Assertion #4 : Two Very Different Views

        According to the textual definition of the American Dream it's “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Yet both of the billboards shown are a “white idealistic” life. It's a white mother, white father, two white kids and a white dog heading towards their “dream”. It's the idealistic family for the Americans. There aren't any people of color including nor any other ethnicities. In order to be able to accomplish the American Dream a person must look as in these billboards, not only resemble like these characters but also having both parents, a boy and a girl plus a dog. There also happened the Great Depression, which is shown in the second billboard. There was no hope nor light nor anything to shine throughout the lives of these people but only the “ American Dream” but that was just a lie. There aren't many differences or diversities considering the “ American Dream”.
         
          In the billboards shown to compare one another displays the American Dream. The author who recreated the first billboard uses juxtaposition to compare both views of the American Dream. In the first image it offers the view of the author itself just as the second image portrays its author. The first image exhibits the view of a white “perfect” family, driving towards the same goal with the same mindset. It uses symbolism to signify the idealistic Americans and their goals. It's supposed to advertise how great America is and persuade the audience that white Americans is the way battling a mental fight. Stating “World's highest standard of living. There's no way like the American way.” while depicting white females and males with a bright daylight and bright future paves the way for another person to visualize their dream, their future as white people. In the second billboard the author uses an allusion to the Great Depression. It connects it by showing a line of depressed, saddened, a little filthy, human beings waiting in line walking the opposite way as the car is shown to be driving. Curtis Mayfield is deliberately tries to illustrate how if a person is not white they will not succeed in fulfilling their American Dream. They have been drawn 20 years apart, which shows how increasingly the dream, which is meant to last until America is no longer America, is deteriorating with a different meaning. The quote “There's no place like America today” implies that America has drastically negatively changed. Curtis Mayfield sets forth the drawing in which not only has the background changed but the emotions of the passengers in the car have changed.

           Curtis mayfield, as the second artist, shows the deterioration and changes of the American Dream throughout the many years however the first artist shows the how empowering white people were to the extent that not one person could show them differently. In spite of all of this, it has been proven that the American Dream is depicted by the person itself and who wants to believe it or not. Both of these artist have two very different views regarding this supposedly joke of a Dream.