ENG 2150 Gimme Shelter: the spaces we live in

The American’T Dream

This lengthy, but overall very powerful spoken word speech represents the ‘stream of consciousness’ of Americans across the country. It is a satire on the rags to riches notion that is commonly associated with the American Dream and effectively persuades the listeners into thinking on the speaker’s train of thought. His clever use of word association and word play create an easily understandable speech which listeners can tune into with little difficulty. He accurately dissects the mindset of many Americans and immigrants who come to America seeking the various opportunities available. This speech could be an example of James’ idea of substantive and transitive states of mind; the word play building as a transition to the punchlines, the substantive state. He establishes his individual thoughts and proceeds to bring the listeners into his ‘stream of consciousness’. He breaks the idea of my thought is mine and your thought is yours, combining the two into a single flow. Just like thought, his speech is logically continuous and rational in its entirety.