Is The American Dream Still Possible
A Dreamers Dream When you think of America or an American, one thing usually comes to mind to describe the life of an American in general, success. For many people the American Dream is a goal of having either a nice house, a car, a family, maybe even a business. The American Dream should be a dream of achieving a stable life when dealing with money and even your own job. It is a dream of living a debt free life and getting a higher education if you choose to. The dream should not involve the government, it is your own vision of your future and how it can/will be. There should not be any more challenges to achieving this dream other than your job’s own difficulty. An individual who is legitimately hard working and does everything that
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they can to be stable both financially and physically. Keeping all of this in mind, the American Dream is unfortunately no longer a reality and I say this with good reason. Most of the qualities that make the American Dream what it is are not even remotely present in many individual’s life and it makes it more difficult to accomplish the dream then it really has to be. The American Dream is not possible and there are many reasons as to why this is. One of those reasons being that many immigrants come in and out of America because they all have that dream of succeeding and living a happy, for many even a better life in general when compared to their old life in the other countries that have been torn apart due to war and political injustice. They have struggled before they even get to America and when they finally get here they continue to struggle maybe even more than they ever did back in their own homes. Their dream of a stable life may never become a reality due to the hateful and discriminatory society that has almost always been present in America. An example of an immigrant’s struggle can be seen in the poem “Europe and America” by David Ignatow, when he states, “My father brought the emigrant bundle of desperation and worn threads, that in anxiety as he stumbles tumble out distractedly” (Ignatow 66). Ignatow is explaining the struggles that his father faced both while on his way to America and while living in America, comparing their experiences which happen to be completely different from each other. The challenges that the father faced are what most immigrants still face today and are what keep many of them from even remotely reaching the American Dream. Fighting for equality and being able to live the American Dream should be able to come to an individual with the help of their leader. As Barack Obama stated in his speech from the “Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention,” he wants his audience to vote and believe in John Kerry based on what he says about America as a whole and what the individual’s actions can lead to. He is basically trying his best to motivate the people to reaching their goals and the one major goal in specific, the American Dream. As Obama stated in his speech, “My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin roof shack” (Obama 78). He describes his father’s struggles to show that even a goat herder was able to accomplish his dreams for his family and himself. This does however also show the amount of work and time that was needed for his father to accomplish this, and unfortunately shows a form of desperation that many other people really can not handle. Being an immigrant is already frowned upon on its own by the society of today and even from before and this can be shown with another of Obama’s statement about his father’s life, “His father- my grandfather- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British” (Obama 78). His statement about his grandfather can be interpreted as a historical allusion based on his description of his grandfather’s employers, the British. As I stated before, immigrants that come to America struggle enough as it is and face discrimination based on their racial backgrounds and as his grandfather’s job showed, he probably faced the same backlash based on the descriptive words such as “servant”. Another reason as to why the American Dream is not possible to reach is the fact of gaining such a high debt.
A debt can be a hinder in reaching the American Dream for many and can drive someone crazy because they don’t even know what to do to be able to get out of that debt. One specific way that this can be shown is through David Wallenchinsky’s article “Is the American Dream Still Possible?” when he states, “To help support his family, Oden had to dip into his 401(k) fund, paying a penalty for premature withdrawal” (Wallenchinsky 56). In this particular statement he is speaking about a man who is in a crazy amount of debt and had to basically dip into his retirement funds to be able to keep his family well which is something that no American should have to do based on what the American Dream is. Not only do people have to follow in Oden’s steps most people also get into a higher debt than what they originally had because of the original debt and because they feel the need to pay off their original debt completely. They are desperate for success and can’t get out of a hole that they were basically thrown into because of the dream. Since debt involves money and money causes many problems as well as create debts that people cannot pay off it’s no wonder that Dana Gioia talks about money in a personified manner in her poem “Money”. He shows that money can control many things including a person and can obviously create the one thing that is the downfall of many, debt. Gioia states “Money breeds money. Gathering interest, compounding daily” (Gioia 69). This basically tells that to get money one must spend money not only that but it also creates debt because of people not being able to gain anything from their investments. Money is something that a lot of people deal with, it is basically the basic supporting ground for the American Dream, without it no one would believe in the dream and the dream would be a completely false idea. Finally, the almost impossible
