American Dream

For other uses, see American Dream (disambiguation).

For many immigrants, the Statue of Liberty was their first view of the United States, signifying freedom and personal liberty. The statue is the American Dream icon.

The American Dream is belief in the freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States to pursue their goals in life through hard work and free choice. One person may place monetary gain as their highest goal, and thus strive for this in a very American way, gaining through ability rather than social status. For another, the American Dream could consist of achieving a state of pure freedom from the choke-hold of money and social structure. These two examples of the American Dream are only drops in an ever-expanding spectrum of possibilities.

Although the phrase's meaning has evolved over the course of American history, it began as the opportunity to achieve greater material prosperity than was possible in their countries of origin. For others it is the opportunity for their children to grow up and receive an education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of class, caste, religion, race, or ethnic group.

It should be noted that the counterculture of 1960's America introduced for the first time an American Dream directly opposed to the traditional Dream. Whereas tradition stressed monetary gain, the hippie movement valued spiritual gain. Since then, the spectrum has continued to widen to include less generalized, more personal definitions.

Cultural References

A great deal of literature has been written in attempts to discover and define the true American Dream. Examples include several Hunter S. Thompson titles, such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," and Jack Kerouac's "On The Road." Others have been written to critique or ridicule the concept, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."

Countless films explore the topic of the American Dream. One such film is 1969's "Easy Rider," in which characters make a pilgrimage in search of "the true America."

Journalist Harmon Leon is the author of the book The American Dream: Walking in the Shoes of Carnies, Arms Dealers, Immigrant Dreamers, Pot Farmers and Christian Believers. In the book, Leon searches for the American Dream as he lives several vastly different people's perception walking in their shoes. Harmon lives the life of carnies in rural Indiana, arms dealers in Florida, bible-thumpers in Kansas, and pot farmers in Northern California.

Origin

Historian and writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America:

"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 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."

See also

• Self-Made Men (Frederick Douglass)
• Meritocracy