American Dream

When I think about the American Dream I immediately associate it with immigrants. Since middle school, during the immigration unit in history class we learn about the aspirations of immigrants from hearing about the American Dream. This dream looks different to everybody depending on their own aspirations and goals in life. A generality of the American Dream is closely related to the business industry. The idea that every person can create and start-up their own business and grow it into a well known company. This is very hard to accomplish and most people are unable to achieve this dream; however, some do. The American Dream has an independent and opportunistic aspect to it for everybody. The idea of freedom to create and to dream is something unique to this country. The opportunities here are plentiful, which is why so many immigrants desire to move to America, "the Land of the Free."

The aspect of wealth is also closely associated to the American Dream. This concept of wealth is different for each individual based on their beliefs and philosophies. To me, wealth is defined as happiness and living a life of pure joy. Also, wealth is how much money or authority an individual has over others. This concept of wealth is displayed in The Great Gatsby. Through this idea, othering is a main factor in attaining wealth because you put yourself on a higher status than others (which is how some can attain wealth). Even though there are many definitions of wealth, there is only one main definition of poverty, which encompasses all nations. Poverty is the lack of money to be able to live a prosperous and happy life. Many Americans try to help those who are in poverty because there are so many who live below the poverty line in America. This image of America is hidden away so that other countries wont see it. Instead, America flaunts the fact that Americans fly to other countries to help there people who are in poverty.

Americans see both poverty and wealth differently in that poverty is always a misfortune while wealth can be either good or bad. People who are wealthy have the ability to make a huge impact on their community and spend their money wisely. On the other hand, some people who are wealthy with money acquire their money by saving and not spending. This frugal characteristic will not serve them well when judged by the American people.

Importance of Translations

When looking at the translations of Kafka's Metamorphosis, there are multiple different factors that are affected when the sentence structure and the words are changed. Let's look at a couple of translations and determine what is affected:

#1: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." This translation overall gives a nonchalant statement. The diction found makes it sound like he found his favorite coffee mug, but it is describing how he "found" himself as a bug! Without a comma after dreams, it gives a flow throughout the sentence. The word transformed creates the correct mood because it associates with metamorphosis more so than just the word "changed." This long sentence without a comma gives the reader and uneasiness because it has no comma after the first clause. The word uneasy is a connotation for bad dreams, which helps to create the nonchalant tone. The image that this sentence creates is shady because of the descriptor words. Since the descriptors uneasy and gigantic are not strong descriptors, the reader is left to interpret the image. 

#2:"Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug." This short sentence is quick and to the point. The diction changed, giant, and bug all help to create a surprised tone. Changed, giant, and bug makes the sentence sounds less educated and formal which creates an image of the character. Through these words, I see Gregory as a young kid. The structure is important because it adds to the abruptness of the sentence.  The use of the comma, however, contradicts my original idea of the character. I would expect an exclamation point instead of a comma. 

#3: "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug." This sentence alludes to a shock factor which gets the reader on his or her toes! The diction used like troubled, transformed, found, enormous and bug. The denotation of troubled brings a dark perspective while the other sentence uneasy uses a good connotation. The word bug is a very broad term that describes all pests that crawl and fly. With room to imagine the worst possible bug, the reader paints an image of a nasty, enormous, creepy bug! Without the comma, the sentence flows and is more abrupt which contributes to the shock factor. 

#4: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin." I think this translator wanted to make up for the lack of commas in all of the other sentences.... All of these commas add suspense because the reader pauses one, two, three, FOUR times! The diction agitated and monstrous vermin create a serious tone. I'm not sure what vermin is, so that adds a sophisticated factor to the sentence. This factor allows the reader to imagine Gregor as an older man who is educated.