...to a poll done by New York Times, only 64 percent of people said they still believed in the American Dream. This is the lowest percent in two decades. The American Dream has changed over time. The American Dream started as people wanting a better life for everyone but now it has diminished to people not even believing in it or others being very optimistic that we can still fulfill the ‘dream.’ The American Dream is different for everyone that you ask. Some might say that their dream is to own a house with 5 children. Others might say it is to have a good education, healthy family, and a steady job. Some even say that it is to own 5 cars with 3 houses across the globe. Everyone’s view on this term is different. Some may think that...
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...EA Lamkin Definition Essay The American Dream Today's millions immigrate to the United States looking for the American Dream; the equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work, determination and initiative. But people from around the world still travel to the US because of this idea that you can be anything you want to be if you put in the work. I believe one of the reasons Americans think the "dream" of a better life is dead is that we were born in the US and we usually got what we wanted quickly. The people who immigrate here is because they want to improve their lives and they can't do it from where they come from. The American Dream is a reality; every citizen of the United States of America has the opportunity of achieving something better no matter what prejudices they may face, but it also depends on their perseverance and luck. The term “The American Dream” has a many interpretations, but one of the most popular is from the Declaration of Independence. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. In simpler terms, The American Dream is the opportunity of the pursuit of freedom, and satisfaction of needs and wants. As Thomas Wolfe said, “ ...to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ...the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him”. This quote explains how everyone in the U.S. as the right to the American Dream: to function as a member of society...
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...“America! From the other end of the earth where I came, America was a land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire” (Yezierska 16). This quote centers on America’s promise to provide everyone with access to the American Dream. The American Dream is the thoughts, aspirations, visions and hopes associated with one’s future in America, specifically one’s goals, ambitions, and intents. In recent times, the dynamics of the American Dream has changed, and this shift has raised questions as to whether America is keeping its promise pertaining to the American Dream. While many Americans assert that because they have been able to achieve their goals America still provides access to the American Dream, others insist they have no way to achieve their American Dream because the...
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...many people immigrate to the United States of America in search of the American Dream; freedom, equality, and the opportunity to achieve their personal goals in life that they could not otherwise achieve in their homeland. The American Dream is the pursuit of prosperity and opportunity that drives people to push their own limits and persevere in order to lead successful lives and achieve whatever goals they set. The American Dream is a reality; every citizen of the United States of America has the opportunity of its achievement no matter what prejudices they may face, depending on their perseverance and luck. The term “ The American Dream” has a few interpretations, but one of the most popular is “ Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence1) which is the dream that most Americans strive for. In simpler terms, The American Dream is the opportunity of the pursuit of freedom, opportunity and satisfaction of needs and wants. As Thomas Wolfe said, “ ...to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ...the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him” (Wolfe2). This quote explains how everyone in the United States gets the right to fulfill this American Dream: to function as a member of modern day society and to pursue their hopes and dreams. If you come to America underprivileged or destitute, then you have ...
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...Amanda Rosa Education over the American Dream Many people come to America “the land of opportunity” in hope of the American Dream; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Every person has the chance to achieve this well that is wrong if never given the chance to be educated. If not having the rights means how can one go out and get and education. Education now is everything without it there is no future. The most important part of the American dream is success. But how can someone achieve success without a correct education. To get the proper education money is needed. If one doesn’t have neither than it just becomes a dream. A dream will not pay bills or give you the job you want. But with an education success would be achieved as well the American Dream. Either success be owning your own company, getting the dream job, buying a house whatever success is an education is needed to achieve it. Not everyone has the same circumstance. Some people are born poor with parents who don’t have well-paying jobs or broken homes but that shouldn’t mean that you are left without an education. If everyone has an equal chance then why don’t most become successful? It is because we don’t have an equal chance. Not everyone was brought up the same or started off with the same life. In fact, college graduates earn more than twice as much as high school graduates. Some studies have found that college graduates with a bachelor’s degree earn 80% more per year than those with only a high...
