The American Dream Analysis

What is the American Dream? Is it home ownership, gaining fame or wealth, having a great family or is it gaining a peace of mind? Many people have different versions of what the American Dream is, some people believe the dream is lost, and some people are right in the middle and still believe the American Dream is still alive. “The American Dream” by Brandon King debates about what the true state is left in the American Dream now. Throughout the essay, King asks if the American Dream is dead, alive, on hold or just changing due to economic hardship. King believes that the American Dream is still alive even though there are people who believe it's not, and is defined today as the ability to work hard, plan for the forthcoming and have a

The American Dream was a well thought idea during the creation of the Declaration of Independence; in fact, the original belief of the American Dream was that all Americans could pursue “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (McQuade and Atwan). Furthermore, today the American Dream is an ideal thought to the overall strive for success. According to Kimberly Amadeo, a well-known author, she elaborated in her article What is the American Dream Today “… a focus on more of what really matters, such as creating a meaningful life, contributing to community and society, valuing nature, and spending time with friends and family” (Kimberly Amadeo). Creating the American Dream, controlling decisions, and building a life that can carry out success

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.

In her 1961 essay “What Has Happened to the American Dream?”, Eleanor Roosevelt stated that “no single individual and no single group has an exclusive claim to the American dream...but we have all a vision of what it is, not merely as a hope and an aspiration, but as a way of life, which we can come ever closer to attaining its ideal form if we keep our belief in its essential value”. The belief of pursuing the American dream is one that has been instilled since the formation of the country itself, and with those beliefs come those who pursue it. Unfortunately, achieving this dream is not without difficulty, and those who realize the true obstacles in front of them turn to other ways to sustain themselves in this nation. Not everyone has an equal opportunity to pursue the American dream because of social exclusion, the government prioritizing the wrong issues, and economic gaps, which has thus led to organized crime, however some say that all citizens do have the equal opportunity.

“What is the true state of the so-called “American Dream” today? Is it still around, waiting to be achieved by those who work hard enough, or is it effectively dead, killed off by the Great Recession and the economic hardships that many Americans have come to face?” (Brandon King) King’s article focuses on the thought of if the American Dream is dead or alive. The American Dream is described as the potential to work for a secure lifestyle. King believes that the American Dream is still alive, however, Krugman believes that the American Dream is practically dead for most. It is also a belief that despite, the rules of the American dream not being taught, they can still have the possibility of working.

We are a nation of imaginative thinking. A concept I realized living through the past presidential election. It’s not a bad quality in a nation to have hope, in fact Bell Hooks once said “Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair.”. But, for a country to be so do delusionally focused on a distant American Dream can cause poor judgment. The American Dream is no longer alive because we are told unless we live a certain lifestyle we are not entitled to go towards the progression of this dream, we are conditioned to stay at this low level in life and be content, and the term equal opportunity has taken a different definition. The American Dream to me is the

The American Dream is created by a person achieving happiness, fulfilling life goals, and prospering through hard work and determination. It changes throughout history, mainly through how media and society pursue the Dream to be. The structure of today’s society has warped the meaning of it, and placed a different direction behind the whole concept. The Dream itself is still alive, but the cynical twist to it could make most doubt the existence of what it really means.

When you ask someone what does the American Dream mean to them, they either tell you to go from dirt poor to filthy rich, or live a comfortable lifestyle with a white picket fence, family, and financial security. In the 1900s everyone would tell you the first one, although in present day more and more people just want to live with the second option. When the Great Depression occured in 1929, not only did it take a toll on the economy of the United States, but also the spirit. A famous historian during this era named James Truslow Adams came up with the term “American Dream”, where he defined it as "That 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.”.

Success…most people lay awake at night wondering of all the opportunities to achieve it. The American Dream is what every true American strives for. The American Dream is that every citizen has equal opportunity to make money by working hard and being determined to prosper throughout life. Most Americans strive to have this and achieve it, but it is impossible today. The Dream is exactly what it is, a dream. It cannot become reality because not every citizen has equal opportunity to earn money and be prosperous in the life as the next person.

The american dream to me is the idea that you can be anyone you want to be.

The American Dream is, in many ways, aptly named. Like dreams of sleep, it is not very grounded in reality, generally hard to replicate, and when remembered, it's a bit fuzzy around the edges. Still, it is ever present in American life. Every goal post set up seems to point along this path. The American education system is oriented to enable its students to succeed in America, and, ideally, succeed in reaching this ethereal American dream. After all, there is a reason it’s considered a dream and not a fantasy. Fantasies are impossible and improbable. Surely, something as attainable as the American Dream could never be called a fantasy. And yet the school bell still resembles factory chimes, as if to prepare children for such a job. Of course, we cannot fully blame the school system for attempting to equip its pupils for success in American life. But it must be asked, regarding schools or simply the nature of our society: is the American Dream taught? Or is it based in some

The American Dream is no longer a dream; it is turning into a nightmare. The “American Dream” can be interpreted in many different ways. One of these many interpretations is the idea that one should graduate high school, go to college, get a good job, work there for forty to fifty years, start a 401k or an IRA, start a family, retire, and pick up a hobby like gardening or knitting. The American Dream is becoming a nightmare because it is no longer attainable; the top 1% of the population controls our country, the majority of the population is not financially educated, student loan debt is overwhelming this generation, and minorities have a harder time moving up the corporate ladder.

Before addressing Coates’ truth about the American Dream, the idea of race needs to be discussed in relation to the American Dream. Coates proclaims that "Americans believe in the reality of ‘race’ as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world. Racism- the need to ascribe bone- deep features to people and then humiliate, reduce, and destroy them" (7).This thought perfectly defines how the American society-and essentially how the world views race. We see race as defining, permanent, and impossible to escape; it is something that is not actually real, something that people made up to create a sort of hierarchy. This is because humans have a drive to be above others and this trend of "race" continues due to the ones "on top" wanting to

The American Dream began as just a belief. A belief of getting a better education or life, a belief of being able to be equal and free as others, or a belief of being able to bring their family and live happily ever after. For some, it meant a very big opportunity to make their life better, otherwise the American Dream equaled to whole life. According to the film named “the Pursuit of Happiness”, the American Dream is a dream which promised a better future for someone who’s sacrificed their most. In my opinion, the American Dream is the precious dream which gives us beliefs and opportunities to get our religious freedom and an out and away life. I base my belief on the movies and sources that we’d seen and also my own life experience.

White picket fence, a wife to come home to, kids. In the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck tells a story about a mentally challenged man named Lennie, who is taken care of by his best friend, George. The book takes place in the 1930’s and the two men have just begun working on a ranch. Throughout the book many events happen that teach valuable life lessons. Also, as the reader gets to know the characters more and more, the reader is able to realize that each character has their own dreams and aspirations for life. These dreams are used to resemble Steinbeck's opinions about the American dream. Therefore, Steinbeck proves that the American dream is unrealistic and unable to be achieved; this is proved through the dreams of