The American Dream As A Manifest Of American Cultural Values

No matter what someone’s ethnicity, language they speak or what colour their skin is, and even their life experiences, everyone that comes to the land of America can understand the idea of the American Dream. The concept of the American Dream is very common to many people in America: freedom and equality to all people, an equal opportunity to achieve their career goals and be happy with their lives, as well as the idea that anyone can achieve anything if they put their minds to it and stay dedicated and are willing to sacrifice the things they love for the bigger reward. However, You can look online and on the news and that you will see many Americans who are not getting their dreams true. Prices from food and as well as health care are always increasing from year to year, as well as many jobs are getting harder to find as the economy grows and the debt of the United States of America increases.

The American Dream is a very important aspect in people’s lives. They dream about achieving this at a very young age. The American dream is as well a very major aspect in American culture. In Barack Obama’s “Keynote Address from the 2004 Democratic National Convention”. He spoke to a national audience, which in my opinion was one of his most important speeches, this speech helped him a lot with becoming president. In his speech he went into detail how important the idea of the American Dream was towards himself and his family. In the speech he talked about the struggles that his parents went through to get to the United States and what they had to do to achieve the American Dream, they said that anyone is able to achieve the Dream no matter what your skin colour or what your net worth is. He started talking about how his parents “imagined [him] going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in America you don’t have to be rich to achieve your potential.” (Obama 90). This is what most people think about when they come across the idea of the American Dream, that you have to be filthy rich and be able to purchase many things to show wealth and success. In Obama’s case, this is not what he thinks the American Dream is. Obama indeed agrees that America still provides access to the American Dream, but only comes with hardwork and dedication.

However, the truth about the American Dream is much different to what people think about what is achievable and realistically possible to maintain. As the population of the United States increases, the prices of day to day life necessities increase and is becoming harder on the average person to achieve their goals. According to the article written by David Wallechinsky “Is the American Dream Still Possible”. This article was published in paradise magazines in October 2010 and was based on a survey of 2,200 Americans, many people are saying that they are not seeing the dream come true. Wallechinsky says, “two-thirds say they live from paycheck, and 47% say that no matter how hard they work, they cannot get ahead. More than a third worry about job loss.” (Wallechinsky 56). This clearly showed that majority of the people that were surveyed said that they were having a lot of trouble trying to accomplish the American Dream.

However, nearly 75% of people that took the survey said that they can either fail or succeed based on their own determination and dedication. This shows a critical difference between the ability of the American Dream and the reality of pursuing the American Dream. Even if the American Dream, which the money also comes along with it is not achievable. The idea of the American Dream still provides a major drive in the American society, because it motivates people to do great things to achieve their dreams.

The idea of the American dream mostly came from the Declaration of Independence, it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Declaration of Independence 59) This means that America will provide access to key aspects of the American Dream to help people be able to achieve their dreams. This is what makes America one of the best countries in the world, they indeed do provide access to the American Dream but it is your responsibility to put in the hard work and be able to sacrifice the things you love to achieve this dream.

In conclusion, America does provide access to the American Dream but not to everyone, only to the people who are willing to do the hard work and be willing to be motivated everyday to achieve their dreams. Success is not something that happens overnight, it comes with hours and hours on beating on your craft and making that something important in America. That is how success is pondered in today’s society and that is how people see the American Dream.