essay for the american dream

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American Dream

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• Corporate Finance Institute - American Dream
• Brookings - Is the American dream really dead?
• Humanities LibreTexts - The American Dream

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American Dream , ideal that the United States is a land of opportunity that allows the possibility of upward mobility , freedom , and equality for people of all classes who work hard and have the will to succeed.

The roots of the American Dream lie in the goals and aspirations of the first European settlers and colonizers . Most of these people came to the North American continent to escape tyranny , religious and political persecution, or poverty . In 1776 their reasons for coming were captured by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence : “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These lines have often been cited by groups seeking equal standing in American society.

While the idea of the American Dream may have originated well before 1776, the phrase itself was coined by American businessman and historian James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book The Epic of America . That work defines the past and future of the American Dream, which, according to Adams, is:

“not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a 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.”

To Adams, the American Dream is about aspiring to be one’s best self and to rise above the station one was born into. It is not about simply acquiring wealth and material possessions.

Despite Adams’s optimism about the United States as a land of opportunity, his book warns of flaws in the American way of life. It calls out the dangers of unbridled capitalism and mass consumption . The worker, he wrote, gets “into a treadmill in which he earns, not that he may enjoy, but that he may spend, in order that the owners of the factories may grow richer.” Adams’s book also cites dangers to “the intellectual worker” who must adjust his or her work “to the needs of business or mass consumption.” The result of this accommodation, according to Adams, “is to lower the quality of…thought,” as represented in newspapers and journals, “to that of the least common denominator of the minds of the millions of consumers.” In addition, Adams’s book calls out the devotion to accumulation of wealth without regard for the good of society:

“A system that steadily increases the gulf between the ordinary man and the super-rich, that permits the resources of society to be gathered into personal fortunes that afford their owners millions of income a year, with only the chance that here and there a few may be moved to confer some of their surplus upon the public in ways chosen wholly by themselves, is assuredly a wasteful and unjust system. It is, perhaps, as inimical as anything could be to the American dream.”

What Adams foresaw appears to have become a reality in 21st-century America: consumerism and materialism abound, threatening the environment and the political structure. Intellectualism has become tribalized. The gulf between rich and poor continues to increase. In addition, it is becoming more and more difficult to attain the American Dream for many people, including religious and ethnic minorities , women, and the poor. Hard work alone is often not enough for families or their children to get ahead, especially if they are low-wage earners. Black and Hispanic women are least likely to move upward. In fact, roughly one in six Black Americans do not believe in the American Dream at all. Certain areas of the country, in particular the Southeast and the Midwestern Rust Belt , have trended much lower in economic mobility than other areas. According to one study, 92 percent of children born in 1940 earned more money than their parents. However, only 50 percent of children born in the 1980s have done so. Sentiment among Millennials , Generation Z , and Generation X , as captured in a 2020 opinion poll , reflected these trends, indicating that 46 percent, 52 percent, and 53 percent of each group, respectively, felt that the American Dream is attainable. On the basis of these trends, policy groups are working to improve the probability of upward mobility in the United States.

While the American Dream may be increasingly difficult to attain in the United States, the idea has arguably been exported successfully. Around the world, people are fulfilling their own version of the American Dream. Many countries are working toward more-just economic, educational, and legal systems to support equality and upward mobility .

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Best Analysis: The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Book Guides

The Great Gatsby is a tragic love story on the surface, but it's most commonly understood as a pessimistic critique of the American Dream. In the novel, Jay Gatsby overcomes his poor past to gain an incredible amount of money and a limited amount of social cache in 1920s NYC, only to be rejected by the "old money" crowd. He then gets killed after being tangled up with them.

Through Gatsby's life, as well as that of the Wilsons', Fitzgerald critiques the idea that America is a meritocracy where anyone can rise to the top with enough hard work. We will explore how this theme plays out in the plot, briefly analyze some key quotes about it, as well as do some character analysis and broader analysis of topics surrounding the American Dream in The Great Gatsby .

What is the American Dream? The American Dream in the Great Gatsby plot Key American Dream quotes Analyzing characters via the American Dream Common discussion and essay topics

Quick Note on Our Citations

Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book.

To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text.

What Exactly Is "The American Dream"?

The American Dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of race, class, gender, or nationality, can be successful in America (read: rich) if they just work hard enough. The American Dream thus presents a pretty rosy view of American society that ignores problems like systemic racism and misogyny, xenophobia, tax evasion or state tax avoidance, and income inequality. It also presumes a myth of class equality, when the reality is America has a pretty well-developed class hierarchy.

The 1920s in particular was a pretty tumultuous time due to increased immigration (and the accompanying xenophobia), changing women's roles (spurred by the right to vote, which was won in 1919), and extraordinary income inequality.

The country was also in the midst of an economic boom, which fueled the belief that anyone could "strike it rich" on Wall Street. However, this rapid economic growth was built on a bubble which popped in 1929. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, well before the crash, but through its wry descriptions of the ultra-wealthy, it seems to somehow predict that the fantastic wealth on display in 1920s New York was just as ephemeral as one of Gatsby's parties.

In any case, the novel, just by being set in the 1920s, is unlikely to present an optimistic view of the American Dream, or at least a version of the dream that's inclusive to all genders, ethnicities, and incomes. With that background in mind, let's jump into the plot!

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

Chapter 1 places us in a particular year—1922—and gives us some background about WWI.  This is relevant, since the 1920s is presented as a time of hollow decadence among the wealthy, as evidenced especially by the parties in Chapters 2 and 3. And as we mentioned above, the 1920s were a particularly tense time in America.

We also meet George and Myrtle Wilson in Chapter 2 , both working class people who are working to improve their lot in life, George through his work, and Myrtle through her affair with Tom Buchanan.

We learn about Gatsby's goal in Chapter 4 : to win Daisy back. Despite everything he owns, including fantastic amounts of money and an over-the-top mansion, for Gatsby, Daisy is the ultimate status symbol. So in Chapter 5 , when Daisy and Gatsby reunite and begin an affair, it seems like Gatsby could, in fact, achieve his goal.

In Chapter 6 , we learn about Gatsby's less-than-wealthy past, which not only makes him look like the star of a rags-to-riches story, it makes Gatsby himself seem like someone in pursuit of the American Dream, and for him the personification of that dream is Daisy.

However, in Chapters 7 and 8 , everything comes crashing down: Daisy refuses to leave Tom, Myrtle is killed, and George breaks down and kills Gatsby and then himself, leaving all of the "strivers" dead and the old money crowd safe. Furthermore, we learn in those last chapters that Gatsby didn't even achieve all his wealth through hard work, like the American Dream would stipulate—instead, he earned his money through crime. (He did work hard and honestly under Dan Cody, but lost Dan Cody's inheritance to his ex-wife.)

In short, things do not turn out well for our dreamers in the novel! Thus, the novel ends with Nick's sad meditation on the lost promise of the American Dream. You can read a detailed analysis of these last lines in our summary of the novel's ending .

Key American Dream Quotes

In this section we analyze some of the most important quotes that relate to the American Dream in the book.

But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. (1.152)

In our first glimpse of Jay Gatsby, we see him reaching towards something far off, something in sight but definitely out of reach. This famous image of the green light is often understood as part of The Great Gatsby 's meditation on The American Dream—the idea that people are always reaching towards something greater than themselves that is just out of reach . You can read more about this in our post all about the green light .

The fact that this yearning image is our introduction to Gatsby foreshadows his unhappy end and also marks him as a dreamer, rather than people like Tom or Daisy who were born with money and don't need to strive for anything so far off.

Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.

A dead man passed us in a hearse heaped with blooms, followed by two carriages with drawn blinds and by more cheerful carriages for friends. The friends looked out at us with the tragic eyes and short upper lips of south-eastern Europe, and I was glad that the sight of Gatsby's splendid car was included in their somber holiday. As we crossed Blackwell's Island a limousine passed us, driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish Negroes, two bucks and a girl. I laughed aloud as the yolks of their eyeballs rolled toward us in haughty rivalry.

"Anything can happen now that we've slid over this bridge," I thought; "anything at all. . . ."

Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder. (4.55-8)

Early in the novel, we get this mostly optimistic illustration of the American Dream—we see people of different races and nationalities racing towards NYC, a city of unfathomable possibility. This moment has all the classic elements of the American Dream—economic possibility, racial and religious diversity, a carefree attitude. At this moment, it does feel like "anything can happen," even a happy ending.

However, this rosy view eventually gets undermined by the tragic events later in the novel. And even at this point, Nick's condescension towards the people in the other cars reinforces America's racial hierarchy that disrupts the idea of the American Dream. There is even a little competition at play, a "haughty rivalry" at play between Gatsby's car and the one bearing the "modish Negroes."

Nick "laughs aloud" at this moment, suggesting he thinks it's amusing that the passengers in this other car see them as equals, or even rivals to be bested. In other words, he seems to firmly believe in the racial hierarchy Tom defends in Chapter 1, even if it doesn't admit it honestly.

His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete. (6.134)

This moment explicitly ties Daisy to all of Gatsby's larger dreams for a better life —to his American Dream. This sets the stage for the novel's tragic ending, since Daisy cannot hold up under the weight of the dream Gatsby projects onto her. Instead, she stays with Tom Buchanan, despite her feelings for Gatsby. Thus when Gatsby fails to win over Daisy, he also fails to achieve his version of the American Dream. This is why so many people read the novel as a somber or pessimistic take on the American Dream, rather than an optimistic one.  

...as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes--a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." (9.151-152)

The closing pages of the novel reflect at length on the American Dream, in an attitude that seems simultaneously mournful, appreciative, and pessimistic. It also ties back to our first glimpse of Gatsby, reaching out over the water towards the Buchanan's green light. Nick notes that Gatsby's dream was "already behind him" then (or in other words, it was impossible to attain). But still, he finds something to admire in how Gatsby still hoped for a better life, and constantly reached out toward that brighter future.

For a full consideration of these last lines and what they could mean, see our analysis of the novel's ending .

Analyzing Characters Through the American Dream

An analysis of the characters in terms of the American Dream usually leads to a pretty cynical take on the American Dream.

Most character analysis centered on the American Dream will necessarily focus on Gatsby, George, or Myrtle (the true strivers in the novel), though as we'll discuss below, the Buchanans can also provide some interesting layers of discussion. For character analysis that incorporates the American Dream, carefully consider your chosen character's motivations and desires, and how the novel does (or doesn't!) provide glimpses of the dream's fulfillment for them.

