Quote:
“As the American dream is packaged for mass consumption,
these isolated characters find themselves unnerved by its costs.” (172 Havrilesky)
Paraphrase:
A character called Peggy in AMC’s Mad Men has chosen to not detour
from the path of sticking to a single job. Along the way we see her give up
some of her personal dreams. Now she
struggles to find the balance between her happiness and her success. (174
Havrilesky)
Summary:
In the review, “Mad Men: Stillbirth
of the American Dream,” Heather Havrilesky describes how AMC’s T.V. series Mad Men parallels the transformation of
the American dream. She states that the American dream has developed into something
that can be bought. This T.V. series mirrors just that with characters such as
Don, who gave up his marriage with Betty to commit his life to a new ad
firm. Heather goes on to explain that
this reflects a lie that children are being told every day: you can have everything that you want. This can lead to a constant sense of
something missing or to making life changing decisions based on impulse instead
of wisdom. (In Don’s case, this is true.)
Havriesky observes that the character Peggy represents the other side of the
scale by sticking to a single career. We
have seen her achieve success on the path she has chosen. Sadly, she has had to
give up dreams to get this far. Heather Havrilesky concludes by stating that Mad Men represents the loss of the
spirit inside the citizens and the loss of the American dream.
No comments:
Post a Comment