The American Dream and Crash

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Annotated bibliography- The American Dream and Crash (2005)
Nicholas, John. "The American Nightmare." Pastoral Psychology 55.2 (2006): 243-245.
This is a review of the film Crash, focusing on the often ignored perspective many people do not achieve the American Dream. To highlight the interaction between power and race relations in Los Angeles is the conflict that emerges where different people come into contact. Lawrence points out that the depiction of Los Angeles as an urban area where drivers are in a different social economic class from those who do not own cars captures the changing realities in many U.S cities. When people collide there is a breakdown in barriers, which characterize racism and exploitation urban sprawl. It is in the unconscious state that people project what is far from ideal as characterized by conflict in the film. The unsavory side of the American Dream is thought to be the quest for dominance extending to the global stage with inequities between races resulting in segregation of racial and economic classes.
Gormley, Paul. “Crash and the City: Race and Rage on the Streets of L.A.” Intellect Quarterly 5 (2007): 24–26.
Gormley points out that depiction of Los Angeles is one where there is fragmentation, and this has been one of the challenges for Hollywood producers as they seek to tell stories involving people from different ethnicities in a disconnected space. However, the notion of ethnic diversity is seen in some way as potentially damaging some of the notions that underpin the American Dream. The article goes to look at films which have been set in Los Angles, but places more emphasis on Crash. One defining characteristic is that the films capture white racial rage, as though the white characters seek to clean up the streets as they attempt to restore the ‘All American life’. In Crash, there is a Hollywood and political narrative that depicts the U.S. as a melting point, where each person can overcome obstacles and influence their surroundings. Concerns about the loss of power seem to result in racial rage among some of the white characters. The African Americans also seem to accept that they are powerless ass they believe they cannot single-handedly deal with social and political obstacles.
Cohen-Marks, Mara A., and Christopher Stout. "Can The American Dream Survive The New Multiethnic America? Evidence From Los Angeles." Sociological Forum 26.4 (2011): 824-845.
This article the authors use a survey to assess people’s beliefs about the American Dream in the cosmopolitan Los Angeles area, dividing the groups based on racial and ethnic lines. The American Dream is mostly shared by the white people while the Black and Asian respondents surprisingly having a more pessimistic view, while the Latinos had a stronger sense of achievement. The s...