Prompt:
The film Real Women Have Curves illustrates a number of ways in which Unit II’s themes intersect as obstacles to achieving success. Pick and use at least three readings (listed below) in addition to the film to explain how gender, class, education and traditional culture (as seen in the film) can influence peoples’ pursuit of the American Dream.
Instruction:
o No less than 750 words and no more than 850 words
o Use the quote to support your argument – Sources must be cited in the essay using proper MLA in-text citations
Example: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).
o Works cited page should include all of the sources used in the essay including films and websites
Sources:
Bellafante, “Before a Test, a Poverty of Words”
Coontz, “Gay Marriage Isn’t Revolutionary: It’s Just the Next Step in Marriage’s Evolution”
Ehrenreich and J. Ehrenreich, “The Making of the American 99% and the Collapse of the Middle Class”
Gates, “Forty Acres and a Gap in Wealth”
Hossfield, “Gender, Race and Class in Silicon Valley”
Keyssar, “The Strange Career of Voter Suppression”
Kim, “Against ‘Bullying’ or On Loving Queer Kids”
Lerner, “The Patriarchal Family”
Lui, “The Economic Reality of Being Latino/a in America”
Memmi, “Assigning Value to Difference”
Singh, “Testimony”
Stein, “Construction of an Enemy”
Additional Text Readings
Laura Gottesdiener, A Dream Foreclosed: Black America and the Fight for a Place to Call Home (2013)
Web Articles
King, “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”