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...The American Dream is the idea that through hard work, one can acquire wealth, prosperity and a high position in society. This symbolizes a big house, a nice car, fancy clothes and having money, but having all of these things are very unrealistic for Americans who start low in the economic class. Although this idea is the common representation of America, the land of freedom and opportunity, it is nothing more than an illusion; a dream that is unattainable in this present-day circumstances and time. The Great Gatsby, placed in the 1920s, clearly illustrates the idea of the American Dream and the corruption the Dream causes as a result of the characters trying to pursue it. So although America would like to think it’s providing a land of equal...
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...seen by many as the Land of Opportunities, a place where one can achieve anything and be anything, no matter what their past may be. Some however, say that the American Dream is not real, that it is simply a dream that cannot be realized due to social or political obstacles. The truth is that many of these obstacles can be overcome through hard work and perseverance. The American Dream is achievable through hard work and the determination to keep going, no matter how slim the odds seem to be. One important aspect of the American Dream is that one’s past has no bearing on the achievability of the American Dream. One can come from nothing and become the richest person in the world if they put their minds to it. Andrew Sullivan, in his essay, My America, touched on this when he wrote that what matters in America is not where you come from, but “where you are going” (Sullivan, Para 5). This shows that in America, people don’t care about one’s past as they do about one’s future. Here, the past is not a hinderance, it is simply something that is there, motivating one to do better, to achieve their American Dream....
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...The American Dream has a different meaning for each different perception. It is defined as the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Concluding the background information of the American Dream additionally raises the question: Why is there such a heated debate in modern history involving equality and the pursuit of excellence? Many US-born citizens classify the dream as striving for wealth, freedom, and financial dominance. On the other hand, many immigrants perceive the American Dream as a pursuit of opportunity, to prove equality. Although statistics prove that the amount of disbelief in the American dream is steadily increasing, blatantly...
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...Brief discussion on American Dream Abstract The content of this paper will discuss what is American Dream and give reader a new view on American Dream.Some hold that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all people have the potential to live happy, successful lives .It is the common meaning of this word.The birth of this term is in 1931 which was used by James Adams in his book The Epic of America. He said that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for everyone according to ability or achievement.Just one word ,in my opinion ,this term can be induced by those words:assiduous ,equality and independence which is also the basic elements of American culture.As such spirit came into being, American’s early immigration have an signifiant influence on American Dream.I think that when the Puritan landed on the American contient ,the first thing they must face thai is fight with terrific nature.Because they arrived on American in winter,there are just no sufficient food to them. At thus condition ,they had no choose that is do anything by themself which is the origin way of American Dream. Key words American Dream freedom culture opportunity individualism 摘要 这篇论文主要讨论的是美国梦，而且会给读者一个新的视角了解美国梦。许多人都是这样理解美国梦的，只要你努力工作就能成功。每个人都有可能获得美好的生活，只要你努力。美国梦这个词是由亚当斯在其1931年的著作“美国史诗”中提出的。 他说在这个梦想之地，每个人都有机会变得生活富足，只要人们努力。依我看，美国梦能总结为以下几点：勤奋，平等，独立。这也是美国文化的基本要素。同时，美国的早期移民对这一精神的产生有很大的影响。我认为当清教徒踏上美洲大陆的时候，他们面对的是恶劣的自然环境。所以，这应该是美国梦的雏形。 ...
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...The American Dream is the idea that each and every single individual has an equal opportunity to achieve success through determination and hard work. America has long been seen as a place where anyone, despite his or her circumstances, can thrive in society as long as he or she puts in enough hard work. However, some now argue that equality is diminishing and being replaced by inequality. In “American Dream? Or Mirage?”, by Michael Kraus, Shai Davidai, and A. David Nussbaum, and “It’s Now the Canadian Dream”, by Nicholas Kristof, the authors discuss the concept of the American dream in very different ways. The authors of “American Dream? Or mirage?” explain and analyze why most Americans are unconcerned with the economic inequality in the...
