The American Dream : A New Nation

America, known as the nation of chance and flexibility, where any man or lady can come and have a reasonable shot at accomplishing the coveted objective usually alluded to as "The American Dream." To many, effectively getting the American dream implies having a steady 2 parent family, with money related success, and rich in political and social opportunities. This "fantasy" be that as it may, is all the more effectively accomplished by specific individuals over others, and in spite of the fact that America prides itself on being the place where there is the "opportunity" and "correspondence", those words serve all the more unequivocally as a wellspring of false reverence and incongruity. One's race, economic

We have all heard of this intense rollercoaster ride that we are on called the American Dream. The term was coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931 defining it as “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” Since it’s arrival, the Dream has evolved from a pursuit towards “freedom, mutual respect, and equal opportunity” (Shiller) to later one of greed described by Shiller as being “excessively lustful about homeownership and wealth” beginning in the 1960s. Traditionally, the American Dream included features of a nuclear family, that is one with a breadwinning father, a housewife, and two kids, owning a white picket fence home, thriving without financial worries, and a happy family. There has been a shift in focus for the Dream caused by the Millennial generation and in turn they have included features that place an emphasis on equality in all aspects of their lives from family life to the workplace placing their own twist on the Dream. The American Dream has evolved over time to include equal opportunities, college education, and happy family.

David Kamp's 2009 Vanity Fair article "Rethinking the American Dream" focuses on the general perception of the ‘American Dream’ and how it has evolved throughout our nation’s history. It clearly states that as the average American household's lifestyle has become more and more consumer-oriented, the original spirit that invigorated and united its people from the age of western expansion to the Great Depression has begun to fade. The dream has been dampened as the vision of "success" has become more focused on gaining material/getting rich quick, rather than working hard all throughout one’s life to attain what they want and desire.

The American Dream has always been a driving force in the lives of Americans. It has become a foundation of ideals and hopes for any American or immigrant. Specifically, one of the ideals that always exist is the dream of America free of class distinction. Every American hopes for a society where every person has the opportunity to be whomever he or she desire. Another ideal in the American dream is the drive to improve the quality of life. As one’s idea of the American Dream gets closer and closer, often times political and social ideals of America cause their American Dream to take a turn for the worst.

The american dream which is idolized by all the world, is an ethos ideology that guarantees the opportunity towards prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few speed bumps along the way. The transparent idea that one idea can change your life. Throughout history people each for their big break some stumbling upon it and others letting the american dream only be a tumble weed blowing away but still in sight. A constant reminder of what the american people wish to pursue their entire life. All people in America have the very freedoms the allow them to pursue this dream so of which include, democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and

Two words that inspire much conversation, thought, and even tension are the words American Dream. What is it? How do we achieve it? Is it even possible? Back when our country was first founded, the idea of the American Dream was people looking for a “new life” would come America to gain more opportunity. A very important document to our nation is the Declaration of Independence. This document highlights the concept of the American Dream when it declares, “All men are created equal” and also when it states the inalienable rights of each man are, “ life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” Equality, life liberty and happiness are significant points in the dream every American seeks to achieve.

The American Dream is indefinable. There is no one set of words or characteristics that the entire population assigns directly to its definition. With the American population consisting of people of various races, ethnicities, ages, classes, and genders, it seems trivial to even attempt to attribute a single definition to the concept of the American Dream. It is this inability however, to be confined within one single meaning, that allows for the American Dream to govern the desires and goals of the large and diverse American population. And, regardless of all of the heterogeneity within society, the American Dream is generally a goal of all American peoples. In examining this idea, I began to think about the specific meanings attributed to the American Dream for different types of individuals. I broadly outlined the American Dream for myself, to represent the belief in hard work as a pathway to success and raising oneself in society. Consequently, this higher position in society allows for the possession of increased amounts of power. My definition however, neglects to take into account the certain other societal constructs that could possibly have a decisive role in how to both define and achieve the American Dream for the wide variety of people who pursue it.

