Asian Americans And The American Dream

    The American Dream is a lifelong objective that many Americans aim for. This Dream is not the same for every person in the United States, and throughout the course of American history, it has changed gradually. From the beginning of time, the dream was to own land and to live off of it, but now it has branched out into so much more.  According to Google Dictionary the American Dream is “the ideal that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” This is not always the case because though Americans work for what they have and to be where they are, the American Dream is not always attainable. Some believe that the American Dream is just a dream and sometimes it is, but it can also be a reality. To attain the reality of the “dream” there are obstacles that differ for everyone. Of these challenges are wealth, gender, inequality, race, and social class. The American Dream can remain a dream or become a lifestyle depending on the hard work one is willing to put in.

Today in America, some think the American Dream is fictional, and is exactly what it sounds like; just a dream. But the American Dream is achievable, and has been since the birth of this great country. The American Dream is an individualized goal that a person has which is usually very tough to achieve, but all have a chance to work toward it because of opportunities like high level education, jobs, and especially an equal chance to achieve one's desired life. America still provides access to the American Dream because regardless of background, current financial status, or race, the American Dream is achievable with hard work.

To me the American Dream is something in the past, and it no longer applies to the present American society. The American Dream fueled our nation from the beginning. The American dream was in the mind of immigrants coming to America in search of a new and better life, a new beginning where you can start fresh and reinvent yourself and become successful. But now the Dream no longer exist in our nation, but it still exists in the mind of immigrants. America was a place where immigrants came to seek a brighter future not only for themselves but also for their children. The dream is still believed to exist by immigrants but their expectations are not met once they arrive here in the United States. The land of opportunity for everyone is now the land with opportunity for the few. So I personally do not believe that the “American Dream” still exists in this country, it is just a memory now.

Anyone coming or currently living in the United States has a dream, or better yet known as the American Dream. What is the American Dream? Well, Brandon King, author of “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” quoted James Truslow Adams, who wrote that 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, regardless of coral class or circumstances of birth”(610). Everyone’s American Dreams are all different, but a majority of them all have a few things in common, that is becoming financially fit, acquiring a good education, and pursuing the opportunities that were not available. Brandon King expresses that the ideals and values of the American Dream are very much alive. However, Paul Krugman author of “Confronting Inequalities” bring up several excellent points as well, regarding that not all Americans can pursue the American Dream because of all the inequalities Americans currently possesses. Achieving the American Dream is not impossible, but it is harder to attain now than how it used to be with social, income, and racial inequalities being the primary cause. As of now individuals has to overcome many of bias barriers to reach the American Dream which used to be a lot easier to gain back in the 1940s-50s.

The American Dream is pivotal to America's upbringing and culture. It has existed before America has. Its is the belief that a person could achieve success in America through hard work. The American Dream is somethings everyone wished to accomplish, and for good reason. However, the dream is increasingly getting harder to achieve than ever before. Be it for prejudice, persecution, social constructs, or even sexism. For some people, the American Dream is still a reality, but for others it will always be a dream.

The American Dream is one of those terms that people refer to when talking about immigration, financial status, and so much more. But what does the term really refer to? People used to think of the American Dream as financial prosperity, religious and financial freedom, and all around success. Now, the term may mean something similar, but people are much less focused on it. If anything, the American Dream today is focused on gaining material goods and proving your bank account is larger than your neighbors. With today’s economy, laws and regulations, immigration customs, and overall attitude towards work, people are seldom focused on achieving the American Dream.

“However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that’s left anymore”-Bob Herbert. The American Dream has existed for centuries; however, for some Americans, the dream is already dead. People hope for a better future, but it is difficult when they aren’t given a chance to strive. I believe the American Dream is not achievable to everyone and is slowly drifting away.

Everybody has a different perspective on what the American dream is. From my view, the American dream is the opportunity for anyone to accomplish their goals and obtain prosperity by working hard. I believe to some degree the American dream is still alive but it isn’t as uncomplicated as before. In Paul Krugman’s “Confronting Inequality”, it’s obvious that he believes the American dream is dead because of the ongoing inequality in society (pages 561-562). While in Brandon King’s “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold”, considers the American dream to be very much alive (page 610). King believes most people do not strive for a rags-to-riches transition instead they prefer a healthy middle class positon.