Gatsby himself is obviously the best candidate for writing about the American Dream—he comes from humble roots (he's the son of poor farmers from North Dakota) and rises to be notoriously wealthy, only for everything to slip away from him in the end. Many people also incorporate Daisy into their analyses as the physical representation of Gatsby's dream.

However, definitely consider the fact that in the traditional American Dream, people achieve their goals through honest hard work, but in Gatsby's case, he very quickly acquires a large amount of money through crime . Gatsby does attempt the hard work approach, through his years of service to Dan Cody, but that doesn't work out since Cody's ex-wife ends up with the entire inheritance. So instead he turns to crime, and only then does he manage to achieve his desired wealth.

So while Gatsby's story arc resembles a traditional rags-to-riches tale, the fact that he gained his money immorally complicates the idea that he is a perfect avatar for the American Dream . Furthermore, his success obviously doesn't last—he still pines for Daisy and loses everything in his attempt to get her back. In other words, Gatsby's huge dreams, all precariously wedded to Daisy  ("He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God" (6.134)) are as flimsy and flight as Daisy herself.

George and Myrtle Wilson

This couple also represents people aiming at the dream— George owns his own shop and is doing his best to get business, though is increasingly worn down by the harsh demands of his life, while Myrtle chases after wealth and status through an affair with Tom.

Both are disempowered due to the lack of money at their own disposal —Myrtle certainly has access to some of the "finer things" through Tom but has to deal with his abuse, while George is unable to leave his current life and move West since he doesn't have the funds available. He even has to make himself servile to Tom in an attempt to get Tom to sell his car, a fact that could even cause him to overlook the evidence of his wife's affair. So neither character is on the upward trajectory that the American Dream promises, at least during the novel.

In the end, everything goes horribly wrong for both George and Myrtle, suggesting that in this world, it's dangerous to strive for more than you're given.

George and Myrtle's deadly fates, along with Gatsby's, help illustrate the novel's pessimistic attitude toward the American Dream. After all, how unfair is it that the couple working to improve their position in society (George and Myrtle) both end up dead, while Tom, who dragged Myrtle into an increasingly dangerous situation, and Daisy, who killed her, don't face any consequences? And on top of that they are fabulously wealthy? The American Dream certainly is not alive and well for the poor Wilsons.

Tom and Daisy as Antagonists to the American Dream

We've talked quite a bit already about Gatsby, George, and Myrtle—the three characters who come from humble roots and try to climb the ranks in 1920s New York. But what about the other major characters, especially the ones born with money? What is their relationship to the American Dream?

Specifically, Tom and Daisy have old money, and thus they don't need the American Dream, since they were born with America already at their feet.

Perhaps because of this, they seem to directly antagonize the dream—Daisy by refusing Gatsby, and Tom by helping to drag the Wilsons into tragedy .

This is especially interesting because unlike Gatsby, Myrtle, and George, who actively hope and dream of a better life, Daisy and Tom are described as bored and "careless," and end up instigating a large amount of tragedy through their own recklessness.

In other words, income inequality and the vastly different starts in life the characters have strongly affected their outcomes. The way they choose to live their lives, their morality (or lack thereof), and how much they dream doesn't seem to matter. This, of course, is tragic and antithetical to the idea of the American Dream, which claims that class should be irrelevant and anyone can rise to the top.

Daisy as a Personification of the American Dream

As we discuss in our post on money and materialism in The Great Gatsby , Daisy's voice is explicitly tied to money by Gatsby:

"Her voice is full of money," he said suddenly.

That was it. I'd never understood before. It was full of money--that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals' song of it. . . . High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl. . . . (7.105-6)

If Daisy's voice promises money, and the American Dream is explicitly linked to wealth, it's not hard to argue that Daisy herself—along with the green light at the end of her dock —stands in for the American Dream. In fact, as Nick goes on to describe Daisy as "High in a white palace the king's daughter, the golden girl," he also seems to literally describe Daisy as a prize, much like the princess at the end of a fairy tale (or even Princess Peach at the end of a Mario game!).

But Daisy, of course, is only human—flawed, flighty, and ultimately unable to embody the huge fantasy Gatsby projects onto her. So this, in turn, means that the American Dream itself is just a fantasy, a concept too flimsy to actually hold weight, especially in the fast-paced, dog-eat-dog world of 1920s America.

Furthermore, you should definitely consider the tension between the fact that Daisy represents Gatsby's ultimate goal, but at the same time (as we discussed above), her actual life is the opposite of the American Dream : she is born with money and privilege, likely dies with it all intact, and there are no consequences to how she chooses to live her life in between.

Can Female Characters Achieve the American Dream?

Finally, it's interesting to compare and contrast some of the female characters using the lens of the American Dream.

Let's start with Daisy, who is unhappy in her marriage and, despite a brief attempt to leave it, remains with Tom, unwilling to give up the status and security their marriage provides. At first, it may seem like Daisy doesn't dream at all, so of course she ends up unhappy. But consider the fact that Daisy was already born into the highest level of American society. The expectation placed on her, as a wealthy woman, was never to pursue something greater, but simply to maintain her status. She did that by marrying Tom, and it's understandable why she wouldn't risk the uncertainty and loss of status that would come through divorce and marriage to a bootlegger. Again, Daisy seems to typify the "anti-American" dream, in that she was born into a kind of aristocracy and simply has to maintain her position, not fight for something better.

In contrast, Myrtle, aside from Gatsby, seems to be the most ambitiously in pursuit of getting more than she was given in life. She parlays her affair with Tom into an apartment, nice clothes, and parties, and seems to revel in her newfound status. But of course, she is knocked down the hardest, killed for her involvement with the Buchanans, and specifically for wrongfully assuming she had value to them. Considering that Gatsby did have a chance to leave New York and distance himself from the unfolding tragedy, but Myrtle was the first to be killed, you could argue the novel presents an even bleaker view of the American Dream where women are concerned.

Even Jordan Baker , who seems to be living out a kind of dream by playing golf and being relatively independent, is tied to her family's money and insulated from consequences by it , making her a pretty poor representation of the dream. And of course, since her end game also seems to be marriage, she doesn't push the boundaries of women's roles as far as she might wish.

So while the women all push the boundaries of society's expectations of them in certain ways, they either fall in line or are killed, which definitely undermines the rosy of idea that anyone, regardless of gender, can make it in America. The American Dream as shown in Gatsby becomes even more pessimistic through the lens of the female characters.  

Common Essay Questions/Discussion Topics

Now let's work through some of the more frequently brought up subjects for discussion.

#1: Was Gatsby's dream worth it? Was all the work, time, and patience worth it for him?

Like me, you might immediately think "of course it wasn't worth it! Gatsby lost everything, not to mention the Wilsons got caught up in the tragedy and ended up dead!" So if you want to make the more obvious "the dream wasn't worth it" argument, you could point to the unraveling that happens at the end of the novel (including the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby and George) and how all Gatsby's achievements are for nothing, as evidenced by the sparse attendance of his funeral.

However, you could definitely take the less obvious route and argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, despite the tragic end . First of all, consider Jay's unique characterization in the story: "He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty" (6.7). In other words, Gatsby has a larger-than-life persona and he never would have been content to remain in North Dakota to be poor farmers like his parents.

Even if he ends up living a shorter life, he certainly lived a full one full of adventure. His dreams of wealth and status took him all over the world on Dan Cody's yacht, to Louisville where he met and fell in love with Daisy, to the battlefields of WWI, to the halls of Oxford University, and then to the fast-paced world of Manhattan in the early 1920s, when he earned a fortune as a bootlegger. In fact, it seems Jay lived several lives in the space of just half a normal lifespan. In short, to argue that Gatsby's dream was worth it, you should point to his larger-than-life conception of himself and the fact that he could have only sought happiness through striving for something greater than himself, even if that ended up being deadly in the end.

#2: In the Langston Hughes poem "A Dream Deferred," Hughes asks questions about what happens to postponed dreams. How does Fitzgerald examine this issue of deferred dreams? What do you think are the effects of postponing our dreams? How can you apply this lesson to your own life?

If you're thinking about "deferred dreams" in The Great Gatsby , the big one is obviously Gatsby's deferred dream for Daisy—nearly five years pass between his initial infatuation and his attempt in the novel to win her back, an attempt that obviously backfires. You can examine various aspects of Gatsby's dream—the flashbacks to his first memories of Daisy in Chapter 8 , the moment when they reunite in Chapter 5 , or the disastrous consequences of the confrontation of Chapter 7 —to illustrate Gatsby's deferred dream.

You could also look at George Wilson's postponed dream of going West, or Myrtle's dream of marrying a wealthy man of "breeding"—George never gets the funds to go West, and is instead mired in the Valley of Ashes, while Myrtle's attempt to achieve her dream after 12 years of marriage through an affair ends in tragedy. Apparently, dreams deferred are dreams doomed to fail.

As Nick Carraway says, "you can't repeat the past"—the novel seems to imply there is a small window for certain dreams, and when the window closes, they can no longer be attained. This is pretty pessimistic, and for the prompt's personal reflection aspect, I wouldn't say you should necessarily "apply this lesson to your own life" straightforwardly. But it is worth noting that certain opportunities are fleeting, and perhaps it's wiser to seek out newer and/or more attainable ones, rather than pining over a lost chance.

Any prompt like this one which has a section of more personal reflection gives you freedom to tie in your own experiences and point of view, so be thoughtful and think of good examples from your own life!

#3: Explain how the novel does or does not demonstrate the death of the American Dream. Is the main theme of Gatsby indeed "the withering American Dream"? What does the novel offer about American identity?

In this prompt, another one that zeroes in on the dead or dying American Dream, you could discuss how the destruction of three lives (Gatsby, George, Myrtle) and the cynical portrayal of the old money crowd illustrates a dead, or dying American Dream . After all, if the characters who dream end up dead, and the ones who were born into life with money and privilege get to keep it without consequence, is there any room at all for the idea that less-privileged people can work their way up?

In terms of what the novel says about American identity, there are a few threads you could pick up—one is Nick's comment in Chapter 9 about the novel really being a story about (mid)westerners trying (and failing) to go East : "I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life" (9.125). This observation suggests an American identity that is determined by birthplace, and that within the American identity there are smaller, inescapable points of identification.

Furthermore, for those in the novel not born into money, the American identity seems to be about striving to end up with more wealth and status. But in terms of the portrayal of the old money set, particularly Daisy, Tom, and Jordan, the novel presents a segment of American society that is essentially aristocratic—you have to be born into it. In that regard, too, the novel presents a fractured American identity, with different lives possible based on how much money you are born with.

