The Opportunity To Achieve The American Dream

For many generations immigrants have fled to America in hopes of achieving the “American Dream”. The American dream originated from a few common ideas: that every American citizen has the right to pursue happiness, and that everyone has the freedom to achieve social and economic success, through means of hard work and dedication. The American dream has served as a motive and incentive for those who strive to become successful and achieve their goals. All United States citizens have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream through means of hard work, and dedication or just plain luck. Ever since the American Dream was first introduced, people have changed and created their own interpretation of what their American dream was. The most
common interpretation is “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” which originated from the Declaration of Independence. The American dream gives all citizens the opportunity and freedom to accomplish their goals and aspirations and allows them to become whatever they please to be. As Arnold Schwarzenegger “To think that a once scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant's dream. It is the American dream.” This quote shows that no matter where you are from, fortunate or not, you are still capable of achieving the American dream. It shows that it the American dream is a opportunity to all citizens immigrant or not, independent of your race, religion or ethnicity. This quote also shows that the American dream is achievable to those who work hard and those who are fortunate. Though many people are familiar with the general concept of the American dream, they are unaware of when it originated, also who is responsible for creating the original concept.
James Truslow Adams, a well known historian of the early nineteen thirties has been credited as the first person to write about the American dream in his book called The Epic of American, he claimed “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” This quote of Adams, says that everyone has a equal opportunity to achieve the American dream, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. Whether or not your become your goals is directly related to how hard you work towards achieving your goals. Furthermore he says that everyone who works hard to accomplish their goals, will be successful reaching there personal American
dream. The American dream has a direct correlation with Success, the more successful you are, the closer you are to reaching your personal American dream.
Furthermore, the American dream has become a measure of success, if you are not successful you will not achieve your goals and overall; your American dream. A good example of someone who has achieved the American dream would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, a actor and once the governor of California. He came to a America as a immigrant from Austria, Arnold a well-known Bodybuilder “Mr.Universe” at that time reflecting his hard work at the gym, but when he first arrived in America he started his acting career first appearing in low budget fils such as Conan the Barbarian. As a result of his hard work and dedication he was able to star in very popular and famous movies such as the terminator series which he made millions of dollars from. He then made a dramatic career switch and decided to campaign and run for the opening as governor of California. After campaigning he was elected as the governor of California. Arnold not only achieved a successful bodybuilding career in America but also a successful political and acting career. Arnold once said “ “To think that a once scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant's dream. It is the American dream.”Adams Arnold had achieved his American dream and
become successful in multiple careers. Achieving the American dream like Arnold has took a lot of hard work, dedication and luck. Luck is a key factor that can help contribute to the success of a person along with hard work and dedication. Arnold was fortunate that he was able to immigrate to America, and that he had developed a large supportive fan base, which in return helped obtain a successful acting and political career. Often, many people will not be as fortunate and they will receive “the short end of the stick” and will have to work much harder to accomplish their goals. The original American dream of the 1930’s that denotes that all people can achieve the American dream through means of hard work, has changed dramatically over the last few decades. The modern interpretation of the American dream shows that you can achieve economic and social success very quickly with little work involved. Unlike the previous interpretation where everyone had the opportunity to becomes success through hard work and dedication. Because of this new interpretation many people feel like the American dream is impossible to achieve without a good amount of luck. Many people feel that in order to reach the modernized dream they have to get lucky and win the lottery compared to working hard to achier equal success. The media has played a key role in modernizing the American dream to relate to luck. They often broadcast T.V. shows where lucky chosen contestants have a chance to strike it rich over night by winning the gameshow. These shows include Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune as well as many others: Jeopardy involves great skill in order to strike it rich but it involves luck, reason being you have to be selected to be a contestant, and you also have to get lucky and hope you choose questions you know; Wheel of fortune often depends greatly on luck because you have to spin the wheel and avoid things like “bankrupt”. These programs show adverse people striking it rich, and affects viewers minds watching. Most people would rather strike it rich with doing little work compared to working hard to achieve success. If everyone relies on luck to bring them fortune, instead of hard work, and dedication the American dream would become become very hard to achieve.
The American dream provides all citizens of the United States with the opportunity to accomplish their goals and achieve success. The American dream can be achieved by hard work and dedication. It does not limit anyone from becoming successful regardless if your race, religion, or ethnicity. It does not matter if your a natural born citizen or a immigrant who came to the United States. If everyone works hard and are dedicated and motivated to accomplish their goals, they might be lucky enough to achieve the American dream.