James Truslow Adams, the man who gave birth to the idea of The American Dream, states that 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, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth” (King 610). Some people argue that The American Dream died as an effect of the Great Recession, and some believe that it is very much alive. In my opinion, The American Dream still exists, but has not been relevant in the past years. The American Dream can be brought back to its former glory with the right actions.

The American Dream is something everyone pursues. However, over time, the ideas of the American Dream has changed. Some say it is for the better, but others say it is for the worse. I agree with what Bernie Sanders said, "For many, the American Dream has become a nightmare." The American Dream has been degraded throughout time. I believe the American Dream has changed for the worse due to difficulty finding jobs, unfair job opportunities, and people settling for mediocrity.

The American Dream is a theory that is controversial and has many different prospects for each individual. America is the land of the free. It comes with many struggles that are faced by the people who choose to settle here. From the very beginning, the settlers who came to escape from Great Britain and start a new life started the standard life in America. The treatment of African Americans was one example of how the American Dream can be taken away from a group of people, but it also shows how much the American Dream is wanted by that same group of people. “The Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson, and the “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr., speech are just small beginnings to something as great as what America is today.

Nowadays, a large number of people migrate to the United States to work and achieve the American Dream. According to the Article “What is the American Dream?” by Kimberly Amadeo, “The American Dream was first publicly defined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in Epic of America. Adam’s often-repeated quote is, ‘The American Dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’” There are many people that can have different perspectives when it comes to the topic of the American dream. Even though many people assume the American Dream is dead, it is a very controversial topic. The American Dream may have many different points of views, but it really does exist, after all, it takes an ambitious person to strive for success through hard work, dedication and determination.

When someone is asked what the “American Dream” is, he says it is freedom, choice, opportunity, wealth, and the pursuit of happiness. All of these descriptions of what the dream should be is just a notion made up by society. People want a nice place to live, a family, and most of all people want to be economically and physically wealthy. In most cases, to live the American Dream is to live in a constant struggle with yourself and with society. Everything people want or desire is just a doorway to a lot of struggles and at the end of the path is the sacrosanct American Dream. The American Dream is often misleading because there are times where people can not reach the goal no matter how hard they work and sometimes the following generations are affected by the struggle their own parents went through. Living the dream is not always pretty and it is not perfect either. Like most things in life, the “American Dream” is not handed to you. It is just made up and people have to suffer the consequences. Today, people still have hope and believe that there will be a better tomorrow. People still share the same dream that has been upheld as a sacrosanct for many years. Life has become a tad bit easier but in the early 1920’s there was a family who could not seem to understand and accept the rough path of life find the end of the. In The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Ayana Mathis tells us the story of a true American family who is living in the middle of segregation and a national

The American Dream is a concept without a true definition, but is tossed around as a cornerstone of our society. Most see the dream as showing off the achievements of our people, but this idea of focusing only on our successes disregards the failure and struggle that everyone endures to even witness the light of success. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, they attempt to define the American Dream as "a happy way of living" achieved by "working hard and becoming successful." Contradicting the definition above, many people in this nation are not given equal treatment or equal access to opportunity. Success is not necessarily achieved in the states through the equal opportunity for people of differing races, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic situations, and people lacking the proper connections to be able to easily enter into different establishments without the proper credentials.

In my opinion the entire idea of the American dream is that anyone from anywhere in this nation has the chance to work hard a become successful, now that doesn't mean that it's not going to be harder for some than other however the opportunity is there for everyone regardless. And this affects our society because that concept is what molded our society from the beginning. I think it is in a way easier to pursue the American dream in modern society in comparison to the 20’s because the stock market had crashed and everything had gone bad for awhile. And that made it almost impossible to go to school, work and all together pursue being successful. But once some time went by and the stock market returned to where it needs to be and everything