In short, I think the novel disrupts the idea of a unified American identity or American dream, by instead presenting a tragic, fractured, and rigid American society, one that is divided based on both geographic location and social class.

#4: Most would consider dreams to be positive motivators to achieve success, but the characters in the novel often take their dreams of ideal lives too far. Explain how characters' American Dreams cause them to have pain when they could have been content with more modest ambitions.

Gatsby is an obvious choice here—his pursuit of money and status, particularly through Daisy, leads him to ruin. There were many points when perhaps Gatsby ;could have been happy with what he achieved (especially after his apparently successful endeavors in the war, if he had remained at Oxford, or even after amassing a great amount of wealth as a bootlegger) but instead he kept striving upward, which ultimately lead to his downfall. You can flesh this argument out with the quotations in Chapters 6 and 8 about Gatsby's past, along with his tragic death.

Myrtle would be another good choice for this type of prompt. In a sense, she seems to be living her ideal life in her affair with Tom—she has a fancy NYC apartment, hosts parties, and gets to act sophisticated—but these pleasures end up gravely hurting George, and of course her association with Tom Buchanan gets her killed.

Nick, too, if he had been happy with his family's respectable fortune and his girlfriend out west, might have avoided the pain of knowing Gatsby and the general sense of despair he was left with.

You might be wondering about George—after all, isn't he someone also dreaming of a better life? However, there aren't many instances of George taking his dreams of an ideal life "too far." In fact, he struggles just to make one car sale so that he can finally move out West with Myrtle. Also, given that his current situation in the Valley of Ashes is quite bleak, it's hard to say that striving upward gave him pain.

#5: The Great Gatsby is, among other things, a sobering and even ominous commentary on the dark side of the American dream. Discuss this theme, incorporating the conflicts of East Egg vs. West Egg and old money vs. new money. What does the American dream mean to Gatsby? What did the American Dream mean to Fitzgerald? How does morality fit into achieving the American dream?

This prompt allows you to consider pretty broadly the novel's attitude toward the American Dream, with emphasis on "sobering and even ominous" commentary. Note that Fitzgerald seems to be specifically mocking the stereotypical rags to riches story here—;especially since he draws the Dan Cody narrative almost note for note from the work of someone like Horatio Alger, whose books were almost universally about rich men schooling young, entrepreneurial boys in the ways of the world. In other words, you should discuss how the Great Gatsby seems to turn the idea of the American Dream as described in the quote on its head: Gatsby does achieve a rags-to-riches rise, but it doesn't last.

All of Gatsby's hard work for Dan Cody, after all, didn't pay off since he lost the inheritance. So instead, Gatsby turned to crime after the war to quickly gain a ton of money. Especially since Gatsby finally achieves his great wealth through dubious means, the novel further undermines the classic image of someone working hard and honestly to go from rags to riches.

If you're addressing this prompt or a similar one, make sure to focus on the darker aspects of the American Dream, including the dark conclusion to the novel and Daisy and Tom's protection from any real consequences . (This would also allow you to considering morality, and how morally bankrupt the characters are.)

#6: What is the current state of the American Dream?

This is a more outward-looking prompt, that allows you to consider current events today to either be generally optimistic (the American dream is alive and well) or pessimistic (it's as dead as it is in The Great Gatsby).

You have dozens of potential current events to use as evidence for either argument, but consider especially immigration and immigration reform, mass incarceration, income inequality, education, and health care in America as good potential examples to use as you argue about the current state of the American Dream. Your writing will be especially powerful if you can point to some specific current events to support your argument.

What's Next?

In this post, we discussed how important money is to the novel's version of the American Dream. You can read even more about money and materialism in The Great Gatsby right here .

Want to indulge in a little materialism of your own? Take a look through these 15 must-have items for any Great Gatsby fan .

Get complete guides to Jay Gatsby , George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson to get even more background on the "dreamers" in the novel.

Like we discussed above, the green light is often seen as a stand-in for the idea of the American Dream. Read more about this crucial symbol here .

Need help getting to grips with other literary works? Take a spin through our analyses of The Crucible , The Cask of Amontillado , and " Do not go gentle into this good night " to see analysis in action. You might also find our explanations of point of view , rhetorical devices , imagery , and literary elements and devices helpful.

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In Search of the American Dream

Articles by Eleanor Roosevelt and others take up the question of what constitutes the American ideal

In 1931, when writer James Truslow Adams coined the term “the American Dream,” it had more to do with idealism than material prosperity. The American Dream, he wrote in The American Epic (a book glowingly reviewed in the Atlantic ’s December 1931 issue), was “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.” Despite Truslow’s tidy summation, the ideals that America is supposed to represent have always been contested. Over the years, a number of Atlantic writers have tackled the subject, offering a wide array of perspectives, and sometimes raising more questions than answers.

In 1881, the prominent Boston philanthropist Kate Gannet Wells characterized Americanism as, “the fixed conviction that one man is the equivalent of another in capacity, and that his failure to prove it by results is the consequence of circumstances beyond his control.” This was an outlook, according to Wells, that cut both ways: “It is this fixed belief which constitutes the essence of American impudence, boasting, aggressiveness, want of grace, and knock-you-down manner. It is also the source of our sturdy independence, our valuation of character as the final estimate.”

Other Atlantic writers have pointed out another unique feature of American Nationalism. Unlike the deep-seated tribal loyalties found across Europe, American patriotism is an artificial construct. On the eve of America’s entrance into World War I, a time of mass immigration and demographic upheaval, essayist Agnes Repplier emphasized the importance of cultivating a shared national vision. In “Americanism” (1916), she drew a sharp contrast between the United States and the nations of the old world:

Of all the countries in the world, we and we only have any need to create artificially the patriotism which is the birthright of other nations. Into the hearts of six millions of foreign-born men—less than half of them naturalized—we must infuse that quality of devotion which will make them place the good of the state above their personal good.

Yet not all writers were so convinced of the fragility and tenuousness of the bonds that unify Americans. When French journalist Raoul De Roussy De Sales turned his eye to America, he discovered a nation with a well-defined, almost brash identity. In his 1939 essay “What Makes an American,” he brought an outsider’s view reminiscent of de Tocqueville:

America is a permanent protest against the rest of the world, and particularly against Europe.… This faith, like all faiths, does not engender a passive attitude toward the rest of the world. Americans are tolerant of all creeds and to all convictions, but few people express their distrust and indignation with more vigor whenever some of their beliefs are offended. Few people are more conscious that ideas may be more destructive than guns.

De Sales was fascinated by America’s conception of itself as a framework of ideas—one that remained as vivid and meaningful to its present-day inhabitants as it had to its founders.

Curiously enough, in a country where material changes are extraordinarily rapid, this moral and political frame has the stability of dogma. For instance, America is the only country in the world which pretends to listen to the teaching of its founders as if they were still alive. Political battles of today are fought with arguments based on the speeches of writings of men dead over a century ago. Most Americans behave, in fact, as if men like Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and many others could be called up on the phone for advice. Their wisdom is considered as eternal as that of the Biblical prophets.

Atlantic contributors addressed, too, the inevitable conflicts that emerge when American realities fall short of American ideals. In his 1988 article “The Return of Inequality,” Thomas Byrne Edsall warned that the country’s growing gulf between the affluent and middle classes was anathema to the American Dream. “Its manifestations are subtle: marginally frustrated hopes, a mocking disparity between the good life available to the few and the life that many settle for—resignation, guilt, social helplessness.” This inequality, he argued, also undermined the conviction that “Egalitarianism has been the Democratic answer to Marxism.”

Ultimately, Eleanor Roosevelt may have summarized America’s uniqueness in the most compelling words. In her Cold War-era essay “What Has Happened to the American Dream?” (1961), Roosevelt expressed deep concern about America’s image abroad, and lamented the creeping influence of Soviet Russia. “The future will be determined by the young,” she asserted, “and there is no more essential task today, it seems to me, than to bring before them once more, in all its brightness, in all its splendor and beauty, the American Dream.” But what exactly was this dream? Perhaps, she suggested, its appeal lies in its very mutability—in the fact that it is expansive enough to allow each of us to draw inspiration from it in our own way:

No single individual … and no single group has an exclusive claim to the American dream. But we have all, I think, a single vision of what it is, not merely as a hope and an aspiration, but as a way of life, which we can come ever closer to attaining it its ideal form if we keep shining and unsullied our purpose and our belief in its essential value.

• Winter 2021

The State of the American Dream

Unfinished Dreams: A Family's Hardships in America

An immigrant’s path toward the American dream often isn’t a neat, tidy, storybook tale. Julissa Arce describes the difficult decisions, sacrifice, and hardships her family has faced along their journey.

Let’s say the American dream is like the one in a ’50s movie: a house with a white picket fence, a Cadillac, and a perfect looking white family. I don’t fit that image because I’m a brown Mexican, but I am becoming a first-time homeowner. Isn’t that the perfect bow that neatly wraps my American dream? Isn’t it proof that the dream is real and attainable? I am killing it.

But what if I told you about the laws I’ve had to break? What if I told you the price I’ve had to pay? Which includes not being with my dad as he took his last breath. What if I told you of all the manna that has fallen from above? If you don’t believe in miracles, let’s just call it luck. Does the American dream still feel real, or does it feel more like an illusion?

My parents came to the United States in the 1980s to sell the famous sterling silver jewelry of our picturesque hometown of Taxco de Alarćon, Guerrero. They never intended to stay. They were working in America in order to build us a home in Mexico. But life happened: a robbery on this side of the border left them deeply in debt, which was made worse by their lack of education, and by the corruption that led to the 1994 devaluation of the peso. After my little brother was born, it became clear they weren’t moving back to Mexico. The house they were building was left unfinished.

They brought me to live with them in San Antonio that August of 1994 when I was 11 years old. The tourist visa I used to enter expired three years later when I turned 14. That was my first crime — staying in America with my parents without papers. Then, there are all the documents I signed in my parents’ names because I spoke English and they didn’t. Is it forgery if they asked me to do it? I don’t know. In a few years, I would for sure break the law, but we aren’t at that point of the story yet.

In 2001, my senior year of high school, two God-sized miracles happened. First, my mom survived brain surgery after the gas tank from our roasted corn machine exploded and threw her onto a sidewalk at Fort Sam Houston, cracking her skull and sending her into a coma. Second, Texas became the first state in the United States to allow undocumented students to attend state universities, pay in-state tuition, and receive state financial aid. That’s how I was able to attend the University of Texas at Austin. That’s how the door was opened for me to pursue the American dream of a college education.

