"Breathing dreams like air..."

1. How would you describe the “American Dream?”

The dictionary definition of the American Dream is "The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative." This is a very shallow definition of the American Dream because I think there is more to it than just achieving success. I definitely agree with the definition, but I think the American Dream is whatever someone personally wants it to be.  There is no universal "American Dream." It is basically the reason everyone doesn't just go jump off a cliff right now. It is our purpose for living that we work towards for our whole lives and truly never fully reach because they are always just out of reach. I may not have the same wishes and dreams about where I want my future to take me as my friends or peers do. Yes, I obviously want to be successful and hard work is necessary, but my values in life are different from others. I don't really know where I want to be in 5-10 years from now but what I do know is that I want to be happy, healthy, have more confidence in myself than I do now, and just shape into a better person. I hope that being fortunate enough to live in America will present me with opportunities and the ability to achieve these goals. Others may not be worried about these values as much and will hope instead that America allows them to become very wealthy, become a celebrity, create a new invention, etc. Overall, these are all successes, but I feel like you can't assign one definition to the "American Dream."  

2./3. What is your definition of wealth?/What are Americans’ attitudes toward wealth and poverty?

The dictionary definition of wealth is, "An abundance of valuable possessions or money." Once again, if you are just looking on the surface, this is a great definition, but when you really take into account society and what it values, the meaning can be taken much deeper. When you do this, wealth can be described as security, power, safety, happiness, dignity, respect, and pride. Our society in America and throughout the world, places great importance on wealth and money, maybe even the highest importance. You are in the high class in America with a lot of money and are taken more seriously/looked up upon by lower classes. People yearn to be in your position. For example celebrities have a boat load of money and everyone loves them, they are almost treated as better than human. When looking at the Great Gatsby and the 20s era, wealth was becoming a very important part of America, because it comes up a great deal in the book. Gatsby is the man everyone yearns to be, representing the unattainable "American Dream." Everyone else in the story admires him and wants his life, but in reality Gatsby is alone with all of his wealth and that is not a way to live life.

4. What is your attitude toward wealth and poverty?

I feel like wealth is definitely of great importance to me, but it is not everything like so many people think it is. It is sad how we place so much importance on wealth because there is more to life then being rich. Yes having money is important in living a happy life but love, friendship, and success are way more important. I do not understand women who marry older men just for the money and do not actually love them. I would much rather be with a person who I really love and does not have much money then be with somebody just for the money. Love trumps wealth to me. Now I think people in poverty definitely have a different take on this because they have such little amount of money that they are on the brink of dying, so to them, wealth is everything. However, once you get past having your basic needs, wealth becomes less and less important. Honestly I think the sweet spot is the middle class. You are not living pay check to pay check, but you also cannot just go around buying whatever you want. That is like my family and I am really happy with our situation. Having too much money can make a person unhappy because you can start to become materialistic just like Americans in the 20s after WW1.

Nothing Really Mattress?: Kafka, Camus, and the Importance of Translation

Quote 1:
Diction: The words that stood out the most for me were "awoke," "uneasy," "gigantic," and "insect." All of these words are more elegant then every day speak. So I would consider this translation to have fancy diction and is not only trying to get a point across about what has happened, but the translator is also trying to portray the time period it took place in where people spoke more elegantly (published in 1915).
Syntax/Structure: I think structure and syntax go hand in had in this sentence. For the most part, the sentence feels smooth to read, but the ending seems a little confusing when it says "found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." I feel like the way this part of the sentence is structured seems is out of order. I think it would make more sense to say "he found himself transformed into a gigantic insect in his his bed." It flows better and is more easily comprehendible. But once again the translator probably structured the sentence in this way to stay with the convention of how people talked or were used to reading novels.
Imagery/details: The use of "As Gregor Samsa awoke" instead of "when" or "one day" it makes the audience feel more like it is occurring right then instead of in the past. It makes the audience feel more like they are there when he is waking up instead of getting a retelling of the event. The use of gigantic insect instead of just "big" or no adjective at all creates a picture in the audiences mind of what Gregor might look like because "gigantic" is a stronger more meaningful word. Also transformed creates more imagery instead of using "changed" because it gives that sense that he is something completely new instead of just looking different in some way but not totally different.

Quote 2:
This quote is the most simple one, using more elementary words like "woke" instead of "awoke," "changed" instead of "transformed," "giant" instead of "gigantic," and "bug" instead of "insect." The purpose of using simple words is to make it easier to comprehend, appealing to more audiences. In terms of imagery, I really did not picture too much with this quote compared to others because of how simple, short, and to the point this sentence was. The syntax was smooth and the sentence was structured in a way that made perfect sense unlike the previous quote. I like this translation for the fact that it is easy to understand, but I do not like how it does not show the true language technique abilities of the original author. I also wonder why this translation is the only one that does not have "in his bed" included and the name Gregory is used instead of Gregor. The translator's main goal here seems to be to just tell the story and is not as focussed on keeping to Franz Kafka use of different language devices. The audience feels somewhat detached from this translation because of the way the translator words the part that says, "to find himself" instead of how the last version worded it as "he found himself." This translation makes it seem like this event has already occurred and we are listening to someone retell the event instead of us as the audience witnessing the event for ourselves. Overall, there is not as much emotion in this version as I would like to have in a text of this subject matter

Quote 3:
This translation is similar to the first one in its descriptive diction choices except for the use of "troubled," "enormous" and "bug." This one is a mix between the first and second, with the diction being not as simple as the second but not as fancy as the first. I find the structure of this sentence to be understandable and more descriptive but definitely choppy. The use of the word "troubled" instead of "uneasy" makes the dream seem more serious. The use of the word "when to start out the sentence conveys the meaning that this event happened in the past and he noticed the difference in his body right away. The same imagery occurs as in the first quote.

Quote 4: 
This translation is the most different one in all aspects. To start off, the diction that stood out was "awakening" "agitated" "monstrous" and "vermin." I thought this one was the most interesting translation because it created the most imagery through the words "monstrous" and "vermin." You can really picture how awful he must look. The syntax and structure was much different as well. The sentence contained many commas, making it very choppy and longwinded. 

Through analyzing these 4 versions of the same beginning sentence, I have realized that by changing a few words and the structure, it can greatly change the way an action is perceived, even if it the exact same event. Some of the translations used more elegant diction, creating a more proper tone and some used very simple diction creating a more straightforward result. By the use of differing words some sentences made the action seem in the present and some in the past. In one of the sentences the author just wanted to get the action across but not show any emotion because he wanted to stay simple and appeal to broader audiences. However others used more literary techniques to seem more emotional and meaningful.

I think the most effective translation is the 3rd one because it is not to complex but it contains a good amount of imagery and emotion. I like the use of "troubled dreams" instead of "uneasy" because it seems more severe. I don;t like the second one because it is too simple and barely has any literary devices or emotion.