American Dream

The idea of the American dream—that this country is the land of opportunity and that anyone can achieve success through hard work—has given hope to people born without hope. This is one of the main reasons people come to the United States from other countries, but now the American dream is being questioned, does it still exist. The collection of stories, “Living it” and “From Ragged Dick”, are two examples of how the American dream does not exist in our generation. It is also shared in the articles, “The promise of opportunity” and “Whither or whether the American Dream”, the American dream is not viable today. The short story, “Living it”, by Tim Blixseth, tells a story of his million dollar life. Tim Blixseth lived a very lavish life, he owned yachts and traveled the coasts of Mexico and saw exotic places in America. You would think Tim lived an American dream, but he was just an average person. Tim owned multiple companies that were very successful. He was a firm believer in working hard; he was a workaholic who became wealthy. Tim cannot remember his last non-working holiday, he said, “I think 1999, so seven years ago” (Blixseth 285). He is not living an American dream he is working to become wealthy. He was happy, but never relaxing and taking time for himself. While he was home in sunny California he went to the local Starbucks and gets a coffee, he said, “It keeps me sane” (Blixseth 285). By him saying that he implies he is not living any type of an American dream. Tim Blixseth shows great reasons that there is no real American dream, there is working Americans. In the short story, “From Ragged Dick”, Dick was a man working a low income job as a shoeshine man. He worked for low wages doing a low end job, he happened to be in the right place at the right time. Dick was on the ferry headed south, there were other people on the ferry including a man and his son, the boy fell overboard. As the boy fell the man shouted, “My child! Who will save my