Mike Dobrejcak Research Paper

The American Dream is “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” (Adams, 1931). It is the guarantee that with hard work and passion anyone can achieve upward mobility regardless of their origin. Many Americans believe in this promise, hoping that one day their first circumstance will not dictate the outcome of the rest of their lives. However the American Dream can be elusive without any real he American Dream eludes The novel Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the

The American Dream has long been considered the ideal that represents everything the United States stands for: hard work, determination, and reward. However, it can mean many different things to many different people. It is simultaneously the beacon that lures immigrants to this country and a forgotten myth to some native-born citizens (many who take it for granted each and every day). The story of Barack Obama’s family represents one of the most archetypical scenarios of the American Dream. His father moved to the United States in hope of a better life for himself and his children, a goal which he undoubtedly achieved (his son would go on to be the first United States president with African heritage) (Obama). This serves as evidence that the American Dream was attainable through hard work and resilience in the past. However, could Barack Obama Sr.’s inspiring story be a possibility in the modern world? Although it is true that the American Dream is significantly harder for many to accomplish due to rising competition in our modern society, its core philosophy is still very much in existence.

Immigrating to America is a process in which many people all across the world entrust as their one way ticket to a better life. Whether they do so legally or illegally, coming to the United States ensures better opportunities, economically, politically, and so on, to people who would have otherwise been worse off in their countries of origin. Even so, the common understanding of being “better off” can be considered a misconstrued concept when it comes to living in the states. Many families that choose to immigrate to the U.S. fail to realize the cultural hardships that newcomers tend to face once on American soil. Anything from racial discrimination or bias at work, in neighborhoods, at school, etc., can all be challenges that people encounter when making a move to the U.S. Such challenges are described by Richard Rodriquez in his autobiography Hunger of Memory. In this passage, he explains how cultural differences between Mexican and American ways of life have shaped him into the person that he is today. He also chooses to highlights the problems that he faces growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, while attending a predominantly white institution. Much of his writing consists of the cultural differences and pressures he feels to assimilate to Western culture and how this process, in turn, changes him into the person that some may find to be unethical, but nonetheless, someone he is proud of.

Julian Bilecki was just a skinny teenager when he and his family hid 23 Jews in an underground bunker, saving them from Nazi death squads in war-torn Poland. In 1943, nearly all the families of the Jewish community in Podhajce, Eastern Galicia, about 3,000 Jews, were slaughtered by the Nazis. A little group - several of them children and teenagers - escaped from the Ghetto and survived the Nazi extermination finding their way to the Bilecki farm.

Mike Joy is a broadcaster best known for his coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Fox Sports. A popular NASCAR announcer, Mike Joy is an American TV sports announcer who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of Fox Sports’ coverage. He is also an American actor.

As I read The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs it shows the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. Robs’ story is about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds; the campus of Yale University and Newark, New Jersey and the difficulty of going from one to another and then back again. This book reflects a lot about the Book “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” written by Robert D. Putnam. Putnam mainly talks about the state of upward mobility, the changes to family life, neighborhoods and schools in ways that give big advantages to children at the top and make it even harder for those below to work their way up. Putnam challenges the promise of the American Dream “that anyone, regardless of his or her origins, can have a fair start in life”. Personally as I was growing up that’s all I was taught about, this so called “American Dream” that everyone works so hard for and how hard it is to live this dream. The fear of not being able to live this dream made Rob want to do everything in his power to be able to make as much money as he can and to live this “American Dream” with his mother.

Thousands of immigrants moving to America during the turn of the nineteenth century have faced extreme diversity on their quests to fulfill their American dreams. Immigrants faced a multitude of hardships and battled prejudices that were rampant throughout America during this time period. However, for the most part, Hilda Polacheck, an immigrant emigrating from Poland made out fairly well in her life. Hilda experienced what it was truly like to be a poor working immigrant, however, she was able to break out of the poverty cycle and was determined to make the world a better place. With this success she was able to step back and look at the social injustices being committed in the United States clearly, without being blinded by the hardships and the tragedies of being a poor immigrant. Throughout Hilda’s Autobiography, as well as throughout history, an immigrant woman in the United States faced extensive discrimination as well as vast and often unjust limitations on their inalienable rights as citizens of the United States.

