The American dream

To what extent is the American Dream different from the American way of life?

I – MEANING OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

For Americans and immigrants America is the land of self-made men : people who started poor and became rich and famous. Americans believe in a better world for the man in the street.

Opportunities :

The idea is that even if you were born poor and illiterate in America or another country, you can still go up the social ladder.

Race, religion, sex or class should not be a barrier to success. Poor parents or a lack of education should not prevent anyone from making big money and becoming famous.

Qualities :

But of course, a poor boy has to prove he deserves success, money and a higher social status. He can be like many famous immigrants : John D. Rockefeller, oil tycoon or Henry Ford, car manufacturer. These men proved they had these qualities : strength, energy, determination, boldness, ambition, efficiency, optimism and competence.

The American work ethic :

All these qualities correspond to values generally called “the American work ethic”. A person may fail to become a powerful millionaire, but he or she should never give up in a fight because life is a struggle. People struggle to be better than the rest in any field.

The American Deals :

Finally, for immigrants school and education usually give the means to succeed. Many Asians, Hispanics, …live the dreams of their parents : that they can be happy in this land of freedom. They learn at school the beginning of the Declaration of Independence (4th July 1776) :

“All men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

A little of History: Roosevelt's speech. :

America, “ground of the second chance”. He pronounced this speech for the 50th birthday of the Statue of Liberty. He said that the providence made the USA a second chance ground. Millions of people came there and adopted this country because they found everything good: somewhere to live with children, being free to think, to admire a god in any religion. It's the memory of this people who were looking for a better future,that made of this place the most magic of America.

Nowadays “American Dream” has a new meaning : the economic success.

The American Dream is the idea that anybody can become rich and have a perfect life in the USA just with labour and courage. It's like anybody could success there. For example, Madonna went to New York with only 30 dollars and became a successful idol in the entire world. Barack Obama comes from Kenya and he is at the top of the country: the 44th president.

The USA can't stay out of an economy that they already dominate. The dollar was the only currency which could be exchanged with gold in 1918.

Transition : Analysis of the caricature of J. Keppler « Welcome to all ! », 1880

This caricature shows immigrants who are entering a kind of boat named “Us Ark of refuge”, it's a parallel to the Noah's Ark, because the immigrants are set in couples (man and woman) like animals. Some of these immigrants look wealthy, they have beautiful clothes, bags and suits. Others look very poor, for instance a woman is bare-footed with old clothes and is carrying laundry on her head. It's like they were escaping from an horrible lifestyle.

We can see above them a big black cloud. It's like misery was floating in the air, in this cloud is written the word “war”, like all this black zone was a threat. There are crows above them like the death was accompanying them. On the other side of this caricature we can see signs. One of them says “No oppressing taxes...”, it's representative of the American dream like everything could be wonderful there. And another says that everything is “free”, it's like the life there would be cheap “free education, free lunch”.

We can see, next to the ark the American flag, the sky behind it is shiny, like if they are going to America, misery and poverty would be bad souvenirs. The man who is welcoming them in the boat is dressed with the colours and the signs of the American flag, it's Uncle Sam. We can see how patriotic they are and how important is the flag in the representation of the American Dream. But too many delusions are following this idea of dream.

American Dream : Analysis of a caricature from caglecartoon.com, November 2011

This document is a cartoon taken from Caglecartoon.com. On this picture, we can see two persons sitting on chairs, a big and tall man wearing a T-shirt "American Dream", he's saying "Whoa, whaddaya mean you're no longer attracted to me ?" and a woman, crossing her arms. They are in front of a third person, whom we can see his leg on the left hand corner. On his desk is written "Marriage Counsellor".

The big man is Uncle Sam, we can see it with his clothes and his hat with the American flag. He represents the American dream. But he looks tired and ungroomed, and he is much bigger than he used to be represented. We can understand with the woman crossing her arms that the American dream doesn't attract anyone else, and we can suppose that it's because he grew too much, which explains why he is fat.

II – DELUSIONS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

EDUCATION:

The American educative system was considered as the best one in terms of level between pupils. A recent study coming from Michigan, published in the New York Times, reveals that the gap between rich and poor pupils has grown about 50 % since the eighties. More than ethnic origins, the wealth makes the difference in school nowadays.

The idea of becoming rich beginning with nothing generated a spirit of competition, and so now America is not a country of solidarity anymore, but a country of hard competition.

IMMIGRATION :

The American dream changed a lot with the time. At the beginning, the idea was that the European immigrants who were landing to America could practice their religion as they wanted in a land of possibilities and they had to help building the country, but now, immigrants, who almost come from Mexico, South America and Canada are not allowed anymore in USA, they are victims of racism.

JOB AND MONEY :

The hope of having a life full of luck of an American worker is not as strong as it used to be. Crisis and unemployment are not helping to create new jobs and new issues. History cannot be dismissed with a nod. But from generation to generation, Americans have indeed dreamed of steady personal and national progress. Over the past 30 years they've stripped away the supporting mechanisms of sprawl but have continued to create it.

In America, they say “No pain, no gain”, a good way to say that the fortune is due to talent of each American. But, in most of cases, “talent” is equal to inherit. There is no place for losers in America. It’s a vicious, seemingly endless cycle, and at its core is the notion that the American dream can exist only within the framework of the single-family home.

The best way to reach the American dream is the economic efficiency. But, with the time, the tool became the aim. Now, the main obsession of each American is making money, everything is measured in dollar : a painting, merchandises, time... Hollywood is not an artistic company, it's a dollar factory. That great enemy of democratic capitalism, economic inequality, is real and growing. The unemployment rate is high. The nation's long-term fiscal health is at risk, and the American political system shows no sign of reaching solutions with the problems of nowadays. After the Crash of 1929 began the Great Depression that have been endured for years and that is still there.

The USA are a nation in which the American Dream is under profound economic and cultural pressure. The government's verdict: "It is more difficult now than in the past for many people to achieve middle-class status because prices for certain key goods — health care, college and housing — have gone up faster than income."

The American Dream may be slipping away because of the actual crisis. Recovering the Dream requires knowing where it came from, how it lasted so long and why it matters so much. That idea is the question facing Americans now. The country could be moving toward something much better, something that’s less about consumption and more about quality of life. People will have a greater opportunity to live their own version of the American dream.

In conclusion, we can say that the American Dream can hardly be realized without disappointment, we can see it through the example of Ana, a Mexican immigrant to the USA. Her story was told in the article “Why the caged bird sings” written by Alan Zarembo in Newsweek on September 10th, 2001. Ana went illegally to USA, crawling through a drainpipe. When she arrived, she cultivated American friends, which led her job from a maid to a successful broker for illegal cleaning women, earning $50 000 per year. She perfectly epitomizes the American Dream, but such success hadn't come without a price. Ana cannot go home, and see her children again, although they were one of the reason which led her to emigrate to the USA (she sent them a part of the money she earned in USA).