Bell tells a generational story about immigrants in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. Is this story a story of the American Dream? Does society still function like this today or have we grown past this kind of story being able to take place. What struck you as the most interesting or important part of this book? Does fiction help to explain the lessons of history better than non-fiction in cases such as this? Write a 200-300 word essay answering all of these questions.

The book that is to be read for this assignment is: Out of This Furnace: A Novel of Immigrant Labor in America by Thomas Bell.