But those miracles were also how the American dream became a lot pricier. I needed money for tuition, and my mom still needed a lot of expensive care we couldn’t afford. My parents moved back to Mexico with my little brother, so I could use the money from our funnel cake stand to pay for school, and our extended family in Taxco could help take care of my mom.

That same year, Senator Dick Durbin and Senator Orrin Hatch introduced the DREAM Act. It was supposed to give “good” undocumented immigrants — who came to the United States at a young age —  a path to citizenship. It’s now been 20 years and the DREAM Act remains only a dream.

[The DREAM Act] was supposed to give “good” undocumented immigrants — who came to the United States at a young age  —  a path to citizenship. It’s now been 20 years and the DREAM Act remains only a dream.

In 2005, I went on to graduate cum laude and land a prestigious job at Goldman Sachs, where I was offered a full-time position starting at $55,000. The only catch was I needed papers to accept the job. Now I can tell you about the breaking of laws, and the next miracle that allowed the dream to continue.

I bought a fake green card and a fake Social Security card from a woman in a generic Texas apartment. I thought about how I had to remain a “good” immigrant to qualify for any potential relief. Getting caught with fake documents would certainly take the “good” away from me. At the same time, I thought about how unfair it all was: I had done everything asked of me, but it still seemed my only option was to work under the table and be paid in cash. How’s that for an American dream?

Miraculously, the papers worked. I didn’t get caught. I didn’t land in a detention center. I wasn’t deported and barred from entering the country. Instead, I became a vice president by the time I was 27. A few years later, I left Wall Street to become a writer. Pinocchio got to be a real boy even though he lied, and eventually I got my real papers even though I lied.

I used to be ashamed my American dream was muddled in criminality, but now I recognize the system is set up to make people like me fail. Undocumented people around America do illegal things, like work with no papers or fake ones, to make their version of the dream come true. And for this, the country screams we are illegals, while at the same time benefiting from our labor.

The majority of us don’t go on to achieve what America most wants from its immigrants — stories we can keep selling as proof the American dream is real and attainable. Stories, we go on to use against immigrants, telling them that doing it “the right way” is possible. And still, immigrants from all over the world come to the United States and remarkably survive. Somehow, we hang on to our humanity and dignity.

The majority of us don’t go on to achieve what America most wants from its immigrants — stories we can keep selling as proof the American dream is real and attainable.

My mother almost cried when I told her my husband and I were shopping for a house. With a knot in her voice she said, “ Despues de tanto sacrificio, te mereces eso y más. ” I knew she meant not only my sacrifice, but hers and my dad’s too. She thinks a house is the least I deserve for all the pain. My parents didn’t get to buy a home here, and they didn’t get to finish the one in Mexico. Though now, I am doing both.

My husband and I looked at properties in “up and coming” neighborhoods, places where the gentrification is not yet complete. Some of them were situated on beautiful tree-lined streets where Black and brown families walked with their strollers, some carrying babies, and others small dogs. Other houses neighbored multiple liquor stores. We drove for hours from one address to another without ever seeing a grocery store. We witnessed people buying drugs on a corner, saw kids shooting hoops in their driveway.

We found our house while driving to the last listing from our internet search. It’s a beautiful craftsman-style bungalow with fresh, green grass, and apart from the light blue fence, it looks like one of those 1950s homes. We are buying it from a white man who resides in New York. He bought the house from a Latino man for 60% of what we are paying.

But just as my dream of homeownership becomes a reality, it’s slipping further away from the people who’ve lived in our new neighborhood their whole lives. In South Los Angeles, where the population is roughly 60% Latino and 28% Black, only 31% own their home and 30% have income below the poverty level, according to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.  Nationally, the Hispanic homeownership rate is 47.5% (as of 2019, according to the U.S Census Bureau). And while Latinos are the only demographic group to see increases in homeownership in each of the previous five years, per the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals,  we still lag far behind white Americans who boast a 73.3% homeownership rate.

As my husband and I drove through South LA looking at houses, I thought about my mom. We used to drive around Alamo Heights, one of the richest neighborhoods in San Antonio, imagining what our lives would be like if we lived in one of those big houses. “One day, I promise, you’ll live in one of those,” my mom had once said. Now that I think about it, she said “you,” not “we.” Maybe she knew the dream wasn’t for her because this country doesn’t value immigrants like her; she didn’t speak English or receive a college education. But we really should, because without people like her, who leave unfinished their dreams in their homelands to come build one in America, the light here would be a lot more dim.

Without people like [my mother], who leave unfinished their dreams in their homelands to come build one in America, the light here would be a lot more dim.

Some people blame her for bringing me to America, for keeping me here after my visa expired. I was a child, and I had no choice, but I begged my mom all the time to bring me to live with her. I can never blame my parents for wanting to give me a better life. My American dream is not one handed to me by America. It is one made for me by my parents, through their sacrifice, pain, and calloused hands. Their unfinished house in Mexico is the reason I can now buy a home in the United States.

• Previous Article The Resilience of Immigrants is Rebuilding America An Essay by Rebecca Shi, Executive Director of the American Business Immigration Coalition

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Do You Think the American Dream Is Real?

By Jeremy Engle

• Feb. 12, 2019

What does the American dream mean to you? A house with a white picket fence? Lavish wealth? A life better than your parents’?

Do you think you will be able to achieve the American dream?

In “ The American Dream Is Alive and Well ,” Samuel J. Abrams writes:

I am pleased to report that the American dream is alive and well for an overwhelming majority of Americans. This claim might sound far-fetched given the cultural climate in the United States today. Especially since President Trump took office, hardly a day goes by without a fresh tale of economic anxiety, political disunity or social struggle. Opportunities to achieve material success and social mobility through hard, honest work — which many people, including me, have assumed to be the core idea of the American dream — appear to be diminishing. But Americans, it turns out, have something else in mind when they talk about the American dream. And they believe that they are living it. Last year the American Enterprise Institute and I joined forces with the research center NORC at the University of Chicago and surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,411 Americans about their attitudes toward community and society. The center is renowned for offering “deep” samples of Americans, not just random ones, so that researchers can be confident that they are reaching Americans in all walks of life: rural, urban, exurban and so on. Our findings were released on Tuesday as an American Enterprise Institute report.

What our survey found about the American dream came as a surprise to me. When Americans were asked what makes the American dream a reality, they did not select as essential factors becoming wealthy, owning a home or having a successful career. Instead, 85 percent indicated that “to have freedom of choice in how to live” was essential to achieving the American dream. In addition, 83 percent indicated that “a good family life” was essential. The “traditional” factors (at least as I had understood them) were seen as less important. Only 16 percent said that to achieve the American dream, they believed it was essential to “become wealthy,” only 45 percent said it was essential “to have a better quality of life than your parents,” and just 49 percent said that “having a successful career” was key.

The Opinion piece continues:

The data also show that most Americans believe themselves to be achieving this version of the American dream, with 41 percent reporting that their families are already living the American dream and another 41 percent reporting that they are well on the way to doing so. Only 18 percent took the position that the American dream was out of reach for them

Collectively, 82 percent of Americans said they were optimistic about their future, and there was a fairly uniform positive outlook across the nation. Factors such as region, urbanity, partisanship and housing type (such as a single‐family detached home versus an apartment) barely affected these patterns, with all groups hovering around 80 percent. Even race and ethnicity, which are regularly cited as key factors in thwarting upward mobility, corresponded to no real differences in outlook: Eighty-one percent of non‐Hispanic whites; 80 percent of blacks, Hispanics and those of mixed race; and 85 percent of those with Asian heritage said that they had achieved or were on their way to achieving the American dream.

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Pros and Cons of the American Dream Essay

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• Introduction: Pros and Cons of the American Dream

Negative Effects of the American Dream

Advantages of the american dream, conclusion: why is the american dream bad, introduction: positives and negatives of the american dream.

The American dream is one of the most revered ideals of the nation and it has become a part of the American national identity. This national philosophy states that the United States of America is a land of opportunity and every person has equal opportunity, regardless of their socio-economic background, for prosperity and success if they use their talents and work hard. Inevitably, the American Dream has influenced generations of citizens who seek to obtain richer and better lives in accordance with the dream.

However, the US has experienced significant inequality and poverty even as more people pursue this dream. These issues have led to questions as to whether the American Dream is a good or a bad thing for the dreamer and the society. This paper will argue that the American Dream is bad because it ignores the growing inequalities, promotes individualism and encourages materialism by the American people.

The American Dream creates an illusion of equality while the reality is that power and wealth influence the socio-economic outcomes of an individual in the United States. The perception that the US offers equal opportunities for was first articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

In this document, Thomas Jefferson affirmed the ideal of equal rights and opportunities for all by declaring, “All men are created equal” (376). This ideal is echoed by Lincoln in the “Gettysburg Address” where he stresses on the importance of liberty and equality in the formation of the United States (1). As such, the American Dream proposes that each person has equal opportunity in the US in spite of his or her backgrounds. As such, even a child born and brought up in poverty has an opportunity to achieve great wealth in the country.

However, this is not the case and a person’s socioeconomic roots greatly determine their future prosperity. This statement is reinforced by the fact that the nation’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals and the gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening in the country. The Dream is therefore a bad thing since it downplays the reality that the US is a land where power and wealth influence a lot.

The American Dream encourages individualism and a lack of concern for the poorer members of the society. The ideals promote the ethos of personal achievement through hard work. Because the dream asserts that everyone has equal opportunity and can prosper if they work hard, the “nation’s losers” are blamed for their problems.

The proponents of this dream propose that any person can succeed if they transform themselves and use their talent in this land of opportunity. From the assumption that everyone has equal opportunities to prosper, all individuals are expected to achieve success if they work hard.

Such an outlook ignores the lack of opportunities that individuals from poor backgrounds often face. Since failing to be successful is blamed on the individual and not the system in place, the government and other community members are not inclined to do anything to remedy the situation. People are only concerned with their wellbeing therefore creating a society that does not care for its less fortunate.

The ideals of the American Dream wrongly equate economic prosperity with happiness. The American Dream is based on the ideals of creating a more successful life by working hard and earning more money. It suggests that once one achieves success, economic expansion, and social mobility, he/she will experience happiness and contentment.

The dream exhorts materialism above everything else and this may be harmful for the society. The American Dream has become a nightmare in reality since compassion for human beings has all but disappeared as more people become preoccupied with making more money.

In Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams”, the young confident and hardworking Dexter Green is dedicated to gaining wealth and status, well in line with the American Dream. He is convinced that achieving this will give him joy and satisfaction. However, once Dexter achieves his goals of wealth and power, he realizes that his dreams are illusory and he will never get the happiness he seeks through achieving wealth and status (Fitzgerald 23).

The American Dream has been used as a justification for questionable conduct by individuals who are trying to achieve some goals or ambitions that are in line with the ideals of the dream. The Dream is not a well-defined concept and it has been stretched and adapted to fit all kinds of people and historical circumstances.

The dream has accommodated immigrants, drug dealers, as well as ambitious youths yearning to make a better life for themselves. The prominent Civil Rights Activist figure Martin Luther King used the American Dream to justify the civil disobedience that he was advocating (608). From these examples, it is clear that the American Dream can be used to justify both noble and questionable causes.

On the positive side, the American Dream has been used as a tool for progress and the promotion of unity. The idea of the American Dream was very instrumental in the establishment of the United States as a country independent from Britain. The American Dream was an underlying theme in the Declaration of Independence that is linked to freedom of the American people (Jefferson 377). The dream also served as a tool to overcome slavery in the 18th century.

Because the dream stated that equality and freedom were prerequisites for all American’s, the abolitionists used the American Dream to champion the emancipation of the slaves. President Lincoln referenced the American Dream in his attempt to unify the warring citizens and remind them that they all fought for the ideals it represented.

The American Dream has also served as inspiration for people to fight for their rights and promote equality in the society. This is best exemplified by Martin Luther King who fought for the dream of equality. King believed that all people in the US should have the same rights and opportunities as it is granted in the Declaration of Independence (622).

With such a deep conviction, he was able to mobilize people and eventually achieve the civil rights for the African-American population in the US. The American dream therefore inspired people to fight for their rights in the country.

The American Dream has promoted the capitalistic economic system, which is the most favorable system for economic growth and development. The dream promotes the ideals of Capitalism where each person is rewarded based on their efforts.

People are therefore encouraged to work hard and their efforts are rewarded through better pay and/or career advancement. The American Dream therefore contributes to the growth of the country’s economy since when individuals pursue and achieve their dreams; the economic outcomes of the country are improved.

Despite being the richest country in the world, there is significant poverty and socio-economic inequality in the US. This situation can partly be blamed on the American Dream. The American Dream is not one dream but a set of ideals that have been developed over time. While the dream constitutes a wide range of ideas, they are all based on achieving prospering, success, and living a good life.

This Dream is not realizable since individuals will always want more than what they have and therefore end up in a state of discontent. In addition to this, the dream diminishes social cohesion since it encourages individualism and an overemphasis on material possessions. The capitalistic system promoted by the American Dream favors the minority capital contributors at the expense of the working class. Capitalism also encourages exploitation of others in order to make more money.

This paper set out to argue that the American Dream is bad for the individual and the society as a whole. To this end, it set out to highlight the negative outcomes of the dream. The American dream creates a false sense of equality and promotes individualism. This paper has demonstrated that the American Dream has gone astray and is today out of reach for most Americans.

The United States is a land of opportunity and liberty, but these opportunities are not available equally. Instead of promoting the universal prosperity and equality, it assumes to uphold, the American dream has encouraged immense inequality within this great nation.

Fitzgerald, Scott. “Winter Dreams”. The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Ed. Kirszner, Laurie and Mandell, Stephen. Vancouver, Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.

Jefferson Thomas “The declaration of Independence.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Ed. Kirszner, Laurie and Mandell, Stephen. Vancouver, Prentice Hall, 2010. 375-378. Print.

King, Luther. “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas . Ed. Kirszner, Laurie and Mandell, Stephen. Vancouver, Prentice Hall, 2010. 608-622. Print.

Lincoln, Abraham. The Gettysburg address . 1863. Web.

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Lesson Plan The American Dream

This lesson invites students to search and sift through rare print documents, early motion pictures, photographs, and recorded sounds from the Library of Congress. Students experience the depth and breadth of the digital resources of the Library, tell the story of a decade, and help define the American Dream.

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• analyze, interpret, and conduct research with digitized primary source documents
• 19th and 20th century social life in the United States using digitized documents from the Library of Congress
• define, present and defend their ideas about what the American Dream has been, through the decades
• relate what they have uncovered from inquiry and research to their own American Dream

Time Required

Two to three weeks

Lesson Preparation

• Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tool
• Background essay: "What Is the American Dream?"

Wall of Dreams

• Citing Primary Sources

Lesson Procedure

Introduction, entry level skills and knowledge.

A basic understanding of Internet research, knowledge of search terms to navigate Library of Congress digital content, and reasonable facility with multimedia tools are needed.

When working with archival collections students must think like historians and archivists. Resources from the Teachers Page can help students get started. Acquaint students with the unique qualities of primary resources. You may want to create or use a set of primary sources to help students understand the process of primary source analysis.

Organizational Requirements

Define the scope of the project:.

Before introducing the lesson, or as a class, define the scope of the historical research conducted in this project. Will teams gather material from a specific decade? Will they work with a single Digital Collection ? Will research be guided by a theme, such as immigration? Will research be linked to literature the class is reading?

Determine desired learning outcomes:

What do you expect your students to know and be able to do when they have completed the activities. Create an assessment rubric for students based on your expectations.

Determine required learning product(s):

You may want students to create a Web page, a multimedia product, a video, or a contribution to the transformation of their classroom into a Decades Museum. Whatever format the student product may take, students should present and defend their ideas.

Engage students:

Invite students to begin their inquiry by considering the dreams of today and the dreamers of the present. Next, use The Library of Congress collections to learn about our cultural heritage and find evidence of the dreamers in our collective history. Finally, ask your students to compare their own dreams to the dreams of those who lived before them. Students should understand that history is the continuing story of human experience, the stories of people like themselves. Help students to understand that as they define and pursue their own dreams, they create the future of our nation and the world.

Introduce students to the student lesson pages. Divide your class into learning teams and assign roles and responsibilities.

Each team will select (or be assigned) a research role (photographer, lawyer, poet, politician, producer, comedian, musician). Each student will work as part of the team to complete the project. Remind students that while they each have specific tasks, all team members pitch in and help one another. Provide time for students to explore the student page of the project.

Individual responsibilities might include:

• Team Manager As team manager you have full responsibility for this team. You will manage all aspects of the project by assisting the research, production, and archive managers in meeting their obligations to complete the project. Excellent interpersonal and management skills are required. You are ultimately responsible for helping the team meet the project deadline.
• Research Manager Your job is key to the success of this project. You can shape the research by using focus questions. You will assist others in finding just the right quote, picture, or sound bite. Your team will rely on effective use of your detective and inquiry skills as you search the collections.
• Production Manager You will lead the group in building the final product. You must gather materials from your archive manager and work with the researcher during production. You must be flexible and resourceful as you work and assist others with last minute changes; manage graphics, sound or movie clips; and deal with the unexpected occurrences of creating a product.
• Archive Manager Excellent organizational skills make this job a challenge. You will keep track of all materials for the team and check to be sure that resources are compatible. For example, are your sound clips in the correct format? You will keep the original files, and back up files, and organize the the final project.

Building Background Knowledge and Skills 

(suggested- 2 class periods)

Anticipatory Set:

Link to students' prior knowledge and work with them to develop a concept of the traditional "American Dream." Use the "What Is the American Dream?" essay to initiate a discussion (either as a whole class or in team groups).

You may wish to have your students conduct interviews, explore other readings, engage in further class discussions, or hear guest speakers. Pair them to brainstorm: What do you already know about the American Dream? They might use paper or visual thinking software to record ideas and then share them with the learning team members in their groups.

Primary Source Analysis:

Before students begin their research, review strategies for analyzing primary source materials. Each student team will work with a set of pre-selected materials. Students analyze the materials recording their thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool . Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Primary Sources to focus and prompt analysis and discussion.

Each team will analyze its assigned primary source.

• Photographer - George O. Waters(?), Dry Valley, near Comstock Nebraska
• Poet - "Dedication," Robert Frost's presidential inaugural poem, 20 January 1961
• Politician - "Americanism", Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaliel), 1865-1923
• Producer - Arrival of immigrants, Ellis Island
• Comedian - Katzenjammer Kids: "Policy and pie"
• Lawyer - An Account of the Proceedings on the Trail of Susan B. Anthony
• Musician - The old cabin home. H. De Marsan, Publisher, 54 Chatham Street, New York
• Reporter - The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal. Monday, March 12, 1770

Researching Online and Gathering Primary Resources

(suggested - 5 class periods)

Guide students in choosing a research role and developing an action plan. One strategy is to assign roles, such as team manager, research manager, production manager or archive manager. Support students as needed in identifying tasks to be completed and drafting a timeline.

Possible considerations during research might include:

• Theme or Topic: What is your focus for inquiry? Identify your research topic or theme.
• Research Questions: What questions will focus your research? List a series of questions you intend to answer to focus your research. What additional information do you need to answer these questions?
• Primary Sources: How will you know you've found what you are looking for? List the type of resources you intend to look for to answer your research questions. What primary resources from the Library of Congress will you search for?
• Evidence: How do you know that the examples you've found are valid? Once you have located a few examples of primary sources, what are your criteria for selecting these as evidence?

You may require each team to keep a "research log" of work accomplished during each work session to help students stay focused and, later, to help in the evaluative process.

Choose the questions that will provide a focus for the project. Students can use these questions to guide their research.

As a class, create and continually add to, a list of "tried and true" search terms. Remind students that the Library of Congress Web site is a collection of collections. It is not encyclopedic and it simply does not have "everything." If an initial search does not yield desired results, guide students in how they can narrow or refocus the search. Your schedule may limit students to visiting only the suggested collections and provided links for each team. As possible, however, encourage them to identify additional items in the Library of Congress collections and to expand their resources with other sources.

Supply students with primary source analysis tools to use to record their growing set of evidence. Allow at least two (more preferred) days/class periods for exploration and research.

Creating the Learning Product

Students can produce a variety of products to demonstrate their interpretation of the material. Public or private Web sites, podcasting, digital narratives, video documentaries, slide shows, oral presentations, booklets or newspapers, or museum display within the classroom of print documents, multimedia, and realia are all excellent vehicles for students to share their learning.

