The United States of America: the melting pot of the world, the land of opportunity and the home to the coveted “American Dream”.
The American Dream is one seen in the eyes of most as the situation in which one comes from little or no money but can come to the United States of America and achieve what was thought to be impossible. Simply put, the American Dream is the chance to live out the catch phrase, “Zero to Hero”! The American Dream, however, is not one of reasonable proportions in today's society seeing that to even start somewhere, one must come from money. Therefore, the American Dream is no longer alive because of the fact that everything revolves around and must start with wealth and that the “Dream” is not feasible in most circumstances.
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In some cases, the American Dream does seem to “work." John D. Rockefeller, a baptist family man, become one of the richest men in the history of the world when horizontally integrating all oil industries in the early 20th century. My mother was born and grew up in the People’s Republic of China and had always dreamed of becoming a high school math teacher. In China, math was a very sought after subject to teach, making it a very competitive and almost unreachable as a desire. When she moved to the United States as a 17-year-old and decided to stay, she thought this dream wouldn’t be attainable because English was not her first language. However, over the course of 3 decades, after switching occupations a number of times, her dream had finally been realized. Now, credentialled in all levels of high school math, mandarin and business, my mother has been a high school teacher for 4 years. That being said, the American Dream, whether it be coming from a mediocre amount of money to being one of the richest people in history or achieving a dream one never thought possible, is definitely still alive. The American Dream has always been that any one person can become wealthy, not that everyone can. So while the wealth disparities grows and it's definitely harder to do it if you're a minority, as long as one person can still become rich, the American Dream can't be dead.
The American Dream, however, is only attainable through money. So, while a person may be able to succeed and become rich in a lifetime, one must first obtain the necessary means to get up off their feet and “run” towards wealth in hopes of succeeding. Millions of immigrants were told that the American streets were “paved with gold”, when in reality, the streets were paved with macadam which contains broken stones making it glimmer and shine like gold in the sun. The most realistic way to become successful is through education and the fact is, is that colleges cost an insane amount of money. But that’s just if you get to college. To be a successful high school student you must take numerous AP’s costing a large sum of money, register for the SAT or ACT with writing which costs money and let’s not forget if you wish to attend a private school, it would cost even more. I am 16-years-old and I’m already 144,000 dollar in debt. Therefore, the American Dream is dead not only because one needs money to succeed, but that the thought of streets being paved with gold was a lie all along.
In the past centuries, the idea of the American Dream has been corrupted into the focus of materialistic items, which are supposed to indicate a sense of success. It implies that an individual’s determination is the deciding factor in the accumulation of wealth, freedom and total happiness. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, he portrays a world filled with parties, corruption, and having nothing but fun. In the 1920’s many aspired to be prosperous, and to be a part of the parties of the upper class. Fitzgerald describes the essential traits to being a human through Nick Carraway’s point of view. The novel is mainly about the main character, Jay Gatsby’s, attempt to reach his unrealistic goal, which is to win back his long lost love Daisy and his desire to become wealthy. To obtain both of these goals, Gatsby commits criminal acts which results in him not having “clean” money. Readers soon learn that Gatsby is not a symbol of the greatness of the American Dream, but nearly a misrepresentation of it. This, again, proves the disillusionment of the supposed “American Dream”.
The American dream has changed dramatically over the past century. One might argue that the American dream of money, power and success is irrelevant in today’s society and is not as important to the American people. However, certain evidence seems to prove differently. The current American dream is very different from the past, but it still centers around the idea of money and power being the outcome. Despite popular belief, 20% of the American population from age 18-22 has agreed that the American dream is to be completely without debt. Many people, specifically college students with an up-and-coming graduation year, have stated that being debt-free with a nice paying position in a workforce is the dream that most of today’s youth aspire to succeed at. This dream is, unfortunately, not very realistic for young people coming out of a home with multiple siblings and a limited income. That, however, does not stop the youth from dreaming. In regards to the current American dream, today’s youth emits a great deal of nostalgia for the past and to live as previous generations have lived, and although that is becoming less and less realistic for newer generations, the dream is still very much alive.
The final part of the current American dream is that most young people want to have a home of their own by the time they reach their late 20's. Over the past couple of years, polls have continued to show that Americans no longer dream of extreme affluence, but of basic financial stability. With the Internet becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society, some adolescents and young adults have become Internet sensations and reaped the benefit from it through advertisements and popularity among other young people. The get-rich-quick method is still used and longed for in today’s society, despite the economic downfall we have experienced over the past decade and beyond.
Even though it is possible for Americans to succeed in life coming from little or no money into wealth, it does not cover up the fact that nearly no Americans can see this mere “dream” as a reality. The American Dream, however, is not one of reasonable proportions in today's society seeing that, to even start somewhere, one must come from money. One is able to note that with the given information above, that the American Dream is dead due to the fact that everything revolves around and must start with wealth and that the “Dream” is not feasible in most circumstances.