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...The American Dream What is the American Dream? As this question comes up, different people have different thoughts floating in their minds of what the American Dream really is to them. For some, the American Dream is to live their lives within the laws of the American Constitution. For others, it is the dream that is fulfilled with chances, successes, and wealth. Therefore, the America Dream comes to be the freedoms, the opportunities, and the prosperity for all. America is the country that holds the strongest Democratic Constitution of laws that protects human’s rights. For many years, thousands of immigrants have been coming to America searching for these rights, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (Declaration of Independence) Within the Constitution, the people are guaranteed to be able to express themselves freely, to be created equal, and especially to put faith in their own beliefs as they wish. Overall, living the American Dream is to obtain the freedom of speech, the freedom of political, and the freedom of religion that are protected by the American Constitution. America has become to be the “Land of Opportunity”. The United States of America has created many turning points in the immigrants’ lives with its endless opportunities. From the “many useless plants, wanting vegetative mold”, (from Letters from an American Farmer) the immigrants receive the chances to refresh themselves in the American Dream. They get to attain better living conditions and achieve...
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...The American Dream something that is easy because it is generally what everyone strives to live throughout their life. The Dream is that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve the best. I don’t agree with this “Dream”. I think it is actually impossible. No one will ever be equal in this society. Whites and men will always be “better” and even though that isn’t right it happens. With the luck of the draw you could live the American Dream, but without luck you aren’t going to be very lucky. Inequality is a major setback for everyone trying to achieve the American Dream. Source 1 states, “All americans should be equal.” but why won’t our society to allow them to be? Whites and males tend to be “superior” over everyone else. Men...
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...There are many interpretations of what “The American Dream,” stands for but I have a solid definition for it. What I believe “The American Dream,” stands for is that, if you work hard you will never be poor in your life. You have the freedom to do what you want within reason, when you want it. You could start a company and be the next Bill Gates, or just relax working at Gamestop. Making it in life is what “The American Dream,” stands for, and what you take from that is what the dream means to you. You and all other Americans have equal opportunity, and it only matters how hard you work. It doesn’t matter if you were born here, or in another country. If you are a United States citizen, and have the will to work towards what you want, no one is going to stop you. It doesn’t matter what you do, but only hard work, determination, and persistence will get you there. The American Dream is achievable for everyone, because you can start whenever, with whatever you feel like. In this country, you...
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...Quarter 1 American Dream Essay Charles B. Rangel once quoted “The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation. 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. The poems “I,Too,Sing America” by Langston Hughes, “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska, and the novel “The Colors of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His Mother” by James McBride all represent how race influences the pursuit of the American Dream. Race influences the pursuit of the American Dream because based on your race determines if you are treated as less than or above others. As stated from the poem “I,Too,Sing America” by Langston Hughes on page 13 in the Springboard book “I,Too,Sing America, I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, .... Tomorrow I’ll be at the table when company comes, Nobody’ll dare say to me, “Eat in the...
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...The American Dream is the idea of coming to america and being able to do what you want. America is the land of opportunity. There are many different ideas of the American dream, but it still present in today. The American dream does exist today because people come to america, the land of opportunity to accomplish the impossible goal and to succeed in life. In the text “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes, Challenges the American dream. It shows how the American dream is not what it seems. How the American dream is different for everyone. The text states “They send me to eat in the kitchen”(Hughes). The meaning of this quote is that he does not get to eat with everyone else when people come over. This challenges the american dream because this man should be free to eat wherever he wants to. The text also states, “Nobody’ll dare say to me, ‘Eat in the Kitchen,’(Hughes). This quotes meaning is to show that he will fight for his right to be and equally treated American. This challenges the right of the American dream because he has to fight just to be treated...
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