In America we have so many standards in order for people to be considered successful or even to be accepted into our social norm. We scrutinize those who do not fit into our society’s standards. Americans expect people to act a certain way and in order for them to fit in and be accepted they must have the right stuff. In Tom Wolfes’s book The Right Stuff he talks all about how in the military someone either has the right stuff to become successful or they don’t have it and they just are mediocre. This represents America because we look at people who have a good job, a house, a family, and money as having the right stuff. They are successful because they have this right stuff, and we see people who work minimum wage jobs, are single parents, who don’t own a house, and cant by all the nice things as people who don’t have it and are just …show more content…
In the story it says that the military pilots would sit around “eagerly cutting the right stuff up in coded slices so they could talk about it…Nevertheless! - they never mentioned it by name” (Wolfe26). This is the same thing that we do in America, we sit around and talk about what we have and what we have done and this is our way to talk about the right stuff. But what is this right stuff? It’s not just one thing or a certain characteristic it is a compilation of these things. It also depends on where you are from and what kind of culture you are in. In the Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff “the right stuff is values, behavior, and deeply held feelings, glossed by such words as courage, honor, patriotism, pride, and duty” (Manning504). Since the setting in the book is based on the military these things are what makes up the right stuff in this situation. Also these things “such as courage, honor, patriotism, pride, and duty” are very American values. It relates to the classic American picture of patriotism, and us being the greatest
The short story, “The Things They Carried” was written by author Tim O'Brien in an unusual pattern. It contains a non-linear narrative of a short period in the life of a military unit active in Vietnam during the late 1960's, punctuated by an astonishingly vast inventory of items carried by each of the soldiers. The piece begins by introducing narrative and inventory items in somewhat separated sections, but as the story evolves the two categories become more and more mixed together, until it becomes apparent that who they are and what they are carrying are one and the same. It also becomes apparent that, in order for the unit's members to do the job they were sent to Vietnam to do, they need to streamline what they carry – only take what is needed to survive, dispose of the rest. This applies in a physical sense, where added weight can make them less physically effective, and also in an emotional/metaphysical sense, where the heavy psychic burden of trying to survive the day-to-day life of a warrior leaves no space for “extras”. In O'Brien's tale, there is an underlying question in all that he presents – what is a necessity, and what needs to be disposed of?
The philosophy of the American Dream has been with Americans for centurie; James Truslow Adams says that, regardless of social class, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (Adams). Although this vision has never fully encompassed the entirety of America, it has been generally a positive ambition that all Americans should look past their circumstances and rely on only themselves to succeed at life. However, American capitalism and Marxist ideas have contradicted the traditional dream. Materialism is a simple concept, but its definition has been skewed over time. At ...
So after reading stories of astronauts, their families, and test pilots, I take Tom Wolfe's phrase "The Right Stuff" to mean courage that was obtained from natural instinct and training. Without any of these special traits, I believe that finding a person to fly strapped onto a rocket into the heavens would have been a very difficult one for the military and NASA. They are the intangible items that make the difference between life and death when a person is placed in a dangerous situation.
Tocqueville wrote that Americans are inherently more materialistic than European peoples for three reasons. First, Americans have freed themselves by rejecting “a territorial aristocracy” of hierarchical societal structures on the “soil of America.” By doing so, “the distinctions of ranks are obliterated and privileges are destroyed,” therefore causing “the desire of acquiring the comforts of the world” to haunt “the imagination of the poor, and the dread of losing them that of the rich.” Second, in an egalitarian society, where every citizen has an equal opportunity “the most marked inequalities do not strike the eye; when everything is nearly on the same level, the slightest are marked enough to hurt i...
...at the American culture places economic success at the pinnacle of social desirability, without listing legitimate ways for attaining the desired goal (Merton 672-682). Today, the American Dream no longer reflects the dream Adams had, but instead, the idea that one can only call themselves truly successful if they have become rich, regardless of the way they got there. The American Dream does not guarantee happiness, but rather the pursuit of it, but with the media strongly persuading people that money guarantees happiness, people are encouraged to do whatever it takes, even it means disregarding their morals, so that they achieve ‘success.’ The inability to achieve this goal often leads people to destructive, and ultimately life-threatening criminal behavior as their feelings of anxiety and frustration over this vision of the “American Dream” get the best of them.
As students we are brainwashed by ancient myths such as The Iliad, where war is extolled and the valorous warrior praised. Yet, modern novels such as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried (THINGS) challenge those very notions. Like The Iliad, THINGS is about war. It is about battles and soldiers, victory and survival, yet the message O'Brien gives us in THINGS runs almost contradictory to the traditional war story. Whereas traditional stories of war take place on battlefields where soldier battles soldier and the mettle of man is tested, O'Brien's battle occurs in the shadowy, private place of a soldier's mind. Like the Vietnam War itself, THINGS forces Americans to question the foundations of their beliefs and values because it calls attention to the inner conscience. More than a war story, O'Brien's The Things They Carried is an expose on personal courage. Gone are the brave and glorious warriors such as those found in the battle of Troy. In THINGS, they are replaced by young men who experience not glory or bravery, but fear, horror, and a personal sense of shame. As mythic courage clashes with the modern's experience of it, a battle is waged in THINGS that isn't confined to the rice-patties, jungles, and shit-fields of Vietnam. Carrying more than the typical soldier's wares, O'Brien's narrator is armed with an arsenal of feelings and words that slash away at an invisible enemy that is the myth of courage, on an invisible battlefield that is the Vietnam veteran's mind.
