The American Dream is a goal for which many have strived for hundreds of years. Some have succeeded in this endeavor, countless others have failed. There are as many ways to define the American Dream as there are Americans. Sadly, not everyone gets to complete theirs. Many factors can contribute to the Dream’s failure, from personal mistakes to societal oppression. No book proves this fact better than Of Mice and Men. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the four characters who best demonstrate failures of the American Dream are George and Lennie, Curley’s wife, and Crooks.
From families looking to flee harsh living conditions in their native country to American citizens wishing to escape impoverished conditions through hard work and determination, the “American Dream” is a concept that people throughout the world have aspired to achieve for hundreds of years. Regardless of birthplace or socioeconomic status, the “American Dream” promises success, prosperity and upward mobility to any citizen with ambition and work ethic. Hundreds of millions of American citizens as well as immigrants have flourished in the United States throughout the course of history in a society with a thriving middle-class. However, in recent years, this dream has become increasingly difficult to achieve for those who are not already wealthy.
Humans often make goals to reach an exhilarated state. When a goal becomes too hard to obtain and when too many people fail to reach this goal, society digresses. The American Dream is the national ethos of the United States that was created in 1931. It is a set of principles in which prosperity and success can be achieved through hard work and the right ethics. However, over the years, the “car has stopped.” This so-called “dream” is running low and slowly turning into a fantasy. With the exploitation of an over-powering government and the reforms of education heading in the wrong direction, the American Dream is running low and is on its way to extinction.
American ideologies of success, rooted in ideals represented by the American Dream, have long captivated people of the United States with a hypnotic power. The promise of the American Dream, in which even the poorest Americans can achieve prosperity and success through persistence and hard work, has drawn all sorts of people to its warmth, generating a multicultural “melting pot” in the U.S. that boasts of diversity and tolerance. The American Dream itself resonates from the nation’s declaration that “all men are created equal” and affirms its claim to be a land of inclusion and nondiscriminatory opportunity. Further evidenced by glorified narratives of rags-to-riches success, the American Dream has flourished in the hearts of many Americans who embrace its emotional appeal, and over time, it has been woven into the social fabric of the United States national imaginary with unwavering patriotism. Its ideals, which reside at the core of American identity, have undoubtedly played an important role in guiding American political evolution and development. Yet while the American Dream is flaunted as a source of national cohesion and pride, for many it is no more than an empty and elusive fantasy hovering over a broken land. Instead of finding refuge in the American Dream’s sacred promises, many Americans have begun to contest its presence in the national imaginary as a divisive and unjust force.
Is the idea of the American Dream destroying this generation? Around the 1950’s, the American Dream was defined as “ The set of ideals (Democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality) in which freedom includes prosperity from hard work”( Wikipedia). However, according to Jack Solomon, author of “Masters and Desire” he believes that the American Dream has two definitions, one that thrives on equality and the other very undemocratic. He disagrees with this definition because he is convinced that equality in this country is a myth. He also believes that people define their success in life by how much they can impress others with their luxuries and achieving the highest position at their job, only for their personal gain, rather than
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true” (Kierkegaard)- Misleading oneself by accepting things as true or valid when they are not is a common phenomenon of nearly every human being, especially when faced with life changing of threatening situations. Self-deception can therefore be considered an option to escape reality in order to prevent oneself from dealing with the weight of a situation. Basically, those strong influencing psychological forces keep us from acknowledging a threatening situation or truth. However, oftentimes people do not realize that they are deceiving themselves, for it is mostly the action of the subconscious mind to protect especially the psychological well- being. This psychological state is depicted and in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. He shows that people try to escape reality and seek refuge in self-deception when confronted with life-threatening situations, through characterization, alternate point of view, and the fluidity of time.
The United States is considered to be one of the most prosperous nations in the world due to its prevalent opportunities. The idea that hard work defines one’s capabilities of success is one that has driven the nation since its foundation. The American Dream, as it has come to be known, is what attracts many immigrants to the United States. Many of these immigrants envision educational opportunities for their children, ones that likely begin in a public school. While opportunities may still arise from attending these institutions, immigrant children, or minority students as a whole, are often not given the same opportunities as their white counterparts. There has been debate on what is the best course of action to take to suppress this inequality.
Due to continuous changes in the concept of the American Dream throughout its prolonged existence, it is difficult to have one sole definition. The American Dream has always been a major concept that stems off of many ideas such as liberty, prosperity, equality, and opportunity, which still exists, to some degree, in our vision of the Dream today. America has always been known as the “land of opportunity” and has always emphasized the importance of future generations surpassing the success of their previous ones. But just because our present concept of the Dream may seem to overlap past concepts, it does not mean the Dream has remained what it was in the past. Actually, it is an entirely new image, morphed by social, political, and economic issues. What has it become? A society corrupted by materialism and deteriorated by the failing economy, leaving younger Americans hopeless and older Americans fearful of America’s future. It’s alarming that Americans are constantly taking their rights and freedom for granted, always wanting more than they can get– and quite honestly, what they can get is not even that much to begin with. As our economy collapses into chaotic hardships and our desires override our moral obligations, the American Dream has ultimately become the American Nightmare.
Does the original American Dream still exist today? Many American people are beginning to question rather or not the American dream is still the key fundamental in what makes America so great. Well, what truly is the American dream? According to dictionarly.com, “the American dream is the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”, I feel that this is a great definition for what the American dream should truly mean. Unfortunately, I personally feel that the American dream is slowly dwindling away as our capitalism society begins to become more corrupt in order to advance politicians and the upper class while crushing the working middle-class with high taxes. I feel that debt, corrupt
The American Dream is referred to by many people as the reason to come to America. It is, or so they say, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Unfortunately they are incorrect, there truly is no American Dream, it is all an illusion given to us by our founding fathers as a reason for the inequality in which people are treated. I have lived in this country for 16 years now and have all the patriotic bullshit about how we give everyone equal opportunity and how everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. I just laugh when I read this. Throughout our country’s 300-year history, it is all about raising one person over the other. It started with the movement of the Native Americans. They were here before anyone else, and they were moved because they did not live with all the violence our ancestors did. The founding fathers continued to push them further and further away because it was beneficial to them at the time. They said if you stay here we will not bother you anymore, then when they decided that area was nice and they needed it for the white man. Then we began to take the black man out of Africa and use them on our plantations so the white man could get more money. The President ended slavery, but there were ways around it and everyone knew it. No one ever said any persecution of the black man is wrong for years and why not, because it was more convenient for us to ignore it. Now the people from Latin American countries have come in homes of freedom, and better lives. We tell them they have to speak English, since they are in America, but I do not recall being taught the language of the Native Americans. Since they were here first should you not have to learn that language?