Bob Herbert Hiding From Reality Summary

Luke Fletcher Mrs. Flores English 12 6 March 2024 The Fatal Flaws of Chris McCandless Abandoning your entire family to pursue solitude in the wilderness requires a great degree of boldness and delusion. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a biography about a young man named Chris McCandless, who deserted his ordinary life to embark on a mission of living frugally and immersing himself in nature. His brave efforts and unique ideals may have inspired some; however, Chris was ultimately a reckless narcissist who embodied acute stubbornness, a lack of sympathy, and an irrational hatred for society. Foremost, Chris’ stubborn mentality created critical gaps in his logic that eventually led to his death. He refused to accept advice or help from anybody, even his closest friends.

After examining Bob Herbert's piece, "Hiding from Reality," we can see that he makes a very convincing and appealing argument for his audience through the use of the strong evidence. To start his piece he talks about how the American dream has been stolen from them. In addition, he points out to how whenever we look around, we can see the country in sad shape. In addition, He uses a more formal yet personal tone created through his word choice. And this would work well for his audience since he uses the second-person pronoun "You" to make it as he is having a conversation with his friends in an informal way. For example, he says, "...you'll see the country in sad shape" (Herbert 564). This makes his readers think that he is talking directly to them, thus grabbing their

Some may believe the only country living the American Dream is, well America. But you’d be surprised to know there are countries that, economically, execute the plan better than the United States. In Anu Partanen’s 2016 book, “The Nordic Theory of Everything”, Partanen, a young Finnish journalist travels to America to be with her husband and pursue a new life in the land of freedom. But she realizes that her expectations of the country were quickly diminished. She Argues that the Nordic countries actually live the American Dream better than the United States of America. While she admits the United States has created a community of kind, caring, optimistic people, this simply isn’t enough to achieve a perfect economic paradise. This paper will examine how the United States fails to attain its beloved American Dream. While the United States upholds its reputation of kind people, enthusiastic outlooks, and complete freedom of choice to the individual, it still lacks the political policies needed to support struggling families and the overall middle class. This is where Finland and other Nordic countries achieve the concept of the American dream better than America itself.

Regardless if we are aware of it or not, not many Americans live the supposed American Dream of having a nice car, big house, well paying job, and have a secure family. In the renowned novel The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler he captures those Americans who live invisible in America that work so hard to suffer from the psychological effects of poverty. Not only does Shipler do that but he also indirectly talks about the “American Myth” and the “American Anti Myth through the lives on these individuals.”

Immediately it is obvious that these two interpretations of the current status of the American Dream are nearly political polar opposites. Michael Moore mercilessly attacks the government’s refusal to help the average working man. Moore faults corporations’

Both the United States are alike and different. The United States is located in North America, and it is located in the Northern Hemisphere. The population people in Mexico is 130,759,074. In addition, the population of people in the United States is 326,766,748. The United States is 242 years old, established on July 4,1776.

America still to this day holds on to the idea of the “American Dream”. This is rather surprising in today’s society and the ups and downs that the nation is facing. The dream in the past was more about freedom and equality. Moving through the decades, this dream has morphed into something quite different. Instead of what America means for all of its inhabitants, the nation has become more individualized. Society has moved to interpret the dream of what America can do for the one. Instead of the unified nation, America has been known for in the past, a shift has started creating an inconsistency in who can realize the dream. The myth of the “American Dream” has been hugely affected by increased materialism, the gap in economic status, and the fantasy of “rags to riches” idea.

All things pass, and it seems the American Dream, this image of the United States being a land of opportunity, is slowly fading away as well. Those roads of gold have corroded and Lady Liberty’s torch is flickering. But maybe I’m wrong, and this inner pessimism has gotten the better of me. Maybe the American Dream is alive and well? We’ve elected a billionaire deemed a bigot and a misogynist as our next president. Our unsustainable social security system is on a path to extinction, and social mobility has come to a screeching halt. Oh how this land of opportunity has opened so many possibilities for the collapse of our nation. As Ehrenreich will demonstrate, the great social mobility associated with the American Dream is a correlation that no longer proves to be true. And though Swift’s discussion in “A Modest Proposal,” deals with the plight that plagues the nation of Ireland, it highlights the point that the common people are suffering with no voice to express their struggles, but rather only with the authorities to remedy the pain that they themselves do not experience, something the American public is dealing with as well, since our voices do not seem to be heard at times as well. This is only one of only the many reasons why the American Dream is faltering, and these readings are all pointing to the American Dream being a façade now, a nice veil to hide the harsh reality that America is facing today.

