This TED Talk was a very inspiring and factual speech about how the American Dream should be reinvented to fit the 21st century ideals and values. Courtney Martin is a well respected author and journalist who is also a young adult with a family, not only is she well educated but she is an adult who is living in modern times who is seeing all of these issues with the old fashion ideal of the American dream first hand. This gives her the credibility and experience to give honest facts and opinions about this topic. Martin uses logos to get her point across by giving hard hitting facts and statistics. However, she uses pathos as well by telling her audience about her fathers poverty growing up and how that shaped both her and her father to be finically responsible and help others who are not. Martin argues that people need to reinvent their ideals of the American dream; times are changing, the economy is changing, communities are changing. Jobs are getting harder and harder to find, and she says "by 2020 nearly half of Americans will be freelancers" (Martin) . Whole industries are being born and dying everyday, and without jobs you can not make money, and without money you can't have a home or a family or anything that makes up this common ideal of the American dream. She argues that this idea we have of the white picket fence no longer exist, she goes onto say that "Nearly 5 million people lost their home during the great recession" (Martin). However, she talks about how she lives in a co-housing community on 1.5 acres of land with 9 units. 25 people live their of all different ages, political persuasions, religion, and so on. Every home is different and has everything a typical home would have but they eat together twice a week. What she was getting at by telling her audience all of this is that community is key. Statistically teens are both happier and healthier when then have adults other than their parents to rely on and talk to, turns out parents are happier as well. Martin does a very good job of keeping her audience engaged and agreeing her points by breaking her talking points into questions and giving personal facts about her life and things she has experienced first hand, and also showing pictures of the co-housing community she lives in
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This speech relates to the American dream by challenging it. It takes the common idea of the American dreams and asks why? This speech argues for the idea of a new or current American dream. It connects to the global dream because by having this new ideal of the American dream it will make America better and therefore make the world better. This speech also connects to the poem we read called "The American Dream" by Amy Wichita because they both incorporate real and up-to-date issues into the American dream. They both challenge the traditional term of the dream. "It is more than a dream now, it's a reality that the millions have made... To indolent teenagers with smoke circling" (Wichita)
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I really enjoyed this speech. I think that the American dream should be more up-to-date and I thought this was a very good explanation of why. I learned about this new choosing way of living and find it very interesting. I also learned about the desperate need for jobs in America.
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