Summary Of Robert Scholes's Essay 'The American Dream'
Martin Alejandro Ahumada Padilla
Professor Mathew Copeland
Rhetoric Written Argument 100
September 19, 2014
Essay on Robert Scholes’s On Reading a Video Text “The American Dream”, the myth America has built upon itself. What are the first images that pop in our minds when we hear this phrase? The big house? The perfect job? Living in a land of equal opportunities? That hard work will inevitably be rewarded with the deserved economical goods? The immigrant working for a better life? These are all heart-warming images that have been implanted into our conscious since we were little. “Implanted” seems like a harsh word though, it by definition is the action of inserting something into someone’s body. Kind of like a predetermined seed of ideas being burrowed deep into our minds. How can something as beloved as “The American Dream” be seen as an intruder to our conscious? Shouldn’t it be welcomed? “The American Dream” essentially promotes hard work and well-being doesn’t it? Unfortunately, everything is bound to have a malicious side to it. “The …show more content…
Art is at its core the expression of ideas. What makes authors of art different is the kind of ideas they create, and how they arrange them. The arranging part is incredibly important for a message to be powerful. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” wouldn’t be the same without the dreamy guitar chord and flute melody in the intro. We are first introduced to the backbone of the whole piece, which then is built upon and expanded with more musical ideas that still relate its introduction. This is also applies to Scholes’s example on the Budweiser commercial. First the ad sells us the umpire working hard for his place in the major leagues, after that sells us equality, then sells us “The American Dream”, and then proceeds to be cheeky and wants us to believe that the best reward for achieving your dreams is by drinking some decent Budweiser
Professor Mathew Copeland
Rhetoric Written Argument 100
September 19, 2014
Essay on Robert Scholes’s On Reading a Video Text “The American Dream”, the myth America has built upon itself. What are the first images that pop in our minds when we hear this phrase? The big house? The perfect job? Living in a land of equal opportunities? That hard work will inevitably be rewarded with the deserved economical goods? The immigrant working for a better life? These are all heart-warming images that have been implanted into our conscious since we were little. “Implanted” seems like a harsh word though, it by definition is the action of inserting something into someone’s body. Kind of like a predetermined seed of ideas being burrowed deep into our minds. How can something as beloved as “The American Dream” be seen as an intruder to our conscious? Shouldn’t it be welcomed? “The American Dream” essentially promotes hard work and well-being doesn’t it? Unfortunately, everything is bound to have a malicious side to it. “The …show more content…
Art is at its core the expression of ideas. What makes authors of art different is the kind of ideas they create, and how they arrange them. The arranging part is incredibly important for a message to be powerful. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” wouldn’t be the same without the dreamy guitar chord and flute melody in the intro. We are first introduced to the backbone of the whole piece, which then is built upon and expanded with more musical ideas that still relate its introduction. This is also applies to Scholes’s example on the Budweiser commercial. First the ad sells us the umpire working hard for his place in the major leagues, after that sells us equality, then sells us “The American Dream”, and then proceeds to be cheeky and wants us to believe that the best reward for achieving your dreams is by drinking some decent Budweiser