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The American dream and factors that favor it
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As a young girl I was infatuated with the Mary Tyler Moore Show. To me Mary was the epitome of a successful single woman. She showed up in the big city, and her hard work and dedication earned her a great job, respect, and ultimate happiness. The show’s theme song gave me hope that one day, with enough hard work and dedication, I could achieve my dream and eventually achieve my American Dream.
Now I’m not so sure. As a college student facing graduation in a year, I’ve lost my faith in the accessibility of the American Dream. Thus far, I have been fortunate to surpass a large percentage of my peers from high school in my preparation for future success. I’m not still living at home. I did not get married at 18. In fact, I worked extremely hard in school and even harder in athletics so I could get a full-scholarship to a prestigious university and a graduate debt-free. Though even with my over-priced and elite preparation, I still don’t feel secure in my future. Like many of my classmates, I have a nagging feeling I will never equal, must less exceed, my parent’s accomplishments or financial success. Frankly, I’m terrified to graduate.
As a society that lives in a culture of abundance and opportunity, we are always sensing that the next big break lies just over the horizon with the next job or notable achievement. David Brooks, editorialist for the New York Times, sees America as a nation obsessed and admiring of the rich and famous. He ingeniously discloses that, “None of us is really poor; we're just pre-rich”.
What then, you ask, is the American Dream that I am so resolute to achieve? It is not a classic childhood aspiration for movie star status or the obsession with absolute wealth and position. I am much too sensible to chase such delusions, but this being said, I too pursue an equally illusive fantasy. The dream that infinite upward mobility exists.
By “upward mobility” I mean the absolute freedom to ascend economically and socially in the American class system. I desperately want to believe in ultimate and unlimited opportunity and stability. In terms of possessions, I want a house, 2 cars, and no debt. Marriage will not be necessary for money or status, and eventually work will be a choice, not a requirement. I aspire to be remembered and respected as a woman who accomplished something meaningful and valuable with her life.
“Dracula, in one aspect, is a novel about the types of Victorian women and the representation of them in Victorian English society” (Humphrey). Through Mina, Lucy and the daughters of Dracula, Stoker symbolizes three different types of woman: the pure, the tempted and the impure. “Although Mina and Lucy possess similar qualities there is striking difference between the two” (Humphrey). Mina is the ideal 19th century Victorian woman; she is chaste, loyal and intelligent. On the other hand, Lucy’s ideal Victorian characteristics began to fade as she transformed from human to vampire and eventually those characteristics disappeared altogether. Lucy no longer embodied the Victorian woman and instead, “the swe...
The passage depicts the unnatural occurrence of the female’s sexual advances, and establishes the link between vampirism and sex that is seen throughout the novel: unlike Mina and Lucy, who are idyllically virtuous and pure, these un-dead women are insatiable and dominant. Stoker takes the fantastic image of the sexual woman to its most extreme manifestation, and suggests that Harker would not only lose his reputation by indulging in these sexual acts, but also his life. The three vampires that Harker encounters in Dracula’s castle are embodiments of the ‘beautiful nightmare’ of the male Victorians; they are representations of everything that the Victorian society states that women should not be – they are sexually aggressive, ‘voluptuous’, and seductive. This sexual proficiency, though appealing, is rebuked and seen to undermine the male dominancy within the patriarchal society, and therefore must be destroyed. The notion that a woman can be both attractive and repulsive is also presented by Angela Carter in The Lady of the House of Love. The character of the countess is presented as both the predator and the prey – the victim and the vixen. Just as the female vampire in Dracula is described as “thrilling and repulsive”, the countess is described as “beautiful and ghastly”. Despite her beauty and “fragility”, the countess
Bram Stoker’s use of gender inversion is first evident in the novel when Dracula’s voluptuous brides attempt to seduce Johnathan Harker. “In an agony of delightful anticipation”, “The blonde girl's “deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive awaiting consummation with eyes closed in languorous ecstasy” (p. 48) Johnathan being quite coy “responds” to this occurrence by taking the approach “What happens in Transylvania stays in Transylvania.” As the three women lean over Johnathan he is attracted by their “red” succulent lips on his throat “so powerful an ambivalence, generating both errant erotic impulses”, but when the brides are about to feast and devour Johnathan, Dracula suddenly appears and puts an end to the party. Dracula openly displays his uncontrolled dominance over these women by saying “How...
For the purpose of this paper, the American Dream will be defined as the idea that you can achieve financial stability through hard work, which often means going to college. The term “college” refers to any undergraduate or graduate program at a secondary institution. This paper aims to examine the relationship between attending college and one’s ability to achieve the American Dream. Attending college is thought to be an important step in obtaining the American Dream, primarily because receiving a higher level of education tends to lead to a higher paying job and furthermore a financially stable future. However, this isn’t always the case due to an increase in the need for students to take out loans and increase their debt in order to afford college expenses.
