Texts can value the ideal of opportunity while questioning who can access it, how success is measured and what its pursuit costs.
Faglig kvalitetssikret av lærere og toppstudenter · Følger læreplanen (LK20) · Sist oppdatert 2026-09-14
Learning goal
Distinguish the promise of opportunity from actual access, barriers, costs and literary critique.
How to read this model
- Define the text's version of success.
- Separate promise from access.
- Identify barriers and costs.
- Analyse the literary techniques that expose the gap.
- State the text's qualified judgement.
Steps in the model
- Promise – Opportunity · self-making · mobility · a better life.
- Access – What resources, rights or recognition make pursuit possible?
- Barriers – Class · race · money · identity · luck · institutions.
- Success model – Home · dignity · wealth · status · independence — texts define it differently.
- Literary judgement – Reinforce, revise or critique this version of the dream.
Explanation
The American Dream is both a cultural-historical concept and a literary lens.
Strong analysis identifies the specific version of the dream a text constructs rather than treating the phrase as a fixed theme.
Examples
- The ideal and the critique can coexist.
- Compare texts on a shared dimension such as mobility, homeownership or material success.
For the exam
Do not ask only whether a character succeeds. Ask what the text counts as success and who can realistically pursue it.