CENTRO DE CULTURA ANGLO-AMERICANA - NILÓPOLIS

TEACHER’S COURSE

LITERATURE 2

THE AMERICAN DREAM

RODRIGO OLIVEIRA DUTRA MARCÍLIO

TEACHER: ALEXANDRE DE AZEVEDO SOARES

RIO DE JANEIRO

2018
 Introduction:

James Truslow Adams said that 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 [sic] 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."

In more simple terms, the American dream is the belief that everyone can

achieve their version of success in a society where people can climb up the social

classes. This idea, in its initial plans, included even the American immigrants, a group

of people that really struggle to find a place in the marginalizing society we are inserted

in. However, some people disagree that immigrants have an equal chance of achieving

success today.

In this assignment, we will take a look at some aspects of the American Dream,

like its history, if people consider this idea an achievable one and why a part of the

Americans believes that the American dream is actually a nightmare. Max Beerbohm

once said that “we must stop talking about the American Dream and start listening to

the dream of Americans”. It is possible to infer from what Max stated that he does not

believe that the American Dream can fulfill everyone’s needs. As we are talking about
having opportunities and freedom, a value that Thomas Jefferson really emphasized in

“The Declaration of the Independence, it is essential that we discuss The American

Dream so that we can think of a better American society.

History:

As we previously saw, the term “American Dream” has

been coined by James Truslow Adam. He first used this concept

in his book “The Epic of America” in 1932.Indirectly, this idea

was a reaction to the main character created by Theodore Dreiser

in his novel “An American Tragedy” (1925). The protagonist of

this book is extremely determined to improve his status in life,

without even thinking about the consequences.

However, it is important that we notice that the concept of this dream existed

long before Adams. In 1630, John Winthrop preached his “City Upon A Hill” sermon to

the Puritan colonists as they sailed to Massachusetts, describes Patrick J. Kiger in his

article called “How the American Dream works”. The author never used the word

“dream”, but he fully details his vision of a fair society in which all the human beings

would have a chance of prospering as long as everyone followed the Bible and the

church. As a gradual consequence, this thought became a God-given right.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence – written by Thomas Jefferson –

defined that everyone in America, at least those who were not enslaved by the colonists,

was entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. So we see that the concept of

this American dream was already a part of the United States’ conscience during the

Independence.
 In the 19th century, the United States evolved a lot, and the view of Americans

about their country suffered some consequences too. People considered America an

amazing land where anything could be attained if a determined person dared to dream

this big. Alexis de Tocqueville used to define this belief as “the charm of anticipated

success”. The American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau stated that “If one

advanced confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has

imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours” in his book

Walden (1854).

In the 20th century, this dream became an adamant part of the social thinking

during times where consumer goods like radios, cars and even homes became available.

During that decade, around two-thirds of the national product became attributable to

consumer spending. In this period, the American Dream started changing from the right

to have a better life to the desire to possess material things. An interesting fact about it

is that F. Scott Fitzgerald described this change in his novel The Great Gatsby. In this

book, one of the characters – Daisy Buchmann – cries when she sees Jay Gatsby’s shirts

because she’s never seen “such beautiful shirts before.”

“The idea was aided immeasurably by political events during the 1930s through

the 1970s”, says the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Homeownership

and mortgage credit represented the initial part of the government assistance dream in

the 1930s. And this greedy version of the Dream, discussed in the last paragraph,

generated a problem: the new dream was never achievable, people always wanted more

and more, and this greed led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great

Depression.
 The concept of the American dream was actually still alive after the World War

II. In 1957, student loans started to be offered. In the 1970s, as a result of all the

programs, higher education and homeownership were reachable for many people.

And what about today? There is a disagreement about the definition of American

Dream nowadays; some people even think we’ve seen the end of the American Dream.

So it’s essential that right now we talk about the United States reality and how

they see this topic.

The American Dream today:

In the past – 60 years ago, for instance – if you had an opportunity of going to

college, it was expectable that you would get a well-paying job that would guarantee a

secure retirement and everything you need. Basically, the American Dream was about

achieving this great job and securing a home in the suburbs with your family.

