Anglais: MYTHS AND HEROES.

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The third document is an extract from the magazine The American Cult of Consumerism from the 21st december 2008 and written by Tirdad Derakhshani. It talks about a black friday that didn't turn well. The black friday is a event that occurs after Thanksgiving and where the shops make extra sales on everything. Everybody become crazy due to the extremely low prices. But in 2008 the Black Friday was dark : an employee of a Walmart was trampled to death and four other were injured by a mob of frenzied shoppers. This article deals with the consumerism and the american consumer society who always wants more and more. The United States of America are supposed to be a wealthy country but their consumerism widens the gap between poor and rich, encourages a beastly and selfish behaviour, driving people crazy : here again, the American way of life myth is broken; it's often poor people or the one living with the minimum wage who act like this. This “american way of consumption” shows that the american economical system has still failures and even if people work hard, some can't get rich, as promised by the American dream. We can make a link between this document and another one : the Uncle San picture. It imitates the Oncle Sam one, but it's a creepy Santa Claus instead who says : “I want you to spend a lot to prove you love your family”. This translates one thing : America is ruled by money : if you don't have money, you can do anything but hoping for maybe earning some. This is the same thing all around the world but it's more relevant in America due to the spreading of the American Dream and American way of life saying that life is perfect here.

The American Dream and American Way of Life are the link between all those documents, but only Bruce Springsteen idolises it. This is why those are called myths and the heroes are not always the one we think. (pour finir, donner son avis personnel et essayer de faire une ouverture sur une autre notion).