“thrilling and repulsive”(126) was how Dracula’s brides were described by Harker. This tone of disgust and fear towards them by Harker as well as the author himself indicates how the desire and hatred towards the women are perceived, all due to them being exceedingly sexual. The tone that is utilized emulates the allure and loathing dictated in the text to the point that it is intended for the reader to feel it as well. The fact that the reader can sense it too, causes them to feel hatred towards the brides, similar to the hatred all of the characters feel towards them. When sweet Lucy was turned she was transformed in a manipulative sexual being with “languorous, voluptuous grace”(747). Her interactions appear innocent and pure, but in actuality she is attempting to convince one of her husbands(she had four due to sharing blood with them), to become a vampire; an evil being. This almost harmless tone portrayed by Lucy’s manipulative actions, juxtaposes with the true nature of her actions, those of evil. The given contrast shows how any woman out of the gender role; being sexual, telling your husband what to do, or even having multiple husbands in the eyes of God(that one just pertained to women there, as Van Helsing has a wife in the eyes of the church, yet
Every person has an American Dream they want to pursue, achieve and live. Many people write down goals for themselves in order to get to their dream. Those never ending goals can range from academic to personal. As of today, I am living my dream. My American Dream is to become a nurse, travel to many places, have a family, and get more involved with God.
The American Dream, in my eyes, would be described as unrealistic. It's a notation put in people’s minds that an individual can achieve anything he or she sets his or her mind to do. Now the outlook is being perceived as pessimistic, then again, I believe “The American Dream” is overestimated. When I was a young child, I aspired to be a princess who lived in a castle with a handsome prince and live happily ever after; I aspired to be a princess until I was thirteen. Still, it was instantaneously disappointing when reality dawned upon me, I could never be a princess. Although it left me completely devastated, I soon realized, there’s a huge difference between dreams and reality.
The American Dream is so important to our country and especially for our generation to take seriously. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life you have always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. The American Dream was much easier to attain a few decades ago compared to today. However, it is still possible. The economy was better fifty years ago than it is today. People are in greater debt now and the United States is in higher debt than it was fifty years ago. The American Dream is still possible despite the lack of improvement within social mobility in American society over the past years. The American dream is achievable by being able to live a middle-class lifestyle and that lifestyle is obtainable through hard work and perseverance, even in light of obstacles such as racism. “The American Dream is still achievable, however, the good news is that people at the bottom are just as likely to move up the income ladder today as they were 50 years ago” (O’Brien 1). The ability to attain the American Dream is hindered by race, the middle class, and giving up facing adversity.
As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.
money. The reason i think this is because the reason people go through all those
With America actually being seen as the land of assurance, the American dream is usually associated with the freedom and opportunity of gaining prosperity, recognition, power, triumph, and contentment. On the surface, this dream appears virtually delighted, offering individuals the exceptional hope of accomplishing success despite of one’s race, religion, or family history. The American Dream is accurately what it seems to be the chance of perfect lying nearby the corner. However, the actual nature of this dream prohibit the pleasure of the victory one has earned, as the desire is always demanding one to work a slight harder and gain a slightly more.
The "American Dream" supposedly allows everyone to climb the "social/economic ladder," if they wish to do so. Anyone that works hard is supposed to be able to move to a higher class. However, society often prevents social mobility. Social classes dictate who moves to a higher class and who does not. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this issue was especially prevalent.
At first glance, there is some evidence that the redshirted children perform better initially (Zill, Loomis, & West, 1997, p. 40). However, unlike in sports, the effect doesn’t last. Erikson Institute President Emeritus Samuel Meisels states, “as children get older…whatever advantage is conferred by starting school a year older decreases dramatically” (Safer, 2012). One study by Oshima and Domaleski (2006) compares students with summer birthdays against children with prior fall birthdays to determine the effect of age on
William Blake was a social critic of his time, yet his criticism also reflects society of our own time as well. He mainly communicates humanitarian concerns through his "Songs of Innocence and Experience'; which express two opposite states of the human soul, happiness or misery, heaven or hell. "Innocence'; expresses the state of childhood, into which we are all born, a state of free imagination and infinite joy. "Experience';, according to Blake, is man's state when disaster has destroyed the initial ecstasy. He believes that problems concerning child labor, religious institutions, individual apathy, prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, war and marriage are the result of humankind's carelessness. He explores this point of view particularly in two of his poems "London'; and "The Chimney Sweeper'; both from "The Songs of Innocence';. He voices his disapproval over these injustices caused by humankind primarily through the use of irony, imagery, symbolism and a clever choice of language.
The most significant underlying ideology of William Blake’s poetry is his essential psychomachia - the "contrary states", as Blake himself calls them. The work in which "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" appear distinctly states Blake’s purpose in a preface: "Shewing the two contrary states of the human soul." In "The Lamb", a basic question and an answer are given. The poem is a catechism (Miner 62). The simplistic and comfortable resolution purposely has no doubt or ambiguity surrounding its initial message of love, tranquility, Jesus Christ, and above all, innocence. The speaker sees God in terms he can understand - gentle and kind and very much like us (Reinhart 25). A tremendous void is clearly apparent. The poem’s straightforwardness leaves the reader with a discomforting feeling of the need for a more sophisticated perspective on the relationship between maker and humanity. This instinctual need for a contrary state gives birth to the tiger.