America Is A Place Of Opportunity

America is a place of opportunity. A place where individuals can make their dreams come true. A place where the people can make a life for themselves. Yet is success available to everyone? The American dream is the ability for an individual to reach their potential, whether it is through going to college, better pay, or providing for their family. Although there is a common belief that everyone has a chance to attain the American dream, in reality the dream is impossible for some individuals, because not every American has the same privileges.
The American dream is not attainable to everyone because hard work does not always lead to success. David Ignatow’s Europe and America shows the prospect that working hard does not guarantee success. The poem tells the story of two generations, and the father in the poem was an immigrant,
In President Obama’s Keynote Address, he tells Americans across the country that opportunities are available in America. Obama explains how his father achieved his American dream of education through “hard work and perseverance” (2), despite his disadvantages of being an immigrant coming from an extremely poor family. Obama continues with his anecdote to explain that “in generous America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential” (8), illustrating how the American dream is entirely possible to some people. Yet though the dream is probable even to the people who face challenges, such as Obama’s father, the absence of resources limits the ability to reach American Dream. For example, Obama talks about a young woman from St. Louis who “[has] the drive, [has] the will, but doesn’t have the money to go to college” (7). Money is a privilege, and acts as a barrier to the young woman’s American dream, thus showing that the dream is conditional based on