Friday, February 12, 2010

The American Dream Ideal

Please respond to the following questions in a thoughtful written response:

Explain what the American Dream means to you. (What does it represent? What ideals are prevalent? Think about images you have seen, what your past learning experiences have taught you and what you perceptions show you today) How might the American Dream be different in earlier generations? Has the ideal of the American Dream changed (with regard to time, place, or generations)?

18 comments:

  1. My American dream is having freedom, being happy, liking everybody for who they are, and having freedom of speech. People in foreign countries see America as a place of freedom, they see it as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to earn an education, the right to start you own business if you wanted, etc… “We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.” Quoted by: Max Beerbohm, Images shown me that we Americans stand together as one. Not just in time of need, or when a disaster happens. My generation is known as M Generation. Were known as the multimedia or multitasking generation. Our goals and views of an American dream are probably different than the generation in the 1920’s. So I think the American dream is different from each person you ask.

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  2. The American dream just depends on who you are. Say, if you're from a foreign country, The American Dream would possibly be money, freedom, opportunity, sheltar etc...but say if youre already in America, it may be something more like wealth, love, cars, money, big houses, big everything.
    I remember learning something about how when people first came to America from a foreign country, they were dissapointed with what they saw, which leads me to wonder if travelers still look down on this country. For previous generations...I don't think it was very much different for the whole idea, maybe just a few differences like-when you think of the American dream, you think of a happy, white causcasian family in a small suburban home, this view has probably been changed over the years.

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  3. The American dream to me is being happy in the life you are living. When we feel like you can go no higher, you have reached the American dream. I think for every American dream it has the thought of money, fame, and happiness. I don’t really know any images. I thing I learned the American dream just from word of the mouth. It seems like many people talk about the same thing of being happy. To me, it seems like that is the American dream. In the earlier generations the dream seemed to be kind of simple. In earlier generations it seemed as if some land, little money, and being happy was the dream. Now a day the dream seems to be all about having your name known, having lots of money, a big house. So I think the dream has become different for these different generations.

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  4. The American Dream; in earlier years was the thought of the ideal cookie-cutter house, the ideal husband and kids, the man comes and goes to work, and the wife is a stay at home mom. To me, the American Dream means to live my life the way I want to without anyone to bring me down or tell me I can't. Just to be happy and live freely and live as Emily and no one else.
    I don't think I even heard the words "American Dream" until we learned about it in history classes around the time of the 1920's. Since then, I've heard it used many different ways like what it means to me and other people. Looking back on the generations before us and our generation, the American Dream has changed. It seems in earlier years the Dream was always a simple life, but now it seems all people's Dreams are about how wealthy and famous they are. Maybe with this recession people will see that money won't always make them happy, just stressed, and the Dream will change as time does.

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  5. My American Dream is to just have a strong loving passion for life and the people in it. The American Dream is different for everyone. No one is ever in the same situation as another person so you can never truly know what their American Dream is at the moment. I believe that the American Dream changes with the time. New experiences happen and new people come into your life everyday. Your life is effected by the people around you so I believe that they have a great input into deciding what your "American Dream" is. Someone might saying in passing that they like that color on a house or that car and you turn to look at it relizing there is truth in their words and that you may never have looked twice at that color or that car. You are effected so greatly by the people around you that it is hard to generalize what the American Dream truly is.

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  6. To me, the American Dream is a chance to succeed. It allows us to be able to take chances to further ourselves. It is a more individualist dream I think. I think this because in all of the stories I have heard of immigrants coming to America to achieve the American Dream it is to put their family in a better situation with money or freedom ECT.
    For previous generations I think it may have been more about equality and freedom. Today we don't have as much discrimination as 50 years ago. So I think, especially for women and racial minorities, the American Dream was about getting equality and freedome.

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  7. The American dream can be described in one word, Freedom. When I think of freedom I think of opportunity. The American dream provides people with the feeling of opportunity. Opportunity brings hope and hope brings happiness. In the Bill of Rights it is mentioned that everyone has the right to pursue happiness. That is what the American dream is about. If you are not in the pursuit of happiness then you are not living the American dream. This is what the American dream means to me.

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  8. To me the american dream is being able to pursue anything you want and not being limited by race, class or gender. People come to america because no matter who you are, you can be whoever you want to be as long as you put in the work for that. In the past, in America races, classes and genders have been discriminated against and that changed the american dream for them. They did not have the same rights as white people and so they could not accomplish some of the things they wanted to do. I think the american dream is accomplishing what you want most in your life.

