Essay on Quentin Tarantino & His American Dream

Quentin Tarantino exemplifies the American Dream because he has achieved and maintained material success through his passion of directing, writing, and acting in films. Many people desire to live the American Dream. This involves gaining and maintaining of material success through ones passion. Quentin Tarantino exemplifies the American Dream because he has achieved and maintained material success through his passion of directing, writing, and acting in films.
Quentin Tarantino had an unusual childhood. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1963 to Tony and Connie Tarantino. Their marriage was just for Connie to get away from her family and they divorced before Quentin was born (Wild 3). After the divorce his mother took him to California when he was two years old, here he grew up in the Southbay area (Wild 3). Quentin frequented the movies and his mom exposed him to many films, many of which were restricted (Dawson 19). In school Quentin was recognized as very bright, he scored over 150 on IQ tests, yet he hated school ("Tarantino, Quentin" 559). As a result of his hatred of school, he soon became a truant and his mother decided it would be better for him not to go and she know where he is, rather than he not go and her not know where he was, so she allowed him to drop out when he was sixteen years old and still in the ninth grade (Dawson 22). Still a child, Tarantino entered the work force.

After Quentin dropped out of school he held various jobs. His first job was ushering at the Pussycat Theatre when he was sixteen (Dawson 22). While working there he began to take acting classes (Dawson 23). However, he soon quit the class. The reason he quit was because he wanted to become a director after he realized that actors have little control over their destiny, he thought directors did: "My favorite actors were character actors, and I realized they still had to read for parts. I didn't want to be fifty years old and reading for parts. I wanted some control over my own destiny, and it seemed to me that directors[had control over their destiny]"("Tarantino, Quentin" 559). However, he would never attend film school (Quentin Tarantino-All Movie Guide 1). The thought of wanting control over his destiny encouraged him to try his hand at directing.

On his rise to fame Quentin Tarantino faced many obstacles. One of the first obstacles that happened came with the first movie he ever did, My Best Friends Birthday, which was meant to showcase his and his friends acting ability, though it was never finished because a lab accident destroyed parts of the film (Dawson 27). His next obstacle came with his first scripts he wrote, True Romance and Natural Born Killers. Tarantino could not find backers for either film and he ended up selling True Romance (Dawson 39). Natural Born Killers he gave to his friend, Rand Vossler, and it eventually ended up in Oliver Stone's hands and was turned into an incredibly violent film which Tarantino wanted no part of (Dawson 47). Though he couldn't find financial backing for either film they helped demonstrate the talent Tarantino had.