The myth of the American Dream

Myth of the American Dream
The myth of the American Dream
The American Dream promotes the ideal that the government is responsible for protecting every person’s opportunity. America has been build around this ideal from the 19th century to date. Americans, from their birth, have grown with this belief and all their efforts have focused on achieving the dream. While most of the people have toiled relentlessly to achive their desires, the dream has continued to be elusive. This elusiveness has been orchestrated by the changing forms of the dream that have seen its transformation from the right to education and representation, to the right of equal access to job opportunities.
According to the American dream, everyone, irrespective of their place of birth or the class in which they were born, has the potential to attain their own version of success through their sheer efforts. This statement implies that given a level playing field, everyone has a potential to be successful in whatever they do. All this comes down to being satisfied with what one has. People have different goals and success should be defined by one’s ability to achieve them. As James Truslow Adams states " the 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" (404). Unfortunately, the wealthy have made the playing ground uneven, giving themselves an undue advantage over the less priviledged. Thus, no matter how much harder the poor work, all the benefits go to the rich at the expense of the poor.
The dream has been rendered a mirage by the rich, who have sold misleading narratives to the poor majority. The masses have been made to believe that the ability to get a good education and to own homes is the path towards achieving this dream. This narrative contradicts the idea of the dream whose tenets are traceable to the Declaration of Independence that states, “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.” For many Americans, the American Dream was meant to represent a stable economic growth, good jobs for their children, excellent education and retirement at the age of 65 years. All this can be achieved if a system that advocates for equality is established. Such a system should be able to give everyone an equal opportunity to achieve their personal goals.
Summary of the Sources
Class in America by Gregory Mantsios
In the article “Class in America,” the author, Gregory Mantsios, enlightens the masses about how the class that an individual belongs to affects their lives more than they think. He argues that one’s class has a direct effect on their life. Class is the major determinant of one’s future, whether the person likes it or not. The author uses several strategies to convince his audience that Americans need to open up and talk about how class affects their lives. If they continue shunning the topic, they will only be limiting their chances of success.
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen K. Pao
The source reflects the...