Another characteristic of the right stuff is the pilots' relationship with one another. These pilots seem to always want to associate only with one another. Wolfe shows the reader the pilots' belief that only other pilots can understand their daily life and death struggles. In their discussions, though, it is shown that the pilots never like to use words like "danger," "bravery," and "fear." Instead they use a special code or explain by example.
Living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, our culture has naturally valued prestige and luxuries. We admire fancy items and often judge other individuals by the clothes they wear, the car they drive, and the schools that they attend. The “American Dream” serves as a motivational factor for people; believing that hard work and dedication can bring “success” to ones’ life. Although this is partially true, it is difficult for individuals in the middle class and lower class.
America’s pervasive acceptance of mediocrity has prevented society as a whole from standing up and taking bold steps in new directions. The typical mindset of society shapes our perception of success, which is entangling us into deep consequences. It seems that America is inventing
America has a culture of greed, selfishness and a system that rewards those characteristics. Success at any means necessary is the real American value the one that governs how people live, work and view the world. This frame of mind makes it ok to put other people down to build yourself up and measures success as the number of digits on a paycheck. All of this built upon greed, reinforced by incentive system that rewards a lack of humility, all of which leads to a society that has a few on top crushing the people below them.
Although it’s true that “[t]he work of democracy has always been hard” yet, American society is able to “show the capacity to change” (Obama 1) so the workers no longer need to “work [themselves] to death” (Goodman 1) as their struggle for their American Dream. New values helped build more self-confidence in people and make them believe in a certain image of American society in which they can belong and grow as greatest individuals “in the integrity of [one’s] mind” (Emerson 6) if an individual is able to develop himself. The greatest obstacles in the society’s disapproval or a failure in an individual's own sense of consistency. If one doesn’t want to “[become] the color of the building” (Sinclair 131-132) in which he’s working, then he must break those barriers to end the “[race] with death” (Sinclair 134). Instead of conforming to other’s expectations, an individual needs to discover his true self in order to accomplish a better life and have a chance to overcome society’s
...as been defined for many years that every American has equal opportunities to become successful, but this definition has proven to be almost the exact opposite during this Contemporary time period. The rapid growth of technology, distrust in government, selfish wants of Americans, and the wiliness to go to extreme lengths in order to obtain cheap, easy money has turned this American Dream into something of the past and is nearly nonexistent. Now, no matter what a person does to try and achieve the “American Dream”, this person will never feel satisfied because Americans will always want something more. The literature of this time era portrays the downfall of real, honest work behind the American Dream, as seen in the poem The Money Girls. Additionally, Ginsberg poems distinguish the distrust in the government to provide insight on the deteriorating American dream.
All the things that he listed were material belongs. “ Among the necessities or near-necessities were P -38 can openers, pocket knives heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches…” (O’Brien 2641). At the time these were the things that the men carried that mattered and how much these things weighed mattered. As the story progressed and the men witnessed more and more of the horrors of war and lost their view of innocence in the world, the important things that they carried with them changed. Especially after Lieutenant Cross’s friend Ted Lavender dies. “Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone” (O’Brien 2645). As cross and his men witnessed these atrocities occur, something in them changed, they lost their innocence, their view of the world had shifted. The things that the men carried changed, “ Some things they carried in common… they shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often they carried each other, the wounded or weak… They carried the land itself -- Vietnam… all of it, they carried gravity” (O’Brien 2646). As these men lost their innocence in war, they began carrying bigger burdens, they began to carry the weight of
The inequality issues of America are becoming severe. Not all men are created equal. The belief that everyone can reach the American Dream with the right attitude is not rational. The wages in America are not as high as they are portrayed. Some people’s beliefs and life choices can affect their place in society. The level you are at in the economy has everything to do with where you fall in the social pyramid.
The male American dream is most often interpreted as moving your family up in society by increasing your wealth. With this comes the need to purchase items that are on par with one’s income level and therefore showing off wealth and status. This need for items is not particularly because of usefulness or practicality but to distinguish oneself in society as a part of a particular class level, coming from the pressure to keep up with one’s peers. This film shows that society has taken over the definition of our needs and men no longer think for themselves but rather turn to see what others have and from that interpret what society sees as acceptable and standard. The male American dream can be interpreted as a never-ending cycle to prove oneself to others and appear to the standards that others define. According to Tyler Durden, “Advertising has us chasi...