Many years ago today, the United States of America was the prime example of prosperity and opportunity. It established America with the idea that its citizens would be guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, it is true that people have liberties and are free to pursue happiness. However, in recent years, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment, growing economy inequality, and medical care have skyrocketed. Despite the odds, the American Dream is still a goal that many people strive for and hope to reach. In fact, an essay written by Brandon King, The American Dream: Dead, Alive or on Hold? He says, “the American dream is a dream in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with the opportunity for each according to his/her ability and achievement…” (King 610-611). Therefore, the problem with the American Dream lies not within the dream itself, but within the means people pursue to attain this dream.

“The American Dream” is advertised as being the act of a person having an idea, goal, or as the saying suggests, a dream, and then them spending time, energy, and money to make it come true. However, if you haven’t realized it yet, there’s a reason they call it a dream because it hardly becomes a reality. More and more people are realizing this so called “dream” is nothing but a hoax, and that the promises America assures and guarantees such as equal opportunity and equal success are nothing but pure manipulation. Furthermore, the American dream no longer stands by the virtue of discrimination and prejudice, overwhelming debt, and failed establishments.

Nowadays, many Americans wonder if the American Dream is still alive. At one point in our country, people felt that they could achieve success by working hard. However, after the economic hardships and recession of the 21st century, a number of Americans not only lost income, but some also lost their jobs. Although there has been slow progression to improve the economy, there are those who question whether or not the dream of Americans can ever be achieved again. With unemployment levels still high and salaries failing to increase, there certainly is doubt in most of Americans. In his essay, Brandon King formulates ways to redefine and change the way to look at the American dream. After analyzing King’s essay, one can see his view as believing that the dream is still very much intact. As he points out, the American economy is a very complex system that has had downfalls, but there is always a way to get back up from it. Regardless of your economic status (poor or middle class), if one has a working job, it is possible to succeed based on how much someone is willing to work to achieve their goals. As King would agree, the American dream is not only still alive and well, but anyone can reach success.

Thank you for the opportunity to be part of the 2017 CPG Boot Camp that will cover “From Economic Challenges to Transformation Opportunities.” I believe the title is appropriate as challenges must be thought of as “opportunities.” Currently I serve as rector at a nearly 150 year old multi-generational parish with an ASA of 52 in a rural town of approximately 5000 people. Similar to other small rural towns in the south there are multiple churches in the area.

The American dream is easily the greatest of any American tragedy. Once one of the most noble and sought after ideas, now only a simple idea cast aside by differing virtuosos in differing professions.

In the article “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” Brandon King states that even though The Great Recession had a huge effect on the nation’s economy and each person’s life, he believes that the American Dream is still living, and it is a significant solution of recovering the economy. King begins his article by providing two contrasting ideas of the American Dream, which are about the existence of it or not. Then, he continues to give the new definition of the phrase “The American Dream,” known as having comfort and security instead of working hard to achieve success. The author goes on to write about the fragile economy nowadays, and he believes that the economy is having a hard time to recover because of difficulties from the Great Recession: the price of housing goes down, people get jobs slowly, and it is not easy to get money immediately. After making note of this, King continues to discuss that the government’s solution currently does not work for everyone. He states that the result of raising minimum wage does not help poorer become richer. Furthermore, King agrees that we should plan by saving more and enacting policies that sustain economic growth that will keep the American Dream alive. After reading this article, my point of view is opposite with the author’s idea that the American Dream nowadays does not exist like before the Great Recession happened, which was in 2008. It is shown through the debt of new graduated students

Looking at the big picture, the United States is living the “American Dream” when compared to other countries. Starting from a new war-torn country