutte
Privation
Porter le deuil
(Se) sentir en danger
Jusqu’ici, jusqu’à maintenant
Parcourir
Migrer
La crise des années 30
Le drapeau américain
Repousser (au lendemain)
Comme beaucoup de jeunes
couples
Montrer l’exemple
Un devoir religieux
Optimiste
Avoir raison
Les gros bourges (familier)
Se débarasser de
Le but
Recent events, historical & cultural references mentioned in the documents:
o
Irish migration to the USA because of starvation. (Potato Famine in the 19th century) The US
was a land of opportunity, and of abundance.
o
Martin Luther King “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools”
o
After the Great Depression, there was an emancipation of all the American citizens 
Roosevelt Presidency, the New Deal, Four Freedoms  beginning of the Civil Rights
movement (an American Dream for everyone)
o
the Silicon Valley (Microsoft, Apple, Google,…) : self-made men, who started from scratch.
o
President Obama’s last state of the Union Address (make America great again)
 Key expressions (grammar, syntax, translation…)
- “From Rags to Riches”
- “Gods helps those who help themselves”
- “The pursuit of happiness”
- “Freedom of speech/worship” / “Freedom from want/fear”
- “Social Darwinism”  See social inequalities as a natural difference ( “Survival of the fittest” )
- “Life is a struggle of the fittest against the weakest”
- “A wolf in sheep’s clothing”  Un loup déguisé en agneau
- “What happens to a dream deferred?”  Qu’arrive-t-il à un rêve remis à plus tard ?
- “The American Dream for the average man doesn't exist anymore.”
- “It is time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a Mad Men episode”  Women are
either housewives or secretaries in the series Mad Men
“A woman deserves equal pay for equal work”
- “Because I believe when women succeed, America succeeds.”
Document prepared with great care by :
Mathilde Rabiet, Samuel Froussart, Ophelie Civet, Marie Hardy, Eugenie Gianoncelli, Manon Crecy.