Jacob Kanka

3-11-2016
Individual Response - Round 3 Performance
For performance round 3, our group decided that we wanted to focus our personal
narratives around the concept of the American Dream. More specifically, how the concept of
the American Dream affects us and our peers. What does it mean to live the American Dream?
Does it describe an ideal that is no longer realistic, or even unobtainable? How does the
American Dream affect the ways in which we live? Through our performance, we hope to
illuminate a few different key facets of this phenomenon. Our ultimate goal is to help the
audience reflect upon the ways in which societys expectations affect us, and whether or not
those ways are conducive to our happiness.

Each member of our group has chosen a personal narrative that describes their
relationship with the American Dream. These narratives have been tailored to explore different
aspects of our central theme. Through spatial relationship and recurring motifs, our performance
aims at delivering these narratives in a cohesive way. Each member of the performance can be
considered as representing the narrative that they bring. By extension, the interactions between
each performer can be viewed as an interaction between two facets of our central theme. These
relationships are key to adding additional depth and interactivity to the performance.

My personal section of the performance is centered around the idea of practicality.

Essentially, the way that the American Dream informs our decision-making, especially when it
comes to major life goals. When we think of practical decision-making, what do we mean? In
this context, a choice should be considered practical if it moves us closer to an ideal situation.

If this is true, then what is, culturally-speaking, the ideal situation? Collectively, we have
it in our heads that we should know what we want to do for the rest of our lives by 18, have a

Jacob Kanka
3-11-2016
career by 25, marry by 30, and so on. These ideals and expectations are the guidelines by
which we make all of our major life choices- if youre not meeting these deadlines, youve made
poor choices, or something may very well be wrong with you. We constantly see messages like
this in media- the only people who dont have a career at 30 are chronically lazy or unintelligent,
and people who choose to major in what they enjoy are often looked down upon.

If people are looked down upon for not conforming to these standards, then we have an
obligation to follow them- more accurately, we are being threatened into following them. While
this fact alone can be considered unhealthy, the situation is made worse when our personal
desires are put at odds with societys expectations of us. Its often said that if you get a job doing
what you love then youll never work a day in your life. But what happens when the thing you
love doing doesnt pay?

You end up having to choose between doing what you love and doing what will put you
closer to the American ideal. You sacrifice personal fulfillment to avoid being mocked for having
a useless major. Youll be made to think that what you want to do will never land you a job, but
youll never have to bother with finding out because youll be too busy doing whats practical.
This is how I felt choosing to major in Computer Science instead of majoring in Art.

While this experience does not ultimately fight against the master narrative that is the
American Dream, it makes plain one of its many contradictions. Were expected to make a living
doing what we love to do, but when what we love to do doesnt pay, were forced to choose
between the American Dream and what we want for ourselves. For those who have been forced
to make a similar choice, I hope it helps them understand the nature of the American Dream,
and what it means to be practical. Other similar themes, such as the ridiculousness of being

Jacob Kanka
3-11-2016
expected to choose a career as a teenager, will be tied together with this narrative and delivered
as a unified performance. By vocalizing the glaring flaws in our outdated ideals, we hope to
reveal that the American Dream is, in fact, a nightmare.