The American Dream: A Struggle To Achieve Success

My great grandfather, Simon Harris, grew up in a small town. He grew up with two brothers and four sisters which his parents had to support. His family was low income. He had walked and hitchhiked his way to Decatur to be able to live on his own at the age of fourteen. He overcame many struggles, due to leaving his family at such a young age. But through his hard work and determination, he made it out of the life of poverty which he had grown up in. He did everything to his best ability. He worked hard and long hours, in order to make a better life for himself. He is an example that the American Dream is achievable, no matter how you are brought up, you just have to be willing to put in the effort. The American dream is the ideal that through hard work, determination, and some sacrifice, every US citizen should be able to achieve success.

Those who are “willing to fail as often as necessary along the way” (Zinsser, pg 83), are the ones who seem to be willing to work for what they want, what they dream and strive for no matter how long it takes. And, another thing he said that stuck out was that “Who is to say, then, if there is any right path to the top” Zinsser is explaining that the Dream is to be able to work hard, but there is more than one way to success, more than one way to be on top and achieve what you believe in. The American Dream is one of success, but without failure a person cannot learn to be successful and achieve what they strive for, what they dream for. Our standards for the American dream have changed, things that were a luxury before are now part of the American Dream. The dream used to be a place to live, some land, and be financially independent, now the dream consists of material things, we are now a consumer