Exploring the theme of Diaspora, this paper is an accompanying document for the documentary, A Dream Lost in Dream. It sheds light on the purpose, and process of producing this documentary. The main purpose for the production of this documentary has been described as initiation of healthy and casual dialog between diverse populations in America. It emphasizes the importance of creating visual media targeting masses rather than the elite. It is argued that it can act as a tool of awareness, reducing anxiety in the society. It also embarks on the production journey of the documentary A Dream Lost in Dream. The film is a portrayal of an East Indian immigrant struggling between economic survival, family issues and passion to fly.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed classic The Great Gatsby, written in 1925, poetically captures the zeitgeist of the roaring twenties, and has attracted considerable attention regarding the depiction of the American dream. Early critics argued that it offered a rendition of the quintessential American dream, claiming that the novel stays true to the dream’s original values. However, this analysis makes an effort to reveal the false materialistic values that corrupt and taint the vision of the original American dream projected in the narrative. More specifically, the analysis attempts to demonstrate that the core values of the American dream are gradually distorted and corrupted throughout the novel. Moreover, the novel is approached through the use of certain psychoanalytic concepts which are concerned with mental processes and constructions of personality. By applying these psychoanalytic concepts to Jay Gatsby, the analysis investigates the gradual perversion of the dream through a number of passages and pivotal moments throughout the novel as to showcase the reasons why the dream is perverted. The analysis concludes that the investigated events in fact demonstrate a gradual perversion of the American dream. Furthermore, the essay showcases a clear causal connection between the disrupted balance in the mental processes within Gatsby and the investigated events. The stressful events that Gatsby experiences prompt certain cognitive responses within Gatsby, causing him to pervert the American dream and its core values.

This dissertation examines whether place matters for Americans’ pessimism about the American Dream and if so, how place matters. First, I establish that place (conceptualized in terms of region and size of place) influences individual-level pessimism about the American Dream. Pessimism about the American Dream is measured with a General Social Survey (GSS) question on chances of improving one’s standard of living. I then use GSS data to analyze whether individual-level characteristics (race, sex, age, income, unemployment, educational attainment, marital status, and homeownership) help explain the influence of place on pessimism about the American Dream when respondents are nested in their county of residence; in other words, whether place matters because different places have different compositions of people. Next, I use GSS data merged with IPUMS USA (IPUMS) data to analyze whether county-level characteristics (race, sex, age, income, unemployment, educational attainment, marital status, and homeownership) help explain the influence of place on pessimism about the American Dream when respondents are nested in their county of residence; in other words, whether place matters because different places have different contexts. Finally, using the merged data, I analyze the interactions of the individual-level and county-level characteristics when respondents are nested in their county of residence; in other words, whether place matters differently for different people. While I am not able to quantify how much composition and/or context explain the influence of place on pessimism about the American Dream, I find that that different compositions of people in different places contributes to the influence of living in the Midwest compared to the Northeast. I also find that different age contexts in different places contribute to the influence of living in the Midwest compared to the Northeast, the influence of living in the West compared to the Northeast, and the influence of size of place (living in a suburban, exurban, micropolitan, and/or rural area compared to an urban area). County-level age is the only statistically significant county-level characteristic. My findings suggest that living in a county with a higher mean age is associated with increased odds of pessimism about the American Dream compared to living in a county with a lower mean age. I do not find any statistically significant interactions between the individual-level variables and the county-level variables. Throughout my dissertation, the influence of living in the South compared to the Northeast consistently remains statistically significant. I find that living in the South is associated with decreased odds of pessimism about the American Dream compared to living in the Northeast and that composition and context do not explain the influence of living in the South on pessimism about the America Dream. My findings suggest that the influence of living in the South on pessimism about the American Dream may be due to collective explanations, such as shared norms and values in the region. / Sociology

This ethnography of white farmers and industry workers considers the interconnections of privilege and property through farming and how white farmers and industry workers justify and explain existing disparities in who farms and who does not. Data for this ethnography is from semi-structured interviews with white farmers and industry workers, participant observation at agricultural events, and analysis of relevant materials published by agricultural organizations. The stories that white farmers and industry workers tell and share to explain white rural wealth related to agriculture and whiteness in farming ignore the ways in which property was and is distributed in the U.S. from the arrival of the first white Europeans until now and instead rely on individually centered explanations rooted in the ideology of the American Dream and colorblind racial ideology.

This project challenges the practice of preaching shamanistic prosperity-focused messages to Korean immigrant churches in the United States in order to construct a more liberative theological foundation for sermons and eventually offer an alternative form of immigrant preaching: “a psalmic-theological homiletic.” A shamanistic-prosperity gospel reinforces a mostly success-oriented way of life, owing to its heavy emphasis on God’s promises about individuals’ material rewards. Such a prosperity gospel syncretizes shamanistic beliefs with the American Dream in that it implicitly advises believers to “make it” in the capitalist economy and uphold the prevailing values created by the dominant group. Accordingly, the project not only examines the prosperity gospel and its problematic syncretism with the American Dream ideology, this project also offers a more appropriate immigrant theology for preaching by reclaiming the priorities of God’s future in our lives and confirming God’s active identification with Korean immigrant congregations in the depth of their predicament as immigrants. After offering a practical-theological construction, this project provides “a psalmic-theological homiletic,” critically adopting features from psalmic theology and its theological-rhetorical movement. My proposed homiletic relies on Claus Westermann who argued that the Psalms are honest public speeches about a realistic faith that can be practiced in the midst of suffering. Along with a critical reading of Westermann’s theoretical approach to the Psalms, my homiletic engages in dialogue with Eunjoo Mary Kim’s sermon. As a result, a psalmic-theological homiletic has a four-fold rhetorical movement inspired by and intended for Korean immigrant contexts: (a) lament, (b) retelling the biblical story, (c) confessional doxology, and (d) vow of obedience. This project gives its attention to the theological significance of these four rhetorical steps from the perspective of marginalized people. Its theological-rhetorical strategy intends to transform the immigrant congregation’s habitus of living in faith and to enhance their hope-filled life through communal anticipation of God’s coming future. The project concludes with homiletical-dialogical analyses of two Korean immigrant sermons. Examining their homiletical strengths and weaknesses, the analysis provides guidance for future Korean immigrant preaching to prompt a more faithful and transformative way of life for hearers.

This essay aims to analyze the play Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller from an Althusserian perspective, focusing on his theory on ideology and ideological apparatuses. The theory has been implemented by analyzing the main characters individually to decipher their ideological views and how they have been subjects of interpellation. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to examine which ideological apparatuses are displayed in the play and how they have influenced the characters. According to this interpretation of the play, they all believe success is reachable for everybody, depending on their status and how well-liked and admired they are. Their ideological views differ slightly among each character; however, the fundamental idea that a man is worthy and accomplished only through success is shared by everyone. The ideology that is predominant in the family can be described as the “American dream”. The conclusion is that the most influential interpellation that occurs in the play is from the family ideology apparatus, and that the interpretation of the ideology embraced by the family is what makes them fail to achieve their dreams.

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Desperate to post bail after the love of his life is seized by ICE, an undocumented dishwasher descends into the underbelly of California’s Central Valley and a bloody bidding war for the severed head of a man everyone is looking for.