Preview

English Essay

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
624 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
English Essay
Elijah Pierson
Mrs. Crook
English III
7 February 2013
The American Dream Research Paper People that lack economical stability and support often move to the United States in search of obtaining the American Dream. The problems some people have when trying to obtain the American Dream are lack of money, support from family members, and also discrimination. Those obstacles make it difficult to create a better life style, so that their future can be brighter. African Americans are just one of many groups that have had trouble obtaining the American Dream. Because of a lack of education, it was harder to make money, and many had to deal with discrimination. Obtaining the American Dream is not easy for immigrants from other countries, especially when they lack the financial stability to provide for a family. Some people may say the American Dream had become harder to achieve, especially for people with financial issues (Rodriguez 1). People coming to America from other countries often have come in search of jobs or opportunities to work. “The only problem is that it is hard to find a job because the unemployment rate is high” (Meacham 1). High unemployment rate doesn’t stop people from trying to obtain the American Dream; it just causes them to fight harder.
Lack of financial stability is just one of many obstacles that immigrants face; they also suffer a lack of support from family members to make a better life style. Immigrants from other countries often come up short in obtaining the American Dream because of the absence of support from family. In researching the obstacles of immigrants obtaining the American Dream, Pearson observes that the second generation of immigrants have a higher income, and are more likely to have a college degree, than the generation before them(Pearson). In the end, children of immigrants that grew up in the states are often “more educated, better paid and more likely to own a home than their parents” (Pearson 1), because of the



Cited: Meacham, Jon. “Keeping the Dream Alive.” Time List 21 June 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013 Pearson, Erica. “Immigrants are still living the dream, as second generation Americans have higher salaries and more education than parents.” New York Daily News 7 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2013 Rodriguez, Gregory. ‘The American Dream: Is it slipping away?”. Los Angeles Times 27 Sep. 2010. Web. 7 Feb. 2013

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    English Outline

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A. Opening Statement: Achieving the American dream is difficult if you are born in to the lower class of America.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of The Divide

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Never allowing full access to the very world American society dangles at their noses, institutions in America have worked hard to set an idealized standard of living. Impoverished people are not just at a serious misfortune on a financial level but on a psychological one as well. The idealized standard of living in the United States is easily known as what many call the “American dream”. Through good work ethic, resolve, and action, the American dream suggests that any American citizen should have unbiased and ample opportunity for financial success.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People flocked to America from countries all around the world in search for a dream of success called the American Dream, but it was not limited to strictly foreign immigrants. The citizens of the United States grew up and started their personal search of achievement. However, the path was never easy, as roadblocks would interfere with their chase. People gave all their effort and dedication, yet the dream did not turn out as planned. Many people attempted to achieve the American Dream, but many obstacles stood in their path.…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Is The American Dream Over,” Cal Thomas argues that although it seems like the American Dream no longer exists, it is…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    America is often looked at in grand admiration as the home for a mighty melting pot of different people and their cultures. It is historically famous for being refuge for any type of people looking for a better life for themselves. It is a nation built from the ground up by hard-working immigrant hands, who came simply in the pursuit of life, liberty, happiness, and the American Dream. Every few generations, clusters of immigrants would flock to the country for that same simple reason; the dream. The “American dream” is often understood to be a sort of rags to riches tale of a person who leaves everything they have known their entire lives for a chance at success they could never imagine having in their own home country.…

    • 1068 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article “Hiding From Reality” author Bob Herbert emphasizes the death of the American dream, and what Americans need to do to re-establish it. The American dream needs to be resuscitated and that entails drastic change to the education system, job creation, and a halt to mindless spending that only serves to broaden the inequality between wealthy and the poor. Herbert describes Americans as a “hapless, can’t do society” and argues that no change will come unless America recognizes the effort and sacrifice needed to resuscitate the dream.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "If the American Dream is for Americans only, it will remain our dream and never be our destiny." A wise Rene de Visme once said. This statement provides the framework for the support that the American Dream is not provided for all the tired, the poor and the huddled masses but provided for culled groups. For those unable to meet these requirements they are denied their American Dream. The bereavement of this dream can come as a result of a plethora of things including but not limited to the expense of the dream, and the discrimination of the country.…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Salvage the Bone

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “Higher Education and Children in Immigrant Families”, authors Baum and Flores assess the current state of young immigrants coming to the United States to obtain higher education, asking why immigrants from different parts of the world have different rates of acquiring a college education. Baum and Flores asserts that the status of being an immigrant does not affect educational attainment but it is rather the unique characteristics of…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Jim, C., (2004). The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation. New York: Basic Books.…

    • 5517 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For an immigrant, the American Dream is to achieve economic well-being and a good quality of life through hard work, entrepreneurship, and perseverance. It is the driving force behind most immigration, and its realization is the achievement dimension of the American Dream to reach to the fullest life. What is the American dream? And how can one pursue it? Does it still exist, or is it over? Carl Thomas's article “ Is the American Dream Over?,” states that the American Dream is still around and people have to work hard to achieve it or to reclaim it. Thomas's argument that the government is leading us to a path of economic downfall sheds light on Bob Herbert's analysis of the recession in our country to recognize how much trouble we're in. In particular, Thomas's analysis of the causes, consequences, and solutions helps us understand Herbert's essay more clearly on what the main roots to achieve a better economy and standard of living are.…

    • 1576 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The prospects of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” have attracted over 40 million immigrants since the founding of the country. Much of the population, motivated by the desire for success, has worked hard to help the country advance and succeed. There have always been doubts that the “American Dream” can truly be achieved, as poverty, homelessness, and other hardships are observable in the United States. However, even if it is unreachable to some, the “American Dream” and its values have long inspired immigrants and Americans alike to keep moving forward with their lives and to…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Actually, the portions of immigrant men having jobs are greater than those who are men natively-born in America. Furthermore, a substantiation inspected within some reports and other researches shows apparently that immigrants typically make momentous development the longer such immigrants live within the United States. Regrettably, this development nevertheless leaves them soundly behind inhabitants in nearly all measures concerning socioeconomic conditions, even subsequent to being America for many years. The portion of adult immigrants that have stayed in the America for nearly 20 years and are yet in abject poverty or to some extent not having health insurance covers is not less than 50 percent greater that native adults. Besides, the proportion of these long-time residents’ immigrants’ households utilizing not less than a single welfare program approximately is twice as compared to household…

    • 1319 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Van de Rijt, A. (2008). American dream. In V. N. Parrillo (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social…

    • 2448 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Dream Thesis

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the world, there are many people who hold the belief of an “American Dream” that gives them freedom in opportunity and equal rights to achieve their goal with hard work and their own endeavors. Often those living in lesser conditions outside of America find a hope in the idea that America may give them access to opportunity and new freedoms. [Objectionable Thesis] Immigrants and foreigners of the past, present, and possibly the future hold a certain confidence in the ability of America to allow them to achieve a more favorable life and truly believe in the liberties that only America can bring them. [Signal Shift] Despite their faith,[Counterthesis] the American Dream is dead [Development] due to the overly romanticized portrayal of the…

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Conclusion, the idea behind achieving the American dream has been drastically miss constructed. Our goal as Americans should be to find a passion and pursue happiness through work and family. However, somewhere along the line the beauty of this idea has been corrupted due to the influence of money, adults have chosen to sacrifice happiness in hopes of the ability to purchase the American dream. Truthfully money cannot determine individual success or worth. If money…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays