The American Dream In Today's Society

The American Dream can be interpreted through many different ways. Some people believe that it's the process of getting better in life. Others believe that it is a way of life in which they live life with riches and everything. It all depends on how you think about it. Fitzgerald defined the American Dream as someone starting low on a social level and they working hard towards success and wealth and fame.

The American dream is, “an American social ideal that stresses egalitarianism and especially material prosperity; also; the prosperity of life that is the realization of this ideal” (Britanni Academic). The American dream is a standard outline for every individual with different views that completes their material wealth, equality, and comfort. Example, my American dream is to be successful, travel the world, and to live in a peaceful world with no violence. My parents who immigrated from Mexico and their American dream was such as stated by Vincent N. Parillo, “they dreamed of freedom and opportunity” (131). As stated before we both have a dream with views in different ways, although the dream is effected from our surroundings. My parents

The term “American Dream” is defined as an idea which believes that all people have the possibility of prosperity and success. The idea first came from James Adams, a noted American writer and historian. He claimed, “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement.” Therefore, the core concepts of the American Dream were closely linked to hard work and opportunity.

The American Dream itself varies among each individual. The American Dream can be the aspirations of freedom, equality, or, more commonly, wealth. These "dreams" are what are associated with America and its gifts to Americans. At youth, adults teach that the American Dream is reachable through hard work, sacrifice, and sound virtue. Ingrained in every child's head is the belief that in America, anything is possible. Television, newspapers, movies, cartoons, and sensational stories reinforce these lessons. This projection of the American Dream is why thousands come to America. The media and government, at times, make this dream seem so attainable, so real we give our all to our dreams. In reality though, the American Dream essentially is just

"The American Dream" has transformed into a no matter how you look at it term to delineate the American Way of Life with everything taken into account, be that as it may it is by far not that basic." The American Dream" constantly has something individual.

In time periods such as the 1620’s, settlers like those aboard the Mayflower traveled to

What is the “American Dream”? The American Dream has always been characterized by a thriving job market, opportunities for advancement, stability, etc. It is “the pursuit of individual achievement without consideration for moral or legal restrictions” (Angulski, 2013). This idea dates back as far as 1630 to the puritan colonists. It was first established within a sermon given by John Winthrop while sailing to Massachusetts. This sermon set into motion the ideals that we have adapted today enveloping the “American Dream”. From then on Americans put their faith in the theory that if you work hard and do the right thing you will manifest your goals and eventually attain success and comfortability. The dream of the time was to live in a land where there existed a right to religious freedom and opportunity. This ideal has stuck to this day, however the validity may is no longer intact. The American Dream is a mere afterthought within today’s society, overtaken by massive debt and loss of opportunity. The American Dream is the greatest asset we as a country possess, “the fact that people from across the world still want to come to America to fulfill their dreams, to join a society that they see as dynamic, exciting, and full of potential, is a testament to the great potential of America to improve lives and offer opportunity for all” (Ross, 2016).

The United States of America was founded on the belief that if you put in hard work you can become anything you want, otherwise known as the American Dream. The American Dream was great in the early 1900’s when second generation immigrants could work hard and move out of a cramped apartments in the city to the open suburbs with a yard, a white picket fence, and credit to buy all of those expensive appliances that the perfect suburban home needs. Nowadays, this isn’t so much the case. Weather the lower class is lazy, or they just can’t find a way out, most of them will be stuck in their class. The children will grow up in public schools hearing about the grand American Dream and hope to make it out. But this is incredible difficult. Some people

Therefore, equality should be considered one of the main goals of the American Dream, so everyone can have equal opportunities and improved living conditions.

American-born citizens, and those who aspire to earn citizenship in America, have learned about the “American Dream,” more than once in their lives. According to Investopedia, the American Dream is defined, “The belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone” (“American Dream Definition,” 2013). Additionally, the American Dream can be achieved through persistence and hard work. In my opinion, the Investopedia definition is one of the most accurate available, because it takes into account that America is a stratified country. The more I learn about the struggles of the working and lower class, the more I feel the American Dream is harder to obtain.

The American dream can be viewed from many points of view weather you are an American or a person that lives in Europe or Australia or any other country in the world. But to me the American dream means that you can do what you want and be whatever you want to be and have any job that you want that is my idea of the American dream.

The origins of the contemporary American Dream have found their way into modern consumerism as displayed through Tom Buchanan when he says this of gasoline, “And if it runs out I can stop at a drug-store. You can by anything at a drug-store nowadays.” (page 121) During the 1920’s people across the nation were able to buy the same products due to the advent of uniformity in chain department stores, mass production of goods, and mass market advertising. In modern society, it is difficult find a community which lacks a large chain store of some type from fast food to fashion. One stop shopping has become the quintessential shopping experience for the modern American. The rise of online shopping has brought a new pillar to consumerism moving from drugstores to malls to the mailbox and finally online.

What exactly is the American Dream? The dream is the idea of achieving success and happiness through hard work and determination. It is about being impressive and having a job, house, family, and a successful life. According the Dream, the only way to live a successful and well-lived life is by living up to the standards. Although Langston Hughes argues that life would be meaningless without dreams, the American Dream sets very high expectations for society and these expectations can consume all of their time and focus. Aimee Picchi Moneywatch believes that the American Dream is a myth and there is little chance of someone actually achieving the Dream’s version of success. The so called “American Dream” is an unrealistic goal that many people try to attain but end up failing to do so because they have wrong vision of what the dream really is and how to go about achieving it.

Although we would like to believe that the “American Dream” was built upon ideas that all humans are treated equally, with justice and liberty for everyone, it is simply not true. Our Constitution was built on the ideas of a singular group of people, the elite white males in the United States, and what was most advantageous for them. “But in its own language, the Declaration of Independence limited life, liberty, and happiness to white males” (Zinn 69). The society we live in today and its ideals that we live upon were created for the benefit of a small percentage of people, within a country of many ethnicities and different social classes.

Of all of the politically divisive issues that have gone on to define the world modern world, immigration remains one of the hottest topics to date. With fiery political rhetoric spewing from all sides of the spectrum, those who are impacted most by this issue are caught often caught in a nothing less firestorm of epic proportions. Considering how tumultuous of a process it is to immigrate to a new land, one is usually left questioning why many choose to do it in the first place. When one explores the facts, they are sure to find that the three primary reasons individuals flee their homelands in search of greener pastures are: a potential for social mobility, a higher base standard of living and the advancement of their host culture as a whole. Each of these reasons is propped up by the near-mythological concept of the “American dream,” an idea that anybody who wishes to become familiar with the intricate patterns that lie behind immigration must become accustomed.