Study Guide to “Dreaming America”
Facts about the text ”Dreaming America”
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Title: Dreaming America
Year of publication: 1975
Genre: Poem
Background
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American author who has ...
Opening a poem
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Read and re-read
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Paraphrase of ”Dreaming America”
In this section we present a short paraphrase of the poem. This is solely
meant as a way of helping you understand the poem, and you should not
include a paraphrase such as this one in your paper.
First stanza (The widening of a two-lane highway)
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Second stanza (The linking of highways and the bulldozing of cornfields)
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Third stanza (The pavement of fields and the building of gas stations, bill board signs and restaurants)
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Fourth stanza (The opening of a shopping mall)
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Fifth stanza (The feeling of being lost)
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