Creating and refining a final learning product that allows students to represent, present and defend their ideas about the American Dream is the tangible outcome of this project. Allow plenty of time for this vital phase. (Having students add what transpires during this phase of the project to their research log can provide useful insight in the  evaluation process.)

Reinforce ethical use of the Internet by requiring that proper citation and/or bibliographical entry be used for all collected print and Internet resources.

Developing a Personal Dream for their Future

(1 class period)

When students have completed their research and have produced and presented the products that share their learning, they can be invited to consider their own American Dream – for themselves, their families and loved ones, their community, their nation and the world. Encourage students to give serious thought and honest expression to their hopes and dreams for the future. For inspiration, they may wish to view the Wall of Dreams contributed by other students.

Who are the dreamers that inspire us today? Ask students to read about or interview others who have a dream. Enrich this project with your own web resources, books, movie clips, interviews, or guest speakers.

Lesson Evaluation

Self and peer assessment.

A confidential self-evaluation from each student can provide the teacher with further valuable input, and will help the student reflect upon their own learning and performance. Students are also asked to evaluate the work and contributions of team members.

Teacher Assessment

Student teams may be asked the following assessment questions:

• What is the American Dream?
• How has the American Dream changed over time?
• How do diverse cultures view the American Dream?
• How have significant historical events affected the American Dream?
• How will new opportunities of the 21st century challenge the American Dream?
• What makes your area of interest an effective medium for sharing the American Dream?
• What is your American Dream?

The team products, and their presentation, should provide evidence of understanding from each team member. Be sure to require that each student contribute to the important tasks of presenting and defending a specific viewpoint.

Evaluate student work according to the evaluative criteria you and your students identified before beginning the project.

Kathleen Ferenz and Leni Donlan, American Memory Fellows, 1997

What is the American Dream? Is it the same for all Americans? Is it a myth? Is it simply a quest for a better life? How has the American Dream changed over time? Some see their dreams wither and die while others see their dreams fulfilled. Why? Everyone has dreams about a personally fulfilled life ...what is your dream?

Your job is to research the dreams of others. You will then create and publish your interpretation of the "American Dream."

• Divide into teams by research roles (photographer, lawyer, poet, politician, producer, comedian, musician).
• Define the American Dream with your group.
• Search in the Digital Colections and document the dreams of those who lived in the past.
• Identify and publish your interpretation of the "American Dream" according to your research role and the evidence you found.
• Reflect upon your personal dream — for the nation and for yourself.
• Review the Wall of Dreams for ideas. Write your own personal dream to share with your teacher and class.

These dreams are a sampling from the thousands of student dreams collected from 1998 - 2006. Define your dream for yourself, your family, your community, your country and our world.

My dream is to write a story that makes people think, dream, imagine, care, and feel. I want to change the world by making people care for each other. I want to show the world my thoughts through the words in my stories and maybe see how others like me feel. L. C., Student, Dakota Valley High School. Grade 11

My dream is that someday... kids will not have to live in poverty. It makes me see how fortunate I am to have what I have. My other dream is for all wars to stop, and to declare world peace. All of this fighting is putting a bad impression on people, some think life is all about war, and we could live in a better place and be better people if we could all get along.  A. B., Student, Henderson Intermediate School, Grade 6

My American Dream is to make the world a happier and more joyful place. I can achieve it by helping other people conquer sickness, hardships, and sadness. The world is a troubled place now. I hope I can make a difference. People all over the world are having tough times. War is killing many people and causing great sadness. This is my American Dream because we are seeing death everywhere now. J. C., Student, Encinal Elementary, Grade 5

My American Dream has several parts. First, I want my family to be happy, healthy, and comfortable. Rich is not necessary, though it would be nice. Second, I want to be able to use my brains and skills to become a geneticist so that I can create cures to help people live better. If I can make the world better for even one person, I will have met that goal. I want chocolate to be declared a health food. I know, that's not reasonable, but it is a dream I have. "Are you ill? Take two Hershey bars and call me in the morning." I want to invent the self-cleaning bedroom. (No further explanation necessary). But more than any of these, I dream of peace. I want everyone here to understand and help each other, regardless of race, religion, color, creed, size, shape, sexual orientation, just because we are all members of the same species: Homo sapien. That is my American Dream.  A. G., Student, Home Schooled, Grade 8

My American Dream is one in which all the children recognize their potential and work to understand they can be the best in whatever they choose to do as a life work. I wish for them to be gentle but honest with themselves, to love themselves and see the special persons they are becoming and that they work to live in harmony with all humankind.  M. B., Teacher, Crawford AuSable, Grade 8

I have a dream that everyone will stop smoking and people will stop polluting and that everybody will live in peace. W. P., Student, Beech Tree Elementary School, Grades K-3

My dream is to help our nation realize greater freedom and opportunity for all its citizens. Racial, sexual, and economic dividers are still very much in place in our nation, and overcoming such forms of bias comes only with affirmative action as well as educating our people against prejudice and discrimination. And most importantly, it is our duty to remember our nation's involvement in slavery, our deliberate mistreatment of America's native peoples, and our apathetic complacency during the worst act of genocide in history--these must all be painfully remembered to prevent such blots to fall on our account again. I wish to be actively involved in history, a living history that will affect every person out there in our great land, who will remember our past, its glories, triumphs, and yes, its failures. To do this is our responsibility to future generations, to make our nation a more thoughtful nation and our people more thoughtful people. That is my American Dream. A. I., Student, Homeschool, Grade 12

Everyone says that their American Dream is for every American to be equal. This is very unrealistic because everyone is different in some way. America has the most diverse population in the world. This trait sets us apart from other countries. So instead of being equal, my American Dream is for everyone to receive and give the utmost respect to all Americans despite differences we all have.  A. M., Student, Cass Tech High School, Grade 11

My American Dream is to be able to live in my country as a free person - free to live, free to dream, free to change and free to live with others who are not the same as me. I don't want to accumulate 'stuff' and have more than the other guy. I want to make sure that we all have enough to live and care for our country. It is not about getting ahead or beating another person, but it is about working together to make and keep the United States a great place. We all can do this by working in the system and changing it when we see that change is needed. In this way we can all live our American Dream together. J. M., Student, CPDLF, Grade 8

I dream that America will turn its goodwill and wealth to the rest of the world and help end poverty and war. We can do this by providing more help and education to the poorest nations, and by building a just system around the world where the children are fed, healthy and educated and perhaps they would not hate us so much. If we helped them develop their own resources instead of stealing their resources they could then support themselves and be proud of themselves and not hate us.  P. W., Student, Florida Virtual School, Grade 8

My dream is that I wish people would not judge people because they are different from them. The only reason why people are racist is because they are scared of changes. I would hope that people would become mature enough and forget their differences between each other.  T. S., Student, James A. Garfield Community Magnet School, Grade 8

My dream is for the children to grow up in a country, any country, feeling proud, free, and safe. I would hope that the politicians worldwide would put the interests of their citizens first, their military second, and themselves last. K. M., Teacher, St. John's, postgraduate

My dream is peace in my lifetime between people of all religions: Peace so my father will not have to go to war again, Peace so my little brother can grow up unafraid.  C. S., Student, ML King, Grade 5

My American Dream is to be a fair person and treat everybody equal. I want the people that come to America from different countries to feel like they have a place here in the United States. We can make them feel like this is their home. Also my American Dream is to give everybody the same rights. That even if you're homeless or rich you still have the same rights as everybody else. I think everybody should have the same equal rights. V. K., Student, Clara Barton, Grade 5

My dream is to have a crime free world. People should be able to feel safe in their neighborhoods. I also want the world to be free of homeless people. Everybody should have a place to live and food to eat. Everybody should have access to quality medical attention and quality education. I want worldwide peace and no more wars. I also want world hunger to come to an end. M. Y., Student, MBTA. Grade 8

Similar to the many past dreamers such as Martin Luther King, who wanted equal rights, I want everyone to have equal rights. Based on the culture and values that I have been brought up with, I know that it is especially hard to stop a prejudice that has been traveling through every generation. But, by teaching our children and being a model of acceptance ourselves, we can avoid making those same mistakes from past generations. It has definitely gotten better, and I believe our generation can become the role models for the new millennium.  K. L., Student, Allentown High School, Grade 11

My American Dream is a place where no one is discriminated against nor judged because of their race, where everyone is equal, where people are never deprived of their rights, and where the accused have the chance to explain. I dream of a place where justice is served righteously and schools have capable teachers who do everything to help the children they teach. I dream of a place where people can understand and accept new and different things. This is my dream and I hope it becomes a reality. E. L., Student, FLVS, Grade 8

My American Dream is for people to be able to express themselves without catching ridicule from their peers. It hurts when your individuality crushes who you try to present yourself to be because you feel shameful of who you really are.  S. F., Student, Pell City High School, Grade 10

I dream that one day the world will be united in a world where all people can speak and understand one another. I dream of a world where nobody goes to bed hungry or abused. I dream of a world that is free from violence--a world in which all people could live peacefully with one another.  L. B., Teacher, HSU, Grade K-3

Getting Started

Choose a research role.

As a group, choose one of the research roles to create your project:

Photographer

You are the eyes of America.

Design a photo essay that shows the American Dream. You might show how the Dream has been affected by time, cultural influences, and significant historical events (war, economic depression, elections, etc.).

Team Management Roles

Assessment questions.

How will your project be assessed? Identify which of these questions you will use to guide your inquiry:

• What makes being a photographer an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?

Action Plan

Create an action plan and and determine your timeline for completing the project. Include the following information in your action plan:

Timeline and Responsibilities

• Choose your team management responsibilities and decide each manager's specific responsibilities.
• How much time do you have?
• What deadlines do you need to meet?
• What materials do you need?
• How do you plan to manage the materials?

Research Strategies

What is your focus for inquiry? Identify your research topic or theme. What questions will focus your research? List a series of genuine questions you intend to answer by your research. What additional information do you need to answer these questions?

How will you know you've found what you are looking for? List the type of resources you intend to look for to answer your research questions. What primary resources from Digital Collections will you search for?

How do you know that the examples you've found are valid? Once you have located a few examples of primary sources, what are your criteria for selecting these as evidence? Record your ideas on the primary source analysis tool . Be sure to note information you'll need for Citing Primary Sources .

To search all photographic collections, click here: Photographs, Prints, and Drawings

Specific Collections that may be of help:

• Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner , 1935-1955
• By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s
• Daguerreotypes
• Detroit Publishing Company
• Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
• Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs
• Horydczak Collection
• Panoramic Photographs
• Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982
• Votes for Women - The Struggle for Women's Suffrage

Your passion for controversy and debate will guide your vision of the American Dream. Prepare a written or oral legal brief about the status of the American Dream. Defend your argument with evidence from the collections. (A legal brief includes: title, who vs. whom, statement of facts, argument, conclusion, references.)

