The American Dream Research Paper

The “American Dream” is overrated. Let’s just face it, it is dead. Not only is this a dream that is almost lusted after by many Americans, this is a widely desired illusion that is far out of reach for most working class people. The American Dream is more than the lifestyle of white picket fences that hold backyard barbecues with your neighbors. It’s earning a living wage that creates a comfortable quality of life, having the security of retirement, and giving your children the opportunity to live a successful life.

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.

American Dream Is the “American Dream” Dead, Alive or on Hold? In this article by Brandon King he talked about how people classify they’re American Dream and how to achieve that goal. The theory of the American Dream came from back in day during the Great Depression that came about from “James Truslow” and he wrote that the American Dream “is the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability”. Brandon King always enjoyed writing and speaking on topics of economic inequality and political structures, and wrote this essay in 2011. “I would redefine the American Dream today as the potential to work for an honest, secure way of life and save for the future”.

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.

First off, we must understand the definition of this so called, “American Dream”. A basic definition would describe it as, “the mindset that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative”. Now in a way this can either be true or false. You could either strive for success and work your entire life to make it to the “White picket fence”, or you could be born with a silver spoon and literally have everything you needed in life just given to you. This is also a lifestyle we all sought out to be an easy task to live every day in this “American Dream.” Let’s look into some readings that actually tell about these thoughts.

In theory, the “American Dream” is the idea that every person residing in the United States of America should live a richer and fuller life, regardless of the class one is born in. It is not a dream about cars, high wages, and a picket fence. The idea, for it to work, is supposed to be that every man and woman in this beautiful country has the ability to gain the highest class in their ability regardless of their previous background. The ability to achieve such high success is based on academic success and hard work. In current times, it seems the American Dream has become a pursuit of material objects. Citizens of the United States work countless hours to be able to afford bigger cars, better homes, and the newest technologies. On the surface,

“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.

Today, the status of the American Dream is mostly beneficial for citizens in the country that have certain connections and higher education. Overall, the American Dream is dying and it is much harder for a person now to achieve it if he or she does not have any direct connections or a higher education and a more well-off economic standpoint. The standards in the society has made is much more difficult for minorities to face their obstacles to pursue their dreams. Over 44% of the American population today are minorities because of the influx of immigrants and refugees coming into the States simply looking for a better life than what they have had before and to provide the best for their family. This dream is very much alive and true to

The American Dream is being able to take part in your own life, being able to take care of yourself, being happy, to educate yourself so you are able to get a good, non degrading job. Money is important because you need to take care of yourself, and when you take care of yourself you will be happy.

The American Dream is hope. Hope that we can live comfortably and not paycheck to paycheck. Hope that we can afford a few luxuries in return for the fruits of our labor. Some people are lucky enough to inherit the American Dream and others that were born in poverty will never see the American Dream. Americans live on hope and dreams and set their goals with the promise to do better than past generations. Today’s generations face a much different world than their parents did. Even though technology, imported labor and outsourcing jobs overseas produces inexpensive goods and services, personal wealth, and fat profits for companies; it’s at the cost of lost wages and American jobs getting displaced or sold out

The phrase “The American Dream” was popularized by James T. Adams in his book Epic of America. The meaning of the American Dream has changed overtime but still has the same idea: anything is achievable if you work for it, regardless of your financial or social standpoint. The twentieth century was filled with Americans in the working class motivated by the popularized phrase. People wanted to work and improve their positions, but suddenly, everything changed. The American dream turned merely a dream; a literal dream that can’t be physically touched. The dream isn’t completely dead, just not unattainable for most. The difference in today’s society from the past is what changed the thoughts on the dream. Technology is excelling rapidly,

Have you ever thought about a goal of yours and decided to throw it out because you felt as though it was impossible to accomplish? Well, that is how a great deal of Americans feel about their future, but it should be known that it is still possible through hard work and determination. The American dream is the idea that every citizen should have equal rights in things they do. By finishing high school and going to college to study about the career field a person would like to go into, then by doing that one is prepared to be successful. The American Dream is still accessible because those who are successful can achieve it, and those who have the freedoms can reach it, but because the focus has shifted to poverty levels, it may not be accessible to all.

The idea of the American Dream has had a significant influence on American society throughout history. The American Dream is a simple set of ideals that includes democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality which promotes opportunity for prosperity and upward social mobility for families through hard work and dedication. Historically, the underlying message of the American Dream states that anyone can turn their lives around and become successful in return for hard work. For those low-income families in the United States who hold on to the hope of the American Dream, it is unfortunately becoming more difficult to achieve. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are struggling to make ends meet and cannot seem to get out of the harsh cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. Citizens every day are committing to an idealistic goal, only to fall short of achieving. The American Dream is slowly but surely dying because no matter how driven or hardworking citizens are, successfully emerging from low-pay jobs and achieving the true American Dream is simply no longer accessible.