Critique of the american dream

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

download word file, 3 pages 3.0

Downloaded 5 times

Critique of The American Dream I think Michael Moore's documentary Roger and Me can be compared to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' "The Silent Partner." Perley, the fiancé of the owner of the mills visited a couple of poor families. The poor people in who visited, basically were in the same situation as the poor people in Flint, Michigan in Roger and Me. Maverick, the owner of the mills and can be compared to Roger Smith, because neither of them chose to listen to reason.

Sip Garth's home was not a pleasurable place to live. It was described as "a damp house and she rents the dampest room in it; a tenement boasting of the width of the house, and a closet bedroom with a little cupboard window in it; a low room with cellar smells and river smells about it, and with gutter smells and drain smells and with unclassified smells of years settled and settling in its walls and ceiling."(Phelps,

534) Sip is poor; this home was all she could afford. She had to work and take care of her deaf sister Catty. Perley experienced first hand the conditions in which Sip lived. She also visited the home of Bub Mell. Perley noticed that like Sip Garth's home, Bub Mell's home had a strong and unpleasant odor. There were holes in the steps and the walls were crumbling. There were six children, Bub's sick mother and his father living in the house. The father did not work and basically depended on his children to work and support the family. Bub worked at age eight even though he was too young. These can be compared to the conditions presented in Roger and Me. The woman who slaughtered rabbits was very poor and lived in a run-down home. All she...