English Homework
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Is The „American Dream“ Still Alive?
We students had to write an essay about the American Dream as a homework in English class, and especially we had to answer the question „Is The „American Dream“ Still Alive?“. But I did, however, deal with the question „Was there ever an American Dream?“
The first thoughts which came in my mind were „What exactly is the American Dream and is there something like an American Dream?“ According to Google the A.M. is „the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.“
This sounds pretty nice, for the Americans but I will not be jealous or sad. So in my words it means that with hard work and the focus on the right aim, I can reach everything in America because it is a country where these things can happen. And if you are honest it sounds pretty easy, I mean hard work is hard obviously but I know many people in Germany who are doing hard work and are not rich.
So we clarified the term and I could still deal with the original question but the important information that brought me to change this question into my current question was during the research. I did not believed in the American Dream before, to be more precise I think that the wish being a millionaire cannot be something that is only existing in America and is only possible there however I was never sure but after I looked the word in the lexicon from Apple up, I was sure that my opinion was kind of right, I guess.
„Apple“ says that the American Dream is the „belief that America is the land of unlimited opportunity, where everyone can make a successful life". The important word is „belief“ that means it is not rational. It is something what lives only in the thought of people and these thought are never gone or over.
It is similar to religion. The „American Dream“ lives with the humanity.
Now, I still cannot answer the question, but why? To decide whether the American Dream is alive or not we have to look why this term exists. If you are just search it in Google, you will see that the basic idea exists since the Declaration of Independent. It states that the population may depose unjust rulers and give itself its own political order.
In Europe the absolute monarch ruled everything and America was the first country which gave civil rights and allowed the pursuit of happiness. But the American Dream in this context is more like „from a dishwasher to a millionaire“. This started with James Adams, a historian who wrote this way of thinking in his book „The Epic of America“.
antonym in his roman „American Nightmare“.
Meanwhile I had a bad feeling, I mean even Ernest Hemingway was a person who believed in the American Dream but there was still something that disturbs me with this term. But then I got it. If you would ask me some years ago, I would answer the question with a yes.
The American Dream exists but only because America used the dream of the people getting rich and made it into a commercial. The government word very hard to create a perfect image of America because they wanted the citizen do their work good and that people who have good ideas should go to America and should becoming rich there.
So if you ask an American entrepreneur he would also say that the American Dream is still alive and is existing.
The American Dream of Adams, meant that only in America you can go from a is not alive anymore But even if you would believe that there is an American Dream, a search on the Internet is enough and you see that it no longer exists. According to the Stanford University America is on the 10th place when it comes to the possibility to a rise of a social class.
So the American Dream by Adams and the most of the „famous“ people is not real but the thought behind this is. The most important values of this thought are Freedom, personal responsibility, competition, equal opportunities, hard work and success. This exists in country but the reason why we associate it with the Americans is because first, the history of this country is ideal.
A few settler went to another continent and with nothing they evolved into the super power of the world and second they were the first one’s who made commercial. The first tv spot was 75 years ago in America by a watch brand and it was the first country with an independent economic system that really allowed everyone to be a part of.
But the other American Dream, with the other one I mean that in our capitalistic system the humans want to go from a dishwasher to a millionaire.but the only way to live this life was in America and America needed more citizen to gain more power that is why they made this into a commercial thing and attracted many people to America is real, but it changed.
To put it in a nutshell the question „is the A.M. still alive“ is very hard to answer but part of this dream is alive, you can become a millionaire even if you are now a dishwasher, but it is possible everywhere not just in America.
DE
