Success in America: A Reflection

Introduction

This project is not a WebQuest for a change. Students may use Web resources to do the project, but the whole job (once you look at this assignment, anyway) can be done without even booting your computer.

The point of this project is to look at the idea of success and really think about what it means to live a successful life. Two of our literary protagonists, Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman, die tragic deaths, in part, because of their confusion on this point. Although confusion doesn't necessarily carry a death sentence, people can waste at least a part of their lives by living in a delusion.

The authors of the above works imply that something about America leads people into this kind of confusion. This country, known as "The Land of Opportunity" around the world, is the home of "The American Dream," however one defines that term. These national attributes (and oddities) show up in stark relief when seen from foreign shores; seen from our own perspective, their effect can totally elude our notice, but their influence is wide ranging and far reaching.
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The Task

This project should be a favorite of the arts-and-crafts crowd. We're going to make a collage! And no, that won't be the whole project.
The collage should be a collection of images that obviously connect the idea of success with material wealth--a common trend in our culture. They won't be very hard to find, but finding the best ones for your collage may take some time.

The second part of the task is to write down your reflections on the whole question of what success means in this country and why that may be a shallow, dimensionless view. Surely you can think of a few other things people might want to succeed at than accumulating money and things.
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The Process

Magazine advertisements offer a good place to start in your search for images. Look for the kind of image that clearly tries to attach the idea of success to the idea of purchasing the (usually very expensive) product in the ad. Cut them out and arrange them attractively on a piece of poster board. As you do, give some thought to the billion-dollar industry that does nothing else but make you want stuff. They are very good at what they do!

NOTE: Good collages minimize the amount of background showing through by overlapping images in a creative way.

The reflection essay that accompanies the collage should show that you have given some thought to the issue of success outside the usual material sense of the word. While it is fine to utter platitudes (look it up!), this project asks you to think seriously about yourself and your relation to the people around you. Think it through!
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Resources

You may want to try the the image search features of altavista and google for this project. This may not work out too well, though, so don't spend too much time on it.


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Evaluation

The students who create the best collages and have the most obvious depth of thought in their essays will get the highest grades. Simple, right?

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Conclusion

If this project saves someone from being a modern-day Jay Gatsby or Willy Loman, it will have done its work. With all the voices on the materialistic side of the issue, another voice should have a chance to speak--your "inner voice" should be quite adequate!
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Designed by Michael Byers
Orange High School
Hillsborough, NC
Last updated June, 2008.
Based on a template from The WebQuestPage

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