The American Dream is about more than lots of money, an expensive car, and a big house outside the city. For the most part, the American Dream is the central ideology of American society.
The American Dream is based on the principle of individual freedom. It was for freedom that Europeans traveled to the new colonies, driven from their homeland by religious intolerance, the caste nature of old Europe, and the desire for personal happiness.
The absence of an official religion, centuries-old traditions, unwritten rules, and laws in the United States provided the newly arrived residents with freedom of expression.
The American Dream is the US national ethos. Politicians actively use the theme of the American Dream during their election campaigns. In particular, almost all presidents of the US, in one way or another, promised their voters the earliest possible achievement of the American dream.
American writers who could not ignore such a national phenomenon as the American Dream are Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser, William Faulkner, Francis Fitzgerald, Hunter Thompson, Winston Grumm, and others.
Cinema did not lag. The adaptation of many works also showed a wide range of viewers the concepts and principles of the American dream in different forms. Moreover, it is often the topic of assignments in schools and universities or a personal choice of the students when it is necessary to show their writing skills. For more information on the American dream essay as a genre, see wr1ter.
The American Dream is based on the Declaration of Independence. According to Founding Fathers, the American Dream is “the ideal of opportunity and freedom,” the nation’s spiritual power. So if we call the American system the US skeleton, the American dream will be its soul.
The History of the Expression “American Dream”
It denotes the apotheosis of life for the “average citizen” of the United States. The phrase’s source is believed to be a historical treatise “The Epic of America,” written by James Adams during the Great Depression. In the definition of the American Dream, life must be more prosperous, better, and more complete for everyone, with an opportunity for everyone according to ability or achievement, disregarding the circumstances of birth or social class.
The Meaning of the American Dream
The meaning of the American Dream is very vague. For instance, according to the historian F. Carpenter “it could never be precisely defined and, unlikely to ever be defined” because every person will put a different meaning into this concept.
The American Dream is usually associated with immigrants who came to the US striving for a better life. The concept of the American Dream is closely related to the concept of a “self-made person,” that is, a person who has independently achieved success in life by hard work.
Components of the “American Dream” are also the ideal of equality of all before the law, regardless of ethnicity and social status, as well as reverence for symbols, models, and heroes familiar to all Americans.
American Dream Nowadays
Today, the American Dream continues to live on in the minds of Americans. It acquired new features and principles, such as a strong family, the obligatory presence of several children, a home, and friendly neighbors.
At the same time, there is practically no cult of hoarding. Many American millionaires who have earned their fortunes with their minds and work, achieved the American Dream are not much different from ordinary Americans. They wear simple clothes, drive ordinary (in the American concept) cars, and live on average housing in terms of size and status.