Like many Americans today, a successful life is something every family endeavors to achieve. Whether you are native to this land or an immigrant, everyone is pursuing their idea of the American dream. Whereas every dream may be different, the journey to each dream is both trying and straining. In both articles written by Hogan and Shteyngart, we find two families striving for a better life as they encounter their own struggles along the way. Although Native Americans and immigrants are different as Native Americans are indigenous, while immigrants are foreigners, the authors illustrate they are also similar as they both have adversities, pervading family influences, and are strangers in a world they attempt to call home.

Personal accounts from immigrants preserving through the endless hardships are the living proof that the American Dream is achievable. Their accounts prove that the dream is only achieved because of the toil throughout the immigrants’ lives. Richard Todd describes “a man who embodies American opportunity” (90). This man immigrated from Korea to start his own software company in America. Todd describes his meeting with the Korean immigrant who had recently made the business a publicly traded company. The enthusiasm of the immigrant accurately conveys the dedication he has toward his ultimate goals (Todd 90). The Korean man was able to be successful due to his extensive work in the field of technology. He lives the American Dream of beginning with nothing rising up in the ranks of

On April 25th, 2018 Erick Davila a 31-year-old black male was executed in the Texas State Prison for two murders. The victims were two black females, one a five-year-old named Queshawn and her Grandmother Annette. The killings happened at a children’s birthday party in Fort Worth Texas with intended target of Jeffery Stevenson a local gang rival of Erick. Erick was on death row 9 years prior to his execution doing everything he could to get the ruling overturned due to his claims of drug use. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his pleas due to evidence of him having intentions to kill a various amount of people. Erick claimed to mistakenly kill the two victims while intending to kill two other gang rivals.

Richard Kuklinski was an incredibly cold-blooded man. He had at least 100 confirmed kills, and claims to have around 200 total. Richard has a very horrible childhood. Richard liked to torture and kill animals as a little boy. His father abused him and his brothers, one of which was killed from the abuse received from Stanley. Stanley’s brother, Joseph, was pretty messed up, too. He probably would’ve turned out to be a serial killer himself. Kuklinski himself wasn’t like Ramirez or Dahmer, or any other serial killer for that matter. Kuklinski was an evil man, with a ton of interesting information about him out there.

Richard Kuklinski was a convicted murderer and contract killer who was born on April 11 in 1935. Kuklinski claims to have killed over 200 people over the course of his “career” during 1949 to 1986. At first, he would simply kill people who annoyed him, got on his nerves, or who he ‘needed’ to kill. When the mob caught wind of a man who killed as frivolously as Kuklinski, they began to hire him out as a contract killer. He lived in New Jersey and New York and committed most of his crimes in that area. In 1988, he was caught and sentenced to life in prison -- he later died in prison in March of 2006

D’Souza, on the other hand, is an avid supporter of his image of the American Dream and its presence in America. Dinesh explains the popularity of the American Dream worldwide is because people wish for, “the American way of life.” (D’Souza, 73) As if it was coming from a foreigner, he continues to exemplify the American Dream as an outsider looking in and seeing all of the splendor and appeal of Americans’ lives. It is this enchantment that causes people from all ends of the Earth to migrate to the United States and even leave their families and traditions. The most emphasized element and essentially the core of the American Dream is the ability to, “write the script of your own life.” (D’Souza, 83) The writer gives his own real-life example of the American Dream, through his emergence as a writer and later a White House Staff member simply because he pursued his own dream. Through the constant comparisons with the inequalities present in countries throughout the World, D’Souza is fascinated with the diversity of America and the, “tolerant society”, that this diversity has spawned. (D’Souza, 94)

In 1908, Theodore Huebner Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan. There he was raised by his mother and father, who owned a greenhouse with their uncle. As a child, he spent much time in the greenhouse observing the nature, which greatly influenced his future works. Roethke attended Arthur Hill High School and later graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan in 1929. Afterword he took a few graduate classes at Michigan and Harvard, but was unhappy and left (Kalaidjian).

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.