dream of a great American lifestyle is shown by the inequality and discrimination presented to many Americans, as well as those who come into the country, face this in their everyday lives. The discrimination and inequality is shown through Anzia Yezierska’s short story “America and I” when she describes how bad the work environment was and is for many immigrants like herself who come here looking for a better life as well as stable one with no hate directed towards them like it was back in their old homes. Yezierska says “Here I was with so much richness in me, but my mind was not wanted without the language” (Yezierska 17). She is speaking of her personal experience working in a factory in which no matter how young and willing she was to work, she was not wanted simply because of her language barrier. This is a major issue with many immigrants because of the employers not wanting anyone for not speaking a language that they specifically want them to speak just because of where they are in terms of the country which shows the discrimination thrown at the immigrants. Another form of discrimination is obviously racism, which has been around for a long time, and this can be shown with the poem “America” by Claude McKay and with his statement “Her vigor flaws like tides into into my blood, giving me strength erect against her hate” (McKay 14). He is speaking about that hate and discrimination that he faces while living in America. He is highly optimistic however but that cannot be said about the other minorities that also face this issue everyday. Many people do not have this high level of optimism and often drop their moral because of the other issues facing them like debt and general struggles with the unfortunate “burden” of being a minority. Although I personally believe that the American Dream is not possible many other people still have a high hope of reaching the American Dream and living the stable life that they dream of. Fighting for equality and being able to legitimately live the American Dream should be able to come to an individual with the help of their leaders. As Barack Obama stated in his speech from the “Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention”, he wants his audience to vote and believe in John Kerry based on what he says about America as a whole and the individual’s actions. Obama stated, “In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead… we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us” (Obama 80). The statement of having a strong belief in how events will play out for the best is flawed beyond explanation. To motivate a whole group is just one step towards the goal of actually helping the people achieve the American Dream. Many people don’t last long while working towards that dream because they just give up along the way or before they even get started, the motivation doesn’t stay with a person forever and because of that many people fail at the American Dream. Motivation is not the only thing that has to be given to the people in order for them to actually live the American Dream, there is a lot that needs to be added and done to help out the people. We can’t be expecting to get motivated and pushed, specially by our government, we have to find a way to succeed on our own and stop acting like the victim in working towards the American Dream.
To live the American Dream I believe that there has to be major changes done in our way of life as well as the government’s actions. We can’t be expected to fend for ourselves, speaking for immigrants and other minorities out there, but we also don’t ask for handouts I just think that people should not be getting into debt because of how the economy is because of our leaders. False promises can’t be an everyday thing and can not be an expected thing when every election comes along. We really do need change in order for people to live a stable life. We can not be stating that America is a great country because it really is not, the government is not working out the way it is, the amount of disagreement between the two major parties is unbelievable, it not only affects the government, it also affects that people that live under it. If we cannot figure this out soon, my generation as well as future generations will not have a dream to live off of at all. The dream will just continue to be a dream, in the future it may be history.
they can to be stable both financially and physically. Keeping all of this in mind, the American Dream is unfortunately no longer a reality and I say this with good reason. Most of the qualities that make the American Dream what it is are not even remotely present in many individual’s life and it makes it more difficult to accomplish the dream then it really has to be. The American Dream is not possible and there are many reasons as to why this is. One of those reasons being that many immigrants come in and out of America because they all have that dream of succeeding and living a happy, for many even a better life in general when compared to their old life in the other countries that have been torn apart due to war and political injustice. They have struggled before they even get to America and when they finally get here they continue to struggle maybe even more than they ever did back in their own homes. Their dream of a stable life may never become a reality due to the hateful and discriminatory society that has almost always been present in America. An example of an immigrant’s struggle can be seen in the poem “Europe and America” by David Ignatow, when he states, “My father brought the emigrant bundle of desperation and worn threads, that in anxiety as he stumbles tumble out distractedly” (Ignatow 66). Ignatow is explaining the struggles that his father faced both while on his way to America and while living in America, comparing their experiences which happen to be completely different from each other. The challenges that the father faced are what most immigrants still face today and are what keep many of them from even remotely reaching the American Dream. Fighting for equality and being able to live the American Dream should be able to come to an individual with the help of their leader. As Barack Obama stated in his speech from the “Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention,” he wants his audience to vote and believe in John Kerry based on what he says about America as a whole and what the individual’s actions can lead to. He is basically trying his best to motivate the people to reaching their goals and the one major goal in specific, the American Dream. As Obama stated in his speech, “My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin roof shack” (Obama 78). He describes his father’s struggles to show that even a goat herder was able to accomplish his dreams for his family and himself. This does however also show the amount of work and time that was needed for his father to accomplish this, and unfortunately shows a form of desperation that many other people really can not handle. Being an immigrant is already frowned upon on its own by the society of today and even from before and this can be shown with another of Obama’s statement about his father’s life, “His father- my grandfather- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British” (Obama 78). His statement about his grandfather can be interpreted as a historical allusion based on his description of his grandfather’s employers, the British. As I stated before, immigrants that come to America struggle enough as it is and face discrimination based on their racial backgrounds and as his grandfather’s job showed, he probably faced the same backlash based on the descriptive words such as “servant”. Another reason as to why the American Dream is not possible to reach is the fact of gaining such a high debt.