The American Dream as previously stated is an unequal construction, dependent on the economic, political, and social states of its society. Although these factors change how and who gets to achieve the American Dream, the universal hope of accomplishing this Dream has not changed, as individuals are still optimistic about their hard work translating into upward mobility. The chances, though, for their hard work to become the Dream have drastically changed due to economic, political, and social fluctuations. This is evident within second-generation immigrants, as the cohorts prior and after 1985 encountered different prospects. Gans (1992), for instance, perceived that there would be a decline in the new second generation, due to the

American Dream: Noun, the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American. That is the definition of the American dream according to Dictionary.com, but the American Dream is more than a definition, but a way of life for many. Millions of immigrants come to our country in search of this “American Dream” including my grandparents but more and more are disappointed. So does the American Dream exist? Has it ever existed or has it all been an illusion?

The American Dream has long been worshipped and held as an ideal in our nation for decades. One day settling down with a family of four and living in the suburbs was once held as the perfect end to an American fairytale dream, but as the housing crisis of 2008 tore through the market and threatened the dreams of countless families. Unfortunately millennials grew up watching the housing crash tear at the hearts of their parents and threaten to divide families from their homes. As a result, millennials see the American Dream differently than previous generations. Instead of dreaming to one day own a home, millenials see the American Dream as the opportunity for freedom to explore the world and decide where they shall land. The American Dream has changed from the destination to the journey.

Why risk it all for a dream that is dead? The American dream is defined as having your desired career, home and family. Although many believe that the American dream is attainable, the truth is the American dream is not attainable because college tuition is expensive, there’s low wages and unemployment rate.

America throughout time has been known as a country for opportunity and freedom, where anyone can come and have a fair chance at living their “American Dream.” The stereotypical American dream is having a two parent family, with stable income, owning a home with a white picket fence with two children. But the reality of America is that this “dream” is achieved more easily by white men. Even though America is supposedly “The land of the free” and provides “Liberty and Justice for all”, these statements are more of a source of irony than truth. In America a person’s social status, race, and gender play a large role in their ability to achieve the American dream. The color of one’s skin, how much money and social influence a person has, and what physical anatomy they contain affect how hard it is to attain their American dream. So the reality of America is that it is not as an equal opportunity land for everyone to achieve their dreams as it is thought to be.

Land of Opportunity, Home of the Brave, and Land of the Free often come to mind when envisioning the United States for most individuals around the world. Through the media, America and the American Dream is depicted as the salvation for poverty, sorrow, and hardship. The Founding Fathers invented the American Dream, offering life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, an abundance of immigrants were falling short of possessing the American Dream and slowly began to realize that these alluring portrayals were merely a facade. Wealthy and influential corporations needed to revitalize the American Dream before it would dissolve amongst the masses. In order to keep American deception ongoing, a new American Dream was implemented into society. This time, it was not affecting individuals’ careers and lifestyles, it was affecting their identity and their consumerist behavior. The ‘American Dream’ embodies the accessibility of opportunities, the longing for social acceptance, and the yearn for economic acquisition (awk). Consumerism harvests this elusive ‘dream’ by perpetuating an ideology of an ‘empty identity’ through media marketing, corporate imperialism, and the limitless consumption of brands that construct identity.

In the warm sunny state of Florida, on a February afternoon, my mother’s parents made their way to the hospital to pick up their daughter in their new baby blue Chevrolet Impala. Adoption only took weeks to finalize the paperwork. It was 1958 and my grandmother and grandfather were both in their early twenties. My grandfather just arrived back from Vietnam fighting for his country. In the suburbs of Tampa, they lived in a quaint residential neighborhood, and each house had a striking green grass lawn with a white picket fence. As you pass by you could see the occasional neighbor watering their lawn, or the neighborhood children playing kickball in the street. The houses came in all hues of neon colors including mint green, pink, yellow, and the occasional mint blue. This was the American Dream.

What once was a small box of white crayons is now an olympic-sized swimming pool full of every color and shade imaginable. The United States of America houses almost every ethnic group on earth, and it is more diverse than it has ever been. The funny thing is, the American Dream has not changed since it was first coined in 1931 by writer James Truslow Adams. He brilliantly describes it as “a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position"(Columbia University). It is this dream itself that attracts and lures people from every corner. The American people do not change this dream, but the dream draws close the people that wish to attain it. Adams specifies that the dream is not achieving the height of fame or wealth, but rather that each person arrives at the destination they always hoped to arrive. The Millennial generation is neither abandoning Adam’s American dream nor changing it- they are bringing it back to it’s original meaning. Millennials are buying homes less than previous generations because they have seen the devastating effects of marital hardship, not the Great Recession.