The American dream, what is it? It’s consists of a family, house, cars, and other luxury items. How did it become this way? Why do we pursue it? The reason is because we, and I don’t just mean Americans, have been conditioned to feel this way. It all comes down to advertising. The consistent imagery of the perfect family with the beautiful house, and multiple cars through TV commercials, magazine ads, the media, you name it, it’s all around us. It’s to the point where it can alter our consciousness. It can alter it to the point where the American dream is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. For myself though, the American dream is all about happiness.
Where do we start? What is happiness? Is it freedom? Is it success? Is it possessions?
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When I was a young boy, seven to be exact, my mother died of liver cancer. That destroyed me inside, it still does to this day, but the love she had for me keeps me up and going. Again I can’t say for sure what love is, but the feeling of love I perceived from my mother has connected her to me more than any other human being I have ever met. One memory I remember better than any other memory I have is a memory from my seventh birthday. My mother gave me three choices and I was to choose one. She said “Dominic, I know you want a lot for your birthday, but I can only give you one. You may have a Nintendo 64, go to Dutch Wonderland, or you can stay a night at the Red Caboose Motel. Which would you prefer?” Being a young boy and do to the fact I fell in love with The Legend of Zelda series, I chose the Nintendo 64. When my birthday finally came around I got that Nintendo 64, along with the other two choices. I know this sounds a bit adverse considering I am trying to promote love over materials, but It wasn’t about the things she gave me. The thing that has the most impact is knowing she didn’t have the money to give me everything I wanted, but did anyway. I would have been happy with anything as a child, but my mother went out of her way to make sure I got everything I wanted with money she didn’t
A chance to re-establish oneself, an opportunity to earn one’s fair share of wealth, a vision waiting to be created into a reality: The original American dream. Over time these myths surrounding the American dream have altered due to constantly evolving cultures within the United States resulting in newer cultures that are less concerned with one’s “fair share” and more with pure gain. Sadly, today the American dream more closely represents one’s ability to attain materialistic items rather then its previous connotation of equal opportunities for everyone. One example of contemporary use of the American dream includes advertisers incorporating a sense of national entitlement into their sales campaigns in hopes
The American Dream was developed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, and he stated, “the American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement.” This concept is flawed in today’s standards as Adam’s “better and richer and fuller” life, is more focused on being successful and accepted, rather than being happy. Therefore, Adam’s “American Dream” needs to be revised to imply that success doesn’t equal happiness, that you don’t need all wealth, and the American Dream is one’s own dream of happiness.
A spacious home filled with two kids and a beautiful wife in the middle of a suburban utopia. Two cars sit in the driveway, both less than a few years old. A fully stocked refrigerator and pantry sit quietly in a modernized kitchen. Your bank statements reflect a healthy savings, with more being added to it each month. A secure white collar job provides the benefits and flexibility to take a quarterly vacation. When people are asked to envision the ‘American Dream’ this is what you might expect to hear or imagine yourself. America has become the land of opportunity, where this dream is just a few quick signatures away. For many this dream was once very attainable, but over the past 40 years as cost of living and education has increased and average
Over time, Americans have proved that the American dream is resilient and a very unique concept. It is not defined or rooted in religion, lineage, or even history. It is shaped and defined by the collective values of Americans themselves. The values consists of being individual, preserving life and
The American Dream is different for everyone, though it is most commonly associated with success, freedom, and happiness. The concept of the American Dream seems to have dwindled from where it was in the past few generations. It has gone from success, freedom, and happiness to having lots of money and the nicest possessions. In today’s society, we all hope and strive for this dream, but how many actually achieve the American Dream? Is it a reasonable goal that Americans should strive for, or is it a myth that only leads to self-destruction? According to Horatio Alger and Toni Cade Bambara, they both believe the concept that the American Dream
Is the American dream still in existence? In order to live the American dream and to pursue the idea behind it, a well grade income level is a must have. However, today’s world is quite challenging both socially and financially, making it difficult to pursue the idea of the American dream. Based on today’s assessment on economy, homes, cars, and costs of living are on the rise according to major sources like Wall Street and Bloomberg. Inflations are steady, and Americans, as highlighted by Shames in, The Moral Factor, are greedy for a new frontier to grow and expand. The effect of the outcome is causing Americans to budge their savings and retirement accounts to put forward to live. However, even before someone can assert their mind towards
The American Dream is different for everyone, though it is most commonly associated with success, freedom, and happiness. The concept of the American Dream seems to have dwindled from where it was in the past few generations. It has gone from success, freedom, and happiness to having lots of money and the nicest possessions. It has been said that Americans are no longer trying to keep up with the Joneses, and instead looking at celebrities and the characters they portray in films or on television and therefore expect to have greater, more expensive possessions. Americans today do in fact look at celebrities and the characters they portray and expect more possessions, but also still do try and keep up with the Joneses. Ever look at your
The American dream has dependably been a staple of American society. At the point when individuals discuss it, they regularly allude back to the main portion of the twentieth century. Notwithstanding this, the American Dream is generally as significant to American culture today as it was in the most recent century. In this paper, we will investigate the American dream and exactly what it is.