A debt can be a hinder in reaching the American Dream for many and can drive someone crazy because they don’t even know what to do to be able to get out of that debt. One specific way that this can be shown is through David Wallenchinsky’s article “Is the American Dream Still Possible?” when he states, “To help support his family, Oden had to dip into his 401(k) fund, paying a penalty for premature withdrawal” (Wallenchinsky 56). In this particular statement he is speaking about a man who is in a crazy amount of debt and had to basically dip into his retirement funds to be able to keep his family well which is something that no American should have to do based on what the American Dream is. Not only do people have to follow in Oden’s steps most people also get into a higher debt than what they originally had because of the original debt and because they feel the need to pay off their original debt completely. They are desperate for success and can’t get out of a hole that they were basically thrown into because of the dream. Since debt involves money and money causes many problems as well as create debts that people cannot pay off it’s no wonder that Dana Gioia talks about money in a personified manner in her poem “Money”. He shows that money can control many things including a person and can obviously create the one thing that is the downfall of many, debt. Gioia states “Money breeds money. Gathering interest, compounding daily” (Gioia 69). This basically tells that to get money one must spend money not only that but it also creates debt because of people not being able to gain anything from their investments. Money is something that a lot of people deal with, it is basically the basic supporting ground for the American Dream, without it no one would believe in the dream and the dream would be a completely false idea. Finally, the almost impossible
dream of a great American lifestyle is shown by the inequality and discrimination presented to many Americans, as well as those who come into the country, face this in their everyday lives. The discrimination and inequality is shown through Anzia Yezierska’s short story “America and I” when she describes how bad the work environment was and is for many immigrants like herself who come here looking for a better life as well as stable one with no hate directed towards them like it was back in their old homes. Yezierska says “Here I was with so much richness in me, but my mind was not wanted without the language” (Yezierska 17). She is speaking of her personal experience working in a factory in which no matter how young and willing she was to work, she was not wanted simply because of her language barrier. This is a major issue with many immigrants because of the employers not wanting anyone for not speaking a language that they specifically want them to speak just because of where they are in terms of the country which shows the discrimination thrown at the immigrants. Another form of discrimination is obviously racism, which has been around for a long time, and this can be shown with the poem “America” by Claude McKay and with his statement “Her vigor flaws like tides into into my blood, giving me strength erect against her hate” (McKay 14). He is speaking about that hate and discrimination that he faces while living in America. He is highly optimistic however but that cannot be said about the other minorities that also face this issue everyday. Many people do not have this high level of optimism and often drop their moral because of the other issues facing them like debt and general struggles with the unfortunate “burden” of being a minority. Although I personally believe that the American Dream is not possible many other people still have a high hope of reaching the American Dream and living the stable life that they dream of. Fighting for equality and being able to legitimately live the American Dream should be able to come to an individual with the help of their leaders. As Barack Obama stated in his speech from the “Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention”, he wants his audience to vote and believe in John Kerry based on what he says about America as a whole and the individual’s actions. Obama stated, “In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead… we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us” (Obama 80). The statement of having a strong belief in how events will play out for the best is flawed beyond explanation. To motivate a whole group is just one step towards the goal of actually helping the people achieve the American Dream. Many people don’t last long while working towards that dream because they just give up along the way or before they even get started, the motivation doesn’t stay with a person forever and because of that many people fail at the American Dream. Motivation is not the only thing that has to be given to the people in order for them to actually live the American Dream, there is a lot that needs to be added and done to help out the people. We can’t be expecting to get motivated and pushed, specially by our government, we have to find a way to succeed on our own and stop acting like the victim in working towards the American Dream.
To live the American Dream I believe that there has to be major changes done in our way of life as well as the government’s actions. We can’t be expected to fend for ourselves, speaking for immigrants and other minorities out there, but we also don’t ask for handouts I just think that people should not be getting into debt because of how the economy is because of our leaders. False promises can’t be an everyday thing and can not be an expected thing when every election comes along. We really do need change in order for people to live a stable life. We can not be stating that America is a great country because it really is not, the government is not working out the way it is, the amount of disagreement between the two major parties is unbelievable, it not only affects the government, it also affects that people that live under it. If we cannot figure this out soon, my generation as well as future generations will not have a dream to live off of at all. The dream will just continue to be a dream, in the future it may be history.