• What makes being a lawyer an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?

To Search text collections use the following links:

• Manuscripts/Mixed Material
• Books/Printed Material
• An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
• Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
• A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873
• The National American Women Suffrage Association Collection

Using your poetic grasp of language you seek out the heart and soul of the American Dream.

Create a poet's notebook that shows the American Dream. Include samples of your poetry that show how the Dream has been affected by time, cultural influences, and significant historical events (war, economic depression, elections, etc.).

• What makes being a reporter for a newspaper an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?
• "California as I Saw It": First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900
• Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941
• Hispano Music & Culture from the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
• American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
• Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910
• Poet at Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection

With a finger on the pulse of the American people you create the policies that shape the American Dream.

Write and deliver a speech that traces the political events that shape the American Dream. Your speech may reflect significant events that have shaped American politics.

• What makes being a politician an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?
• The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress
• Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789
• George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799
• American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election

Lights, camera, action! You show the American Dream with stories, films, and a script for a movie.

Make a storyboard for your movie. Sequence the scenes to produce the movie of the American Dream.

• What makes being a producer an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?

To search early Motion Pictures, click here: Early Motion Pictures, 1897-1916

• Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
• Origins of American Animation
• The Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901
• The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906
• Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916
• America at Work, America at Leisure: Motion Pictures from 1894-1915

You find the irony in the American Dream. Write a standup comic script or create a politcal cartoon or cartoon strip that expresses irony or the humorous side of the American Dream.

• What makes being a comedian an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?
• Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939
• The American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920

With your ear for melody you play the music of the American Dream.

Write the sheet music or play and record music that characterizes the American Dream from your research.

• What makes being a musician an effective medium for exploring the American Dream?

To search all sheet music/song sheet collections: Sheet Music, Song Sheets .

To search all sound recording collections: Sound Recordings .

• "Now What a Time": Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943
• The Leonard Bernstein Collection, ca. 1920-1989
• Band Music from the Civil War Era
• The Aaron Copland Collection, ca. 1900-1990
• Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection
• California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties. Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell
• William P. Gottlieb: Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz
• Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885
• America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

On the newsbeat, you report and chronicle the events which shape the American Dream.

Write a news article that reports the results of your research on the American Dream. (Article includes: title, who, what, when, where, and how.) Your news article describes the significant events that shaped the American Dream through the decades.

• Search all Digital Collections
• Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers at the Library of Congress
• Printed Ephemera: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
• Posters: WPA Posters

Record the results of your discussion.

What do you already know about the American Dream?

Your group needs to define the American Dream. Read "What Is The American Dream?". Find out what the dream means to each member of your group. Brainstorm and share your ideas. What do you know about the "American Dream"? With a partner create a mind map of what you know, or believe you know, about the American Dream. All ideas are valid. Use paper or visual thinking software to record your ideas. Share the results with your learning team members in your group. This is the beginning of your project, so file your results with your archive manager.

What Is The American Dream?

James Truslow Adams, in his book The Epic of America, which was written in 1931, stated that 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." (p.214-215)

The authors of the United States’ Declaration of Independence held certain truths to be self-evident: that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream?

Were homesteaders who left the big cities of the east to find happiness and their piece of land in the unknown wilderness pursuing these inalienable Rights? Were the immigrants who came to the United States looking for their bit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their Dream? And what did the desire of the veteran of World War II - to settle down, to have a home, a car and a family - tell us about this evolving Dream? Is the American Dream attainable by all Americans?

Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.

Thomas Wolfe said, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him."

Is this your American Dream?

Define your Project

Determine your research theme or topic: Are you interested in immigration/emigration, families, social life? Will you investigate one decade or compare how the American Dream evolved over the decades? Discuss topic ideas with your group.

Analyzing Documents

Use the Primary Source Analysis tool and questions provided by your teacher to practice reading and interpreting sources with sample materials. Your team will look at resources through the lens of your research role.

• Photographer - Sylvester Rawding family in front of sod house, north of Sargent, Custer County, Nebraska
• Lawyer - The case of Dred Scott in the United States Supreme Court
• Reporter - Suffrage Ratification Is Completed by Tennessee

Research — Gather Evidence — Create the Team Product

As a group, be sure you all understand the task for your team's research role. Divide the tasks. Create an action plan. Record the results of your discussion.

Discuss possible questions and anticipate how you will answer them. Search the digital collections collections and gather your evidence.

Create your learning product. Develop a strategy to share your learning project which allows all team members to contribute and share their ideas.

You and your teacher established expectations for the project before you started your work. You and your team recorded your progress.  Your teacher may be using a rubric to evaluate your work. You understand the difference between excellent, good, and satisfactory work.

Complete a confidential team and self evaluation that describes how you contributed to your team’s effort and what you have learned.

You were challenged to investigate the American Dream, to see if it is the same for all Americans and whether it is real or just a myth. Did you find that it is simply a quest for a better life? What did you discover about how the Dream has changed over time? Do you now know why some see their dreams wither and die while others see their dreams fulfilled? What is your dream?

You've finished a group project. You've presented your ideas to your class. Has this experience influenced your view of the American Dream? How? Now that you have completed your project:

• What questions do you still have about the American Dream?
• What can the dreams of others teach you?
• Who are the dreamers of today?
• Were the dreams of yesteryear like your own dreams? In what ways?
• What IS the American Dream? Can it be simply stated?
• How will YOUR personal dream become a part of America's (and the world's) future?

James Truslow Adams: Dreaming up the American Dream

Background on James Truslow Adams, who coined the phrase The American Dream.

With the 2016 Presidential election approaching, we can all be sure we’ll be hearing about the American Dream a lot in the coming months. Where did the concept come from?

There was, in fact, a founding father of the American Dream. He was James Truslow Adams and he coined the phrase in his 1931 bestseller The Epic of America . Adams, who was no relation to the Presidential Adamses, had actually wanted to name the book after his central thesis, but his publisher thought that a book called The American Dream wouldn’t sell well during the Great Depression.

Adams’s definition: “a dream of a 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.”

He put it more succinctly elsewhere in the book: a “dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank.” This contemporary review of Epic notes that Adams alluded to the idea in fifty or more passages in the book. The unnamed reviewer thought Adams believed the dream to be “our greatest contribution to the thought of the world.”

Adams himself was born fortuitously into a wealthy Brooklyn family and became a successful investment banker before transforming himself into a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. This  short essay on Chief Justice John Marshall  published in  The American Scholar  shows he didn’t talk down to a popular audience. The piece is dense and closely-argued, and goes to the heart of the question about just what kind of democracy we have, and might have in the future—his notion that the nation-state was on the way out may have been premature.

Calling something a dream is a tricky proposition, since matching “a better, richer and happier life for all” to today’s economic disparities, limited social mobility, and the overweening power of money in politics makes it sound like a far-fetched fantasy indeed.

Adams himself was clear-eyed: he wrote the American Dream “has been realized more fully in actual life here than anywhere else, though very imperfectly even among ourselves.”

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Joining the Navy: the American Dream

How it works

So, the American Dream, right? It’s all about trying to move up in life, feeling free, and hoping for a better future. Folks often think it means getting rich, being successful, and feeling happy. And one way a lot of people try to reach this dream is by joining the U.S. Navy. It’s a respected part of the military that offers a lot of chances to change your life for the better, both personally and professionally. You get educational perks, job training, travel, and you get to be part of a close-knit group.

For many young folks, the Navy is like a shining light guiding them toward their American Dream.

One big reason people sign up for the Navy is the education benefits. The Navy gives you access to the GI Bill, which helps cover college or vocational training costs. This means you can keep studying without worrying about the money part. Plus, they have tuition assistance programs so you can take classes while you’re still serving. This way, you can get degrees and certifications that’ll be useful even after you leave the Navy. This focus on education helps sailors move up within the Navy and also sets them up for good jobs when they get out, hitting that key part of the American Dream.

Then there’s the career training. The Navy teaches you all sorts of skills, from engineering and aviation to IT and leadership. These are skills that lots of companies want. So, the training not only makes you better at your Navy job but also opens up high-paying job opportunities later on. The Navy’s tough training programs build discipline, toughness, and a strong work ethic—things you need to succeed in any job. For many, the Navy is the first step toward a brighter future, fitting right in with the American Dream idea.

And let’s not forget about the chance to travel and have adventures. When you’re in the Navy, you get to see the world. You might be deployed to different countries, experiencing new cultures and environments. This kind of adventure broadens your view of the world and adds rich experiences to your life. If you’ve ever dreamt of traveling and seeing what’s out there beyond your hometown, the Navy can make that dream come true, adding another layer of personal fulfillment tied to the American Dream.

Also, the Navy is great for making lifelong friends. The bonds you form with fellow sailors through shared experiences are strong and lasting. This sense of community and belonging is essential for feeling good about yourself and staying motivated. The Navy’s focus on teamwork and supporting each other mirrors the community spirit often linked with the American Dream, showing how working together can help everyone achieve their goals.

And let’s not forget about the patriotic side of it. Serving in the Navy gives many people a deep sense of pride and fulfillment. Being able to serve your country and help keep it safe is a big deal. This sense of duty fits with the bigger ideals of the American Dream, which isn’t just about personal success but also about giving back to society. Serving in the Navy lets you feel proud and purposeful, embodying the values of service and sacrifice that are central to the American ethos.

So, in the end, joining the Navy offers a lot of ways to chase the American Dream. Whether it’s through education perks, job training, travel, friendships, or a sense of patriotism, the Navy provides opportunities that can change lives and help fulfill dreams. If you’re looking for a way to advance your goals while serving your country, the Navy is a strong and appealing choice. It stands for the values of hard work, dedication, and service that are at the heart of the American Dream, offering a path to a better, more fulfilling life.

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The American Dream (Argumentative Essay Sample)

The american dream.

The American dream may mean pursuing a happy life with a sustainable job, a family, acquiring wealth or success in life. This vision surrounds freedom of having an opportunity to prosper in life. Thus, people have the opportunity to achieve their goals by whatever means irrespective of the nation one comes. This dream is made possible due to equal opportunity for all. For example, most people have been successful in America due to their educational achievement, business achievement. However, achieving the American dream is not a walk in the park since it requires hard work, determination, and passion. People from different countries love to be in America hence most of the immigrants are flocking the nation. Others usually feel disappointed when they are denied visas to relocate to America either to be permanent citizens or for education purposes. All these activities happen because people want to achieve the American dream.

