As William Damon, one of the world’s leading scholars on human development, looked through the roster of the U-20 US Men’s National Soccer Team prior the 2007 U-20 FIFA World Cup, he could easily identify the original nationality of each player. By the end of his analysis he had tallied eight different nations from five different continents. When Damon confronted the team with the notion of the American Dream, the players spoke excitedly about how open American culture was compared to their home countries and the opportunities to pursue any career they wished (Damon 1). Despite their different origins from across the globe, on the pitch this group of first, second, and third generation immigrants were all united under one nationality. This …show more content…
Without the workforce of immigrants, the United States would not be the industrial and technological leader it is today. During this period between 1870 and 1920, approximately 20 million Europeans arrived in the United States by means of a treacherous weeklong steamship trip across the Atlantic (Danzer 461). With these new immigrants bolstering the American labor force, by 1914 America would become the greatest oil producer in the world and produce more motor vehicles than the rest of the world combined. In merely thirty years, from 1867 to 1897, the United States’ production of steel increased by over 4300% (Danzer 461). This enormous influence of immigrants on industry continues to this day, as Joel Kotkin highlights in his American Enterprise article, “America still beckons.” In his article, he reminds the reader to consider the continuing contributions of 21st century immigrants. He writes, “think of all the Brits in the publishing industry. In the art world, every other young person you meet is French or Italian. Most of the Russians are in computer science. It's a kind of pan-European society” (Kotkin …show more content…
While much of American literature pertaining to immigrants and the American Dream can be quite dark, the reason these characters fail is because they are pursuing the “wrong” American Dream. American literature and culture throughout the twentieth century following Adams’ The Epic of America in 1931 have proven that the trivial pursuit of the “wrong” American Dream leads not only to the ultimate failure of the Dream, but also the destruction of the characters’ entire life. Published in 1939, Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck chronicles the adventures of Tom Joad as he leads the Joad family on a journey to swap the poverty of Oklahoma for the wealth of California. Unfortunately for Tom, thousands of others American also pursue this futile American Dream of wealth and are also traveling to California. The competition for the highest paying jobs in the scarce job market produces a chaotic scene of worker riots and general turmoil. Tom is forced to flee as the chaos and riots destroy his quest for wealth, and only leaves him in a worse state than beforehand. The musical West Side Story, written by Arthur Laurents and first performed