Selfishness In The American Dream

A life of luxury, the love of their life at their side, and a feeling of complete satisfaction is everyone’s dream. This dream has been given a name, the American Dream, to honor the land of opportunity where the idea was put into words. The American Dream, in its most simple form, means security. The stereotypical quest for bigger and better does not define the Dream, it’s the safety the goal ends up providing. However this relentless pursuit of this sanctuary proves to be fruitless. The American Dream conditions people to believe that what they have is not satisfactory and they must have more. This leads to unhappiness because the change required to initiate the Dream is impossible to set into motion, the goals people set are too ambitious

In Lorrain Hansburry’s 1966 play “Raisin in the Sun”, protagonist Walter Lee has a plan that could make his family lots of money or lose everything they have. Walter’s sister, Ruth, is content with their current situation but it is never enough for Walter and he declares “Money is life”. That simple phrase denounces Walter’s entire family and accuses them of being less important than money. Walter blatantly ignores the rest of his family’s satisfaction with the way things are and loses all of their money on a poorly thought out scheme in hopes of progressing all of them into a place where his dream can happen. The inherent selfishness surrounding the American Dream can affect entire groups of people. In Jerome Karabel’s 2012 article “Grand Illusion: Mobility, Inequality, and the American Dream”, Karabel argues “If Americans really want more social mobility, they must choose policies that counteract rather than reinforce the growth of inequality”(Karabel). It would make sense to reduce inequality to make the American Dream easier to obtain ,if everyone has money they have some type of security, but because people compare themselves to others, economic equality is virtually impossible. People want to compare themselves to the poor and feel better than them because of they have more wealth or social status or things so they don’t close that gap to make the Dream more possible due to a narcissistic selfishness that prevails throughout a majority of the American