America's Dream

Many of us have heard the concept referred to as the American Dream, but what is this dream exactly? The American Dream was first inspired by these words in the constitution: “We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Here lies the beginning of an American ideal that has been passed down through the generations and spread like a rampant wildfire throughout the world. Living this dream has come to be idolized as the pinnacle of world achievements by many who have considered its power to extend hope and freedom to all. The American Dream is the idea that all people in the American democratic society can achieve their goals, which may include success in a job, happiness in life due success and a less rigid class structural system.

The American Dream fluxes due to an individual’s opinions and beliefs. There are general views of how the American Dream can be achieved and there are also specific views. A general view that many people use to express their version of the American Dream is their desire to achieve the goals they have set out for themselves. While there are Americans who have not set their own goals for achievement, setting goals is a realistic option for all Americans who wish to achieve something in their lifetime. There are some countries, like South Korea, in which setting goals for achievement in a job is unrealistic because the government places people in the careers they will practice in for the rest of their lives. An example of a concept that can be very specific would be various people’s definitions of happiness. Some people would consider happiness to be raising a family and buying a suitable house, while others would consider happiness to be living a life of adventure with just a dog as their companion.

There are different American dreams for all different people in all different walks of life. When it comes to generating a less rigid class structural system, some will say that America operates to a class structural system that cannot be easily broken down into a ladder that can easily ascended and descended. This ladder needs to be established as a creation that was in fact implemented into the fabric of America. The ability to climb the ladder of success and monetary wealth has generated a unique sense of American ambition that can be seen in all aspects of society.

Setting goals in job-oriented situations has been a basic building block for the way that American society has functioned over the course of many generations. When America was formed, the first job of the people who created it was to split off from the government associated with Britain. From this moment onward, America has functioned as an immensely independent and goal oriented country. When immigrants first entered this country, they sought not only a new life, but also a life where their goals and aspirations in the form of a job could be lived out. In the book Ellis Island: Gateway to the American Dream, the author Pamela Reeves expresses the thoughts and aspirations all the immigrants maintained as they were assimilated into American culture. Reeves states, “Immigrants came to America for many reasons—to escape war, famine, religious persecution, political upheaval, lack of jobs; for fear of conscription, family disagreements, personal failure, and lust for adventure (77).” There were several difficulties among various countries’ political and economic systems during the great immigration period between the 1870’s and 1930’s. This is why so many people came to America in order to live out the dreams that would have never been achievable in the places they came from. Immigrants still come here because the aspirations in the job type setting cannot be realized within the countries they came from. There are some who will say that success in a job can be achieved almost anywhere in the world now because of widespread democratic government. There are some instances where this scenario is the case such as in Britian and France where success in a job is easier to accomplish, but this is not the case in the majority of countries. There are countries like Mexico and Haiti in which a job is hard to come by, especially the jobs where dreams and aspirations can be lived out while also making a decent living. These are the places where America is considered the place where dreams can and do come true. In these countries we are still revered as the pinnacle of success and accomplishment.

Happiness in life, in the American Dream sense, is the feeling of contentment someone experiences because the person has achieved his or her goals. This means that people can live in America where they can experience accomplishment in a job and gain happiness from this experience. This may also include the contentment of living a life without facing the daily struggle to survive. While people in countries like Nigeria and El Salvador struggle to obtain enough food and water for survival, most of as Americans can enjoy an existence where we can live a life without worrying about basic everyday needs. This ensures more time for family, friends and leisure activities that can be enjoyed. Some people may say that happiness cannot be achieved because of achievement of goals. These people might also go on to argue that happiness is not something that can be measured due to achievement and success but by how a person’s relationships are created. This may be true for some people who use relationships to define how they interact with the world, but most people gain happiness through the work and effort they place into their own lives. When a person doesn’t have to live with the bare minimum, then they can be classified as living a life of pleasure, which will automatically give them all the resources they need in order to become happier. Since America has a less rigid class structural system already, it is easier to obtain happiness through accomplishment in a job.

A less rigid class structural system is a defining term in American Dream achievement. This means that Americans can move up and down through the classes of society without the economic and social restraints that government places on them. America is unique in the fact that it’s class structural system can accommodate such a large amount of alteration and flexibility. There is a large amount of effort that most must put forth in order to accomplish the move to a higher class, but this is not an all-together impossible feat. Some will say that the idea of this jump in society stems from socialist beliefs. These people will say that America still runs rigidly on society’s class system. This however is not true because there have been many examples of American citizens achieving their hopes and dreams through achieving a higher class status. In the book, The American Dream, Dan Rather tells the story of a woman named Delores Kesler who used a temporary $10,000 loan to start a staffing agency in Jacksonvillie, Florida; by the time Kesler retired from the board of the company Conval-Aide Medical Staffing, the project revenue was more than $2 billion (43). There is not just one story where the class structural system was broken down to where a person could jump from a lower class to a higher one, there are many similar stories from many other innovative Americans. The term “rags to riches” is no American myth; this is a reality lived out by a sizable portion of Americans every year.

Creating the American Dream was no easy task, but because America is a land of freedom and possibility, the American Dream is a reality that most people can live through and experience. The American Dreams encompasses achieving one’s goals, which may include attaining happiness in life, success in a job and obtaining a less rigid class structural system. Attaining happiness in life is creating by achieving goals in a job type situation. Some people may argue with this point and say that happiness can only be formed in a person because of the time and effort that they place into these relationships, but a person need to put effort and time into their jobs in order to feel accomplished and ultimately happy. Success in a job is defined as an achievement of goals and aspirations in the workplace. There are some who will say that this success is obtainable in other parts of this world, not just America, and this is true in some cases, but American society offers many opportunities for people to work and innovate, whereas many other countries do not offer these opportunities. A less rigid class structural system is also integral to how the American Dream works, because it shows that the ‘rags to riches’ mentality that Americans have been carrying is alive and well. Some people will say that America operates on an extremely rigid class scale, but this is not true because there are scores of Americans who have lived out their dreams and jumped way up in the class structure of society, which shows that class structure is almost non-existent. The American Dream is still alive and well today and it has proven to be an integral contributor to how American society functions.

Works Cited

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. 1st e.d. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2006. 362-11. Print.

Rather, Dan. The American Dream. 1st e.d. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. 266-1. Print.

Reeves, Pamela. Ellis Island. 1st e.d. New York: Barnes & Noble Inc., 1998. 130-9. Print.

Photo Sources

http://amlit-kaplan.wikispaces.com/page+2,+the+dream+of+america

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http://1908-benita.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

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