However, the American Dream changed its form again. Nowadays, this concept

is about eliminating and preventing worries, not only about providing comfort anymore.

Now we are going to analyze the reality of different sectors of society so that we

can understand the setbacks and the breakthroughs that the American Dream is facing:

Education: Over the years, graduation rates in colleges increased quite quickly.

Nowadays, more people are graduating from college than ever before. On the other

hand, the inflation today is much bigger than in the past. This means that students are

spending more and more on education.

Employment: After a student’s graduation, he or she wants to join the job

market so that this student can pay back their loans. And what do they encounter? An
extremely tumultuous job market. Today, we still find the division between the blue

collar and the white collar, the difference now is that young graduates want to go

directly to the white collar jobs, but they discover that they just can’t have those jobs for

lots of reasons so they get a blue collar job. And the payment gap between these two

social sections has widened over the years. And when these blue-collar workers want to

construct a life, they find themselves unsatisfied and unhappy with their careers.

Healthcare: James Truslow Adams didn’t have much contact with the concept

of a health insurance, as it was still something new. But just like education, the prices of

health insurance increased at a very fast rate – actually at a faster rate than the inflation.

Americans are spending more money of their income with healthcare costs. The new

American Dream includes having a job that gives the workers the opportunity of

contracting a good healthcare plan.

Retirement: For many years, your company would reward you with a pension if

you worked there for your entire career so that you would not need to worry about

retirement and depend on the stock market for your retirement. Considering the rise of

the life expectancy, companies started to worry about not being able to afford these

payments for all their workers, so they started to establish some changes in the

retirement plan or give a defined benefit plan.

In this case, it’s important that we notice that the workers of nowadays have to

worry about their retirement since, sometimes, not everything is guaranteed by the

company. The American Dream today is to have a job with a good retirement plan so

that you can spend your final days on Earth in a relaxed way.

Based on everything exposed until now, we don’t see an American dream about

having 2/3 kids, a dog and a house with lots of rooms. If you are able to graduate from
college, secure a job with a few benefits and afford a healthcare plan, you are living the

new American Dream.

Meaning of the dream to

people:

The FRONTLINE website made a research about what people think about the

American Dream and what meaning this concept has to them. It was believed for

generations that if everyone worked hard, we could be successful and build a

comfortable life for us and for our family. But this thought has changed over the years.

Some people told the website that they still have a beacon of hope, while other

people told them that they believed that the dream was dead.

And there are those who are in the middle; they believe that the dream is still

possible but it takes a lot of hard work. The image below shows a research done by the

site “New Dream”

Further information: The Game Of Life

“The Game of Life” is one of the most famous board games in the United States.

The game was created by Milton Bradley in 1860, the former name of it was “The

Checkered Game Of Life”. The Wikipedia describes the game in a very short and clear

way: “The game simulates a person's travels through his or her life, from college to

retirement, with jobs, marriage, and possible children (4) along the way.”

Although neither the instructions nor the box of the game says it, the winner of

the game is the one who is the closest to the American Dream. In the game, if you don’t

lose the job that you got by choosing to go through the “University path”, you will gain

a lot of fictional money because your salary will be really high. If you pay back all your

loans or don’t take any, you will gain some bonuses. At the end of it all, when it’s time

to retire, the more children you got, the more money you receive as a bonus; the better

the house you bought, the more money you gain from the Bank.

In more simple terms, we can conclude that The Game of Life represents the life

of American people in a very simple and ludic way, and the desire to reach the

American Dream is an essential part of the game.

Conclusion:

“The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and

passion, it’s possible to achieve the American Dream”, said Tommy Hilfiger.

It’s important that we remember that it’s essential for a country to have dreams

and to believe in its own progress, and the American Dream reflects this idea: A nation

trying to focus on an ideal society for the future. Although this dream changed its

external form a lot since Adams described it, the essence of it is the same until today.
 In my opinion, the American Dream should focus more on equality and trying to

eradicate prejudice in the U.S, because we still see lots of cases of intolerance in the

country discussed. Maybe it’s the time to join the idea of a social progress with the idea

of a tolerant and respectful society.