How the American Dream Has Changed?

Altered Dream

What is the American Dream? For many years the term ‘American Dream’ has been heard all around the world. Over time there have been many different depictions of the dream. Interpretations on the American Dream vary with different individuals, and often relate back to their childhood. A child immigrant born in a third world country would have an American Dream associated with freedom and the opportunity to receive an education. A kid born into a wealthy American family would dream of the same opulence his parents acquired. In the times of strong immigration, the American Dream was much more simple. It regarded equality, ethicality, and freedom. In today's society, the dream has evolved into a much more complex idea, composed of the desire for material items and financial success.

Author and historian, James Truslow Adams, coined the term ‘American Dream’ in his book Epic of America. He wrote about America and described it as a place of opportunity for all groups of people. “..a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement… regardless of fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the American Dream promised to give Americans the chance to work on their own and create their own destiny. Immigrants were infatuated with this idea and fled their homelands in hope of achieving this so called American Dream. The newcomers worked hard when they arrived to America, they strongly believed that with dedication they could create a whole new life. Franklin D. Roosevelt once concluded how the American people felt they could fully experience the dream, “People who could feed their families, keep them safe, worship as they pleased, and say how they felt were living the American Dream, he said.” (Gale Student Resources.) Abraham Lincoln is often used as an example of an individual who lived out the so called ‘American Dream’. “Born into a poor, undistinguished country family in Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln yearned for a better life. He performed manual farm labor and worked in a store. Yet Lincoln managed to educate himself and worked hard to be able to travel throughout the United States, where he saw how people across the young country lived.” (“American Dream”) This not only shows the way the American Dream was interpreted, but shows how it was achievable for anyone willing to work for it.

The dream was a much more simplistic, and much easier to attain in the past. Modern society has greatly evolved the dream into a totally different objective. “.. it meant freedom, mutual respect and equality of opportunity. It had more to do with morality than material success.” (“The Transformation”) This quote from President Donald Trump and Ben Carson compares the modern American dream with the one of the past. They suggested that the modern american dream was more about material success than morality. Financial success is a large portion of what the dream is all about. People tend to work more hours, and get higher paying jobs to be able to afford the top education in order to grow up to have luxurious things. Since this new dream is so difficult to reach, some even say the American Dream is dead. “The American Dream has come to symbolize tremendous, one-in-a-million success—something very few people can actually attain. With this shifting definition, the American Dream has become something that grows more and more elusive with each year.” (“American Dream”). This argument rings very true, just barely getting by is not an idea of a perfect