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  9. The American Dream is different for everyone. But to me, the American Dream is happiness and freedom. When we talk about how other people come from other countries to America in persuit of the "American Dream" it seems that they are usually coming to find freedom. As a whole, our country is very blessed in many ways, especially because of our freedom. We are blessed with the ability to believe what we want, to have our own political views, to say what we want, and so many other things. It's what our forefather's stood for, what our Declaration of Independence states, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The American Dream is freedom.

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  10. The American Dream, to me, means to do whatever it takes in life to make you happy. Too many people today are way too concerned with how much money they will make and how they have to get the highest paying job. I think it shouldnt matter how much money you make so long as youre doing something you enjoy. If expensive foreign cars make you happy, then by all means go out nd get a job as a doctor and work as much as you can and get a nice car! But if you like just chilling out and going hunting, then just get a part time job and only work enough to support your wants in life. You shouldnt feel obligated to get some desk job that you dont even want just because it pays more. Just do what your heart desires.

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  11. The American Dream to me is also the same thing as what the new American Dream is today. I think it is being happy and doing anything I have to in order to achieve that. By this, I also mean I have the right to be happy. Like the ‘Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness’ bit form one of the most important documents in our countries history, yeah that’s what I’m talking about. It is not, necessarily, just the idea of a white picket fence in front of the two bedroom house with the wife and 2.3 kids. If a super fancy car is what makes you happy, go a head. If it’s eating ice cream every Thursday, more power to ya. If it makes you happy, go for it.

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  13. I believe that the American Dream is what one person strives to achieve to obtain happiness within themselves. The American Dream has been heavily altered over the years and possibly not for the better of the people. I think people ideals have changed and with that American's are now wanting what they so obviously cannot have. I believe the American Dream isn't one set idea it varies from American to American and contains the goals of one long term wise and how that person will achieve those goals. Sure a white picket fence and a wonderful spouse and children is what some people want, but on the contrary SOME people are happy "living" in their office being work horses. The American Dream has so many connotations I don't think one average American fully can understand it in its entirety. The American Dream is undefinable.

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  14. The American Dream for me would be the ability to acheive everything you wont without question and with all the determinationyou can muster. But you have to do it your-self no one else wants to help you. The change in The American Dream has been the same I think, but the goal is higher back then because there wasnt much to work with, now we have so many resourses to help us. I think that the "American Dream" has changed, in the early 1800's the dream was survival and acheivment, now its the amount of money we have in our bank account.

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  15. I think the American Dream just depends on who you are. If you are somebody who comes from an affluent and educated family, then the American Dream is to do something big with your life and become rich with a nice car and house in the suburbs. If you come from a family where the parents aren’t educated, or from a different country, the American Dream is to get a job, house, a car, and just be able to make a living and pay for a family. I think this has changed because it used to be just having a place to live and being able to put food on the table was the American Dream, but now it has kind of changed into something more glamorous and bigger. Just being able to pay for the essentials is not enough, and a lot of people want what is big, and their American Dream is to be able to buy what they want.

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  16. The American Dream is a vision of success and happiness. For me this is graduating from college and getting a career that I enjoy but also pays enough for necessities as well as some luxuries. In earlier generations the American Dream really stressed the idea of a career, marriage, children, and a home in the suburbs. The American Dream has changed to focus more on the success part. Living the American Dream is more about fame and fortune. Having a house large enough to fit a family of five isn't enough anymore; it has to be giant. A car that simply is used for transportation doesn't cut it for the American Dream. The car has to be fast and a symbol of wealth. In the past starting a family was a norm. Now being successful and single is almost more ideal.

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  17. To me the american dream is about the same thing most people think it is, which is freedom. More specificly, I would say its the freedom of choice. When you are born, or when someone moves into the country, there isnt anybody standing there about to tell you what you have to do with you life. People in this country have the freedom to choose there own future. The downside is that you cant just say that you want to this or that, but you actually have to work to make it happen. You may choose to follow sports as a profesional carreer, but you better work hard and be damn good at what you do. If you want to be a doctor, they dont just let you fill out an application and hope you get the job, it takes years of practice, schooling, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to achieve that dream. The people who have those dreams and push for them are living the American Dream everyday. In the past it was a different deffinition, because they were trying to escape poverty and a unfair government. The same thing happens today, but the dream isnt for those older people immigrating to america, because chances are they wont succeed as they hoped, but the dream is alive for there children who can push themselves to be whatever they want, with all the right choices. So to me, the American Dream is the freedom of oppertunity, how many people are going to take it?

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  18. The idea of the american dream depends on who you are. And it has changed a lot over the years. It used to be that people could be here in America and have a much better life than anywhere else. That included making money, raising a family, and being free! Although all of those are still factors, I believe that for the majority of people those do not satisfy anymore, everyone wants more than that.

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