• The Long Walk Home, Dir. Richard Pearce, 1990
1. Read the articles on the American Dream provided to help formulate ideas for an argument on the American Dream and its connection to film.
2. Develop a thesis that is an argument for a research paper based on the film your group selected (The long walk home). In this essay your thesis should make an argument about the way the film represents the American dream. This thesis should include a clear argument and main ideas that prove the argument (See Essay Overview above. Also see Sample Thesis statement below).3. Then create a topic sentence outline to support your thesis. Be sure your outline has clear topic sentences for each body paragraph and uses evidence to support the topic sentences. (Be sure to re-visit the information on Outlines in the General Resources in the Unit and General Resources link.)
4. Include textual evidence from at least FOUR scholarly sources to support your views (you may use any of the sources from the annotated bibliographies your group created). Feel free to research additional scholarly sources.
5. Include MLA-formatted in-text citations for each quote/paraphrase
6. Finally, create a works cited page based on the sources you researched and used in your outline. These are the sources you will include in your essay. Your works cited must have at least 4 sources in all — including a citation for the film. (Remember you must not include sources in your works cited that are not used in the essay; nor may you use sources in the essay that are not cited in the works cited.)
Articles About the American Dream in General and in Film
• “King Preaches the American Dream” – July 4, 1967 (Source: Marin Luther King Jr. Research and Educational Institute. ( http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry)/doc_the_american_dream/
• What Makes Superman So Darned American? by Gary Engle
Articles that introduce the concept of the American Dream in Film:
• Business As Usual: The American Dream in Hollywood Business Films. By Pileggi, Mary S., Grabe, Maria Elizabeth, Holderman, Lisa B.
de Montigny, Michelle. Source: Mass Communication & Society; Spring/Summer2000, Vol. 3 Issue 2/3.
• Awakening from the American Dream: The End of Escape in American Cinema? by Deneen, Patrick J. Perspectives on Political Science; Spring2002, Vol. 31 Issue 2.
• The American Dream in Film by J. Rosenbaum (a Slideshare document)