The American Dream: The Ideas Of The American Dream

Happiness is something that we can only pursue and never attain. Americans define success as the potential for prosperity, exemplified through our founding fathers, who articulated the “pursuit of happiness”. People in America believe that one needs to be successful so that one can be happy. These same people define happiness through how big their houses are, how many cars they own, how much money they make, etc. Americans do not focus on the things in life that truly define happiness.

What is the American Dream? There are several definitions and ideas of what the American Dream is, but there is not a definitive answer. According to Dr. Edward Cahill from Fordham University, the idea behind the dream isn’t actually American. He goes on to write about it in his book, Liberty of the Imagination: Aesthetic Theory, Literary Form, and Politics in the Early United States. In his book he writes, “These are stories of wealth acquisition and status transformation, striving and rising, which we very comfortably think of as something one does in America as opposed to somewhere else.” He uses Benjamin Franklin to explain why upward mobility narratives became popular in America in the 19th century. He explains how Franklin was a soap maker’s son who transformed to an American luminary and one of America’s founding fathers. Because of figures in America just like Benjamin Franklin, Americans identify themselves with the American Dream because they claim it to be their own idea. Cahill goes on to write, “What we have now is a culture in which the idea of the American dream can mean many things to many different people. Does the American dream mean owning your own home, being a substantial member of your community, and helping others? Or does i...

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...nd turn it into a quest for perfection. For most Americans, being “perfect” is unachievable because there is no criterion for perfection. Sometimes we are tricked into happiness by the American industry. There are products and consumer goods that promise the American public that they’ll be happier if they buy it. Do we ever see that we already have enough? Some people just aren’t content with their lives so they feel the need to go out and pleasure themselves by buying new things. The material items won’t bring one happiness, one must find true happiness within themselves; they need to comfortable enough in their own skin and in their own life situation to find their definition of true happiness. In a lifelong chase after an idea that we can’t seem to define, Americans have blinded themselves of what happiness may be about: a certain contentment with our lives.