Author’s Note
My interview subject was R, a 44-year-old man currently living in the West and working in education. R and I are different in a few demographic categories. First, he identifies as male and I identify as female, and he is older than I am. We are both White, but he is West European and grew up in Europe, while I am from other West European countries and grew up in the United States. Also, R is Jewish, whereas I was raised Catholic. These demographic differences set us up to have a meaningful conversation about different perceptions of the American Dream as they are created overseas.
For my project, I transformed our discussion into a series of four collage images, each one representing a part of R’s story and his own American Dream. The first image compiles elements from R’s childhood growing up in the West Europe and coming to realize which parts of his identity are important to him. The second image depicts some of the media that R mentioned was influential on his perception of the U.S., including movies that often didn’t hit the West Europe until years after their release.
The third image shows the more stereotypical notion of the American Dream that R explained to me felt like the same idealistic utopia to him that we discussed in class toward the beginning of the semester. Finally, the last image portrays R’s identity and his American Dream now, as a mix of his job in education, his West European roots, and his American home.
R is…
- 44 Years-Old
- Male, Cisgender
- White
- American, West European
- Atheist, Jewish
- Upper Middle Class
- Heterosexual