POST 10: DEFINITION AND REDIFINITION OF THE AMERICAN DREAM



 

 The first thing that comes up in American people's minds about the American dream is the word "opportunity". This idea sums up a lot of other criteria, named in the first document above. Freedom is the second thing that comes up to their minds, since America has been known and named as the "land of freedom" .It comes as no surprise if we remember that America was one of the first democracy in the world (after Great Britain) thanks to the Pilgrim Fathers, puritans who travelled in 1620 to the USA aboard the May Flower to escape religious persecution in Great Britain. If we look at all the others, we can see that, before, the idea of reaching material prosperity in the pursuit of happiness remained very strong, and even though "wealth" comes almost last, it is still present in American people's idea of the American Dream, happiness being the ultimate goal. 

If we look at the second document though, we can see that the American Dream has been redefined, and that now, expectations are much lower than before, and that the idea of the American Dream is getting closer to the idea of the perfect american way of life, with the perfect house and family, financial security being the priority, for example having enough money for retirement is the first idea in the new version of the Dream (47%), or owning a house (17%), a car (3%), and paying for child's education (5%). We can see that now, American became disillusioned about the american dream and that they no longer expect to go "from rag to riches" even though i think that now, their expectation are a too low for us to talk about this as the American Dream