Does the American Dream Exist or Is It an Illusion?
The United States of America is a country where every individual has a right to ‘’pursuit of happiness’’ according to Thomas Jefferson who is the first president of the United States had been declared in the discourse which is known Declaration of Independence. However, is this right eligible for everyone? Does every individual really have that chance in America? Or is it nothing more than an illusion? Furthermore, does the ‘’American Dream’’ still have importance even now? There is an undeniable fact that the United States of America constructed the widely known, catch-phrase slogan for everyone. This manifestation has been established to every individual in America, yet the affection of this term is not distributed in an equal way. Even if the ''founding fathers'' were asserting in another way, American Dream is not reflected its light towards everyone in America.
The origin of it is a term based on the occurrence that fleed bunch of people who are Puritans or Revolutionaries determinately abandoned England in the search and hope for ‘’freedom’’. Because in England they were dependent on the system of landlords and they did not have any right to the land where they worked more than the landowner. Religious pressures contributed to the abandonment. On the other hand, the lands of America were offering this freedom in a way that they desired consistently. Hence, the first notion of the American Dream appeared with the help of ‘’individualism’’. This country would be a sacred place to those who seek and want freedom, also it would give them a right to reach out their goals. The only winner in this effort would be themselves, not a landowner or anyone else. As Jim Cullen mentions in The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation, ‘’the Pilgrims may not have actually talked about the American Dream, but they would have understood the idea: afterall, they lived it as people who imagined a destiny for themselves.’’ (Cullen, 5).
Illustration of American Dream
Generally, the term is associated with financial stability or gaining status in the society and having a right to making decisions in your life, making enough money in order to sustain high quality after retirement, capturing a good life surrounded with a nice house, car, material belongings, and so on. As Lawrence R. Samuel underlines in The American Dream: A Cultural History, ‘’Rather than just a powerful philosophy or ideology, the American Dream is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life. It plays a vital, active role in who we are, what we do, and why we do it.’’ (Samuel,2). American Dream is based on individual desire and effort. Hard work is so important to make their dream come true. Americans do not care about other people, hence the dream is shaped in a more individual way. Americans associate freedom with the notion that means every individual has to wrap their life with wealth. If you are dependent on someone for money that means you are not free. money is the material key for them, is the key which makes them free. That money is the award for freedom. Sarah Churchwell mentions in the A Brief History of the American Dream, ‘’ Adams concluded that America had lost its way by prizing material success above all other values: Indeed, it had started to treat money as a value, instead of merely as a means to produce or measure value.’’
Ideal family according to American Dream
As Jeremy Rifkin highlights in The European D