The statue is of the upper body of a man, a hammer in one hand above his head, ready to pound down on the chisel he is holding in his other hand with a firm, steady grip. He is about to chip away at the craggy, shapeless slab of stone that will become the lower half of the body.
The hammer and the chisel represent the tools used to create the mself-made image. The man represents man, having already finished chiseling himself into a fit, workable body. The slab of rock below represents what will become, it represents the building of thr self-made man in action. It is the building of the rest of man.
The statue embodies one of the main ideas of the American Dream, and that is the building of a successful person through hard work and strenous effort. It represents how you can shape yourself to become your own image of success with your own tools.
In my chart, the characteristics I chose that I thought crucial to the success of the self-made man were: ambition, independance, sincerity and hard work. People who exemplify these characteristics were John Rockefeller, who was very ambitious and obssessively worked at his job, making important connnections and then becoming the richest man in American History. There was Frederick Douglass, who was an escaped slave and learnt to read and write which made him very respected and independant. Ben Franklin was very sincere about his job and life, he created the guidelines of moral perfection. Ross Perot worked very hard to become the founder of a company known as the technology powerhouse of America, and that included going through many company rejections, achieving as a successful salesman and honoring his school by placing high council positions.
The concept of the self made man is important to the American Dream because, usually, it involves a rags-to-riches story. A rags-to-riches story is a common theme in the American Dream. The man starts out as a son of someone obscure, he has a dream- an image of himself that he wants to become, he works hard in exploring the knowledge of his ambitions, in his education, he doesn't give up no matter how many obstacles and eventually becomes a highly successful man, probably wealthy and famous.
The hammer and the chisel represent the tools used to create the mself-made image. The man represents man, having already finished chiseling himself into a fit, workable body. The slab of rock below represents what will become, it represents the building of thr self-made man in action. It is the building of the rest of man.
The statue embodies one of the main ideas of the American Dream, and that is the building of a successful person through hard work and strenous effort. It represents how you can shape yourself to become your own image of success with your own tools.
In my chart, the characteristics I chose that I thought crucial to the success of the self-made man were: ambition, independance, sincerity and hard work. People who exemplify these characteristics were John Rockefeller, who was very ambitious and obssessively worked at his job, making important connnections and then becoming the richest man in American History. There was Frederick Douglass, who was an escaped slave and learnt to read and write which made him very respected and independant. Ben Franklin was very sincere about his job and life, he created the guidelines of moral perfection. Ross Perot worked very hard to become the founder of a company known as the technology powerhouse of America, and that included going through many company rejections, achieving as a successful salesman and honoring his school by placing high council positions.
The concept of the self made man is important to the American Dream because, usually, it involves a rags-to-riches story. A rags-to-riches story is a common theme in the American Dream. The man starts out as a son of someone obscure, he has a dream- an image of himself that he wants to become, he works hard in exploring the knowledge of his ambitions, in his education, he doesn't give up no matter how many obstacles and eventually becomes a highly successful man, probably wealthy and famous.