The term “the American Dream” became a commonly used phrase within society by a man named James Truslow Adams in the early 1930’s. It worked to represent hope for a better future, and that with hard work and opportunity would come financial stability, the “normal” family -two kids, a dog, and a white picket fence surrounding a decently-sized house-, and an overall perfect life. Today, however, this phrase has evolved to represent something different. With the changing economy, there is more of a focus on surviving as compared to thriving. For many, it is very difficult to live the life that they would love to live. The dream today brings into focus more ideas regarding being debt free while having a stable job and somewhere safe to live. Following this major change, the three main values that emerged as today’s American Dream are having supportive positive relationships, receiving a college
The American dream, an essential part of our lifestyles, the American dream, the determination of all Americans, the American dream, a fantasy that is almost impossible to achieve. We're currently the only first world country with third world wealth distribution (Reich), and thanks to the great recession of 2008 which lingers on to this day, and we may never reach wealth equality. Due to a myriad of factors involving the great recession, the wealth gap grew almost exponentially. And although some might say that prosperity is possible for all Americans, there is evidence that proves otherwise. Furthermore, the American dream is unattainable for a majority of Americans as the wealth gap continues to grow.
The American Dream is something often referenced by politicians, businesses, and other media producers, but the achievability of the American Dream, as well as the nature of the dream itself, is not a topic that is often discussed. One of the details that is concerning about the American Dream itself, is that it relies on money as a success indicator. Money is not indicative of happiness. Money is extremely difficult to achieve. Money relies on elements like higher education, which is at a scarcity for low income families (Gladwell). Money doesn’t rely on the ability to work earnestly, but on the freedom to work earnestly, a freedom almost half of Americans are deprived of (Prof. Golden). The American Dream relies on the existence of median income levels, which are disappearing (Priester, Mendelson). So we must ask ourselves is the American Dream still achievable? The answer is no, the American Dream is not practically achievable, since nearly all success indicators rely on chance, and do not indicate happiness
Almost everyone in the world is searching for happiness. But in order to achieve happiness, specifically in America, people have to forget about the “American dream”. The American dream is an ideal of success that is difficult to measure up to. However, the American dream increases materialism which is a direct path to unhappiness. If we kick the “American dream” out of the park, we all have a higher chance of being happier in our everyday lives.
The American Dream, the dream of opportunity, the chance to carve out the life most desired and most prosperous for the individual. This dream, the once great aspiration for all red white and blue ruffians regardless of background- racial or economical- has always existed with a degree of falsehood- at least for the majority of Americans. In times of great crisis it has been rallied behind, serving the communal need to move forward for something, anything . But despite protecting it, from harsh winters and gunfire, from powers foreign and abroad, this faux hope has done little for even the best citizens of this great nation. The American Dream exists as an almost entirely false promise, whilst some still have a decent shot at this alluring
When the concept of the American Dream emerged in the 1930s, it possessed a uniform definition among the people. They believed that one could accomplish to their fullest ability as long as they put forth the effort. In the time of the Great Depression, people wanted to be happy and maintain financial stability for their family. Happiness also included fitting in with the standards set by society. This meant having the stereotypical family with a father, mother, and two children and living in a nice home in a suburban neighborhood. As society has evolved, the meaning of the American Dream has distorted into something else, but the underlying goal to live a happy life has remained the same. This is caused by the change in values, as well as the societal norms and expectations that are set today. People now feel as if they are entitled or expected to live a grandiose lifestyle and assume that it should be acquired easily. This new concept of the American Dream is met with disappointment because it is nearly impossible to reach, resulting in them concluding and claiming that the American Dream is unattainable. The new Dream is an unrealistic standard set on society that is counterintuitive as it prevents people from their main goal of a happy life. Meanwhile, the original aspect of the Dream still exists among some people and is still realistic, but now it is not as easy to achieve as it was back then.
The American Dream, a dream that changes meaning as it passes through each and every American in the U.S. This meaning has been altered to the point where the American dream revolves around money and some Americans don’t even believe that the American dream is accessible to them. I believe that the American Dream isn’t accessible to Americans because of the amount of money that needs to be pumped into it. The dream used to just be about living a good life and being happy but now we’re so focused on money that we don’t have time to enjoy life and we work ourselves to death earning money. This has allowed more immigrants from other countries to achieve their own form of American Dream before Americans even believe it is possible to achieve.