Attaining American dream requires a career that is to be achieved amidst struggle. For example, securing a good job requires proper education which is expensive besides seeking relevant human relation skills that form part of the dream. However, this dream is accessible due to the available opportunities as well as ways to improve on a career. People require an environment where they can thrive and freely mingle to achieve the American dream, and that can only be attained due to the presence of human rights and freedom of speech.

On a separate note, American dream involves happiness which comes as a result of achievement as an individual who wants to accomplish goals such as becoming rich or being famous. However, achieving such happy life requires hard work. This idea was also supported by Bill Rancis who said, “The American Dream is still alive out there, and hard work will get you there. You don’t necessarily need an Ivy League education or to have millions of dollars startup money. It can be done with an idea, hard work, and determination” (Rancic).  This quote attests that achieving American dream requires hard work and perseverance.

The American dream can also be achieved through other means apart from attaining education. For instance, many rich Americans have achieved their dreams in unexpected ways.  A good example is Oprah Winfrey who is one of the gorgeous women on earth pursued her American dream despite her humble background. She was an orphan who was raised by her grandmother in poverty.  On a separate note, Kevin Garnett struggled from a street, but his love for games made him a professional basketball player in the USA while Tupac Shakur who had no home became a famous rapper.

The American dream is accessible due to freedom and rights. For example, schools are free to everybody. People have equal opportunity for achievement.  On the same note, people have equal opportunities for employment due to education systems that are not discriminative.  The schools also offer opportunities for special options based on interests. Besides, people view American dream as laws that protect people as well as enabling them to achieve their potential. Therefore, people can contribute to the society as well as developing themselves.  The progress of citizens is pegged on their protection hence through their rights. Thus, they can live healthy lives.

On the contrary, some people believe that American dream is unattainable and do not believe that it is good life or happiness as they languish in poverty, oppression, and discrimination regarding race, color, religion and gender among others.

In conclusion, even though some people feel that American dream is unachievable, it can be achieved by both the US citizens and the immigrants who are committed to their objectives of attaining a good life due to hard work, determination and having a passion for the dream.

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The American Dream Essay – Free Example, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on May 25, 2018 May 25, 2018

The American Dream Essay 

Write a historical analysis of the factors you see as leading to the development of the American dream as a concept. Try to show how the American dream grew out of specific aspects of American history and if you have any difficulties grasping the concept do my history homework for me is here to help out at an affordable price.

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Here is a sample essay that tries to answer the above question.

Essay on the American Dream Outline

Introduction

Thesis: The American dream grew out of specific aspects of the American history defined by the fore-founding fathers and America’s greatest leaders.

Paragraph 1:

In 1931, there was the first public definition of the phrase in the book the Epic of America authored by James Truslow.

• In his description, he maintained that the Dream is characterized by a situation where every individual desires his or her life to be more vibrant and fuller.
• There are five major pillars of the American dream including, the idea of a free market economy, embracing free trade agreements, embracing government protection of companies, and the idea that countries should replicate America’s development.

Paragraph 2:

Upon its inception, the American Dream only applied to white property owners.

• As people began embracing the idea of equal rights to every American despite their color or origin, the laws were extended to include other individuals including non-property owners and women.
• In the 20’s, the American Dream started acquiring a more profound definition characterized by obtaining material items.
• In the new definition, there were elements of greed that finally led to woes in the stock market and the Great Depression.

Paragraph 3: 

Prominent American politicians have continuously defined the American Dream.

• One of the greatest supporters of the Dream was President Lincoln who upon becoming president was quick to accord equal opportunities to slaves.
• Another champion was President Wilson who maintained and pushed forward for accordance with voting rights for women leading to the 19 th Amendment in 1918.
• President Johnson pushed forward for the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that led to an end of segregation in many Public schools.
• President Obama promoted the accordance of equal rights to married people regardless of their sexual orientation giving a voice to the LGBT community

Paragraph 4:

President Roosevelt pushed for the idea that attainment of individual freedom requires maximum economic security and independence.

• Roosevelt protected the US from different elements such as communism, socialism, and Nazism.
• Through the Second Bill of Rights that the issue of domestic security was addressed and later pushed forward by Truman’s administration.
• President Obama is the most recent president that redefined the American Dream to include affordable health care, employment opportunities, student loans and government aid.

Paragraph 5: 

In the American society of today, The American Dream may be taken to mean being able to exist in a free and equal society.

• This is a society where an American is hesitant to impose their cultural values on others but always ready to join fellow Americans in pushing for their common socioeconomic interests.
• They are concerned about protecting the right of another person and not on the cultural background of that individual.

American history has continuously shaped the American Dream. Although there has been a disagreement on what constitutes the Dream, the founding fathers and the American Presidents have made efforts to define the American Dream as equal opportunities for all.

What is the American Dream Essay Outline

Thesis:  The American Dream is based on the argument that every American citizen regardless of where they are born, their color, their religion, their sexual orientation or their political affiliations can become successful in life by taking risks and working hard and not by chance.

The first American to coin the term American Dream was James Truslow in his book the  Epic of America  in 1931.

• Therein, he argues that the Dream is not merely a dream of high wages and cars but a dream of social order.
• The American Dream is more of a charm of anticipated success as put across by a French Historian Alexis de Tocqueville.
• The charm and the desire has attracted thousands of immigrants to the American shores and set a high bat for other nations across the world.

Ever since the inception of the American Dram, it has acted as a guideline to help Americans pursue their dreams, happiness and attain their maximum potential.

• In essence, it is all about helping individuals shape their destiny.
• The basic concept of the American Dream is that success is not guaranteed but rather offers Americans a chance to overcome obstacles to achieve their inner most desires.

Paragraph 3:

The Dream supports commitment to a common set of values and ideals.

• It makes people acknowledge that a person can be American irrespective of their linguistic, cultural, religious, or ethnic background.
• All a person has to do so as to be considered an American is to show true commitment to the political ideologies of equality, republicanism, and liberty.

The elusive and difficult nature of the American Dream makes many Americans skeptical on the prospect of achieving it.

• In a statement made by George Carlin , he posited that it is referred to as the American Dream since one has to be asleep to believe it.
• Although Carlin interpreted the concept of the American Dream in a loose sense, it is without a doubt that it offers salvation for those who achieve it or damnation for those who fail to achieve it.
• Those who record success bear a legacy of positive influence while those that fail to achieve it bear a legacy of failure.

Paragraph 5:

The concept of the American Dream highlights the importance of optimism in succeeding in life but it offers no guarantees.

• As many Americans succeed due to their hard work, optimism and determination, others fail despite having put a lot of hard work towards achieving their dreams.
• The American Dream is crucial when it comes to fulfilling the American culture.
• The American culture is one that embraces the concept of success and working towards full potential.
• The beauty of the entire concept is that it guarantees nothing other than hope.
• While many are damned towards the course of its fulfillment, many have walked down the path of success and fulfilled the American Dream.

The American Dream is not about a destination but rather a journey towards success. Every American or individual within the borders of the United States has equal opportunities and chances to work his or her way up towards fulfillment of the Dream. It is a guiding light that has helped many attain their dreams.

What is the American Dream Essay Sample 2, with Outline

The beauty of every nation lies with its people’s ability to maintain universal ideals and philosophies. In the United States, there is the standard American Dream concept that guides every right-minded citizen. It is an ideology or a set of ethos that govern American citizens as they go through life or as they build the nation. The American Dream is based on the argument that every American citizen, regardless of where they are born, their color, their religion, their sexual orientation, or their political affiliations, can become successful in life by taking risks and working hard and not by chance.

The first American to coin the term “American Dream” was James Truslow in 1931. Therein, he argues that the Dream is not merely a dream of an extremely expensive life and cars but a dream of social order where every American can become successful regardless of their origin or color. It is more of a charm of anticipated success as put across by a French Historian known as Alexis de Tocqueville. The charm and the desire have attracted thousands of immigrants to the United States and set a high bar for other nations across the world.

Ever since the inception of the concept, it has acted as a guideline to help Americans pursue their dreams and happiness, and attain their maximum potential. In essence, it is all about assisting individuals to shape their destiny. It is important to highlight the fact that the basic idea behind the American Dream concept is that success is not guaranteed but that each American has a chance to overcome obstacles and achieve their innermost desires.

The Dream supports commitment to a common set of values and ideals. It makes people acknowledge that a person can be American irrespective of their linguistic, cultural, religious, or ethnic background. All a person has to do so as to be considered an American is to show true commitment to the political ideologies of equality, republicanism, and liberty. It is through this commitment that one can play their part towards ensuring that the American society exists in a free atmosphere where individuals can pursue their businesses and life dreams without fearing being sanctioned by anybody. However, the manner in which a person pursues their life dreams should not infringe into the rights of another person.

The elusive and challenging nature of the American Dream makes many Americans skeptical about the prospect of achieving it. In a statement made by George Carlin, he posited that it is referred to as the American Dream since one has to be asleep to believe it. Although Carlin interpreted the concept in a loose sense, it is without a doubt that it offers salvation for those who achieve it or damnation for those who fail to realize it. Those who record success bear a legacy of positive influence while those that fail to realize it bear a legacy of failure.

The concept of the American Dream highlights the importance of optimism in succeeding in life, but it offers no guarantees. Therefore, even as many Americans succeed due to their hard work, confidence, and determination, others fail despite having put a lot of hard work towards achieving their dreams. It is without a doubt that the American Dream is crucial when it comes to fulfilling the American culture. The American culture is one that embraces the concept of success and working towards full potential. The beauty of the entire idea is that it guarantees nothing other than hope. Therefore, while many are damned towards the course of its fulfillment, many others have walked down the path of success and fulfilled the American Dream.

In summary, the American Dream is not about a destination but rather a journey towards success. Every American or individual within the borders of the United States have equal opportunities and chances to work his or her way up towards the fulfillment of the Dream. Although there is a lot of disagreement over the definition of the term, one thing is for sure: the American Dream is a guiding light that has helped many Americans realize their dreams.

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Home — Essay Samples — Economics — American Dream — Is the American Dream Still Alive?

Is The American Dream Still Alive?

• Categories: American Dream

About this sample

Words: 712 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 712 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, history of the american dream, economic perspective on the american dream, social perspective on the american dream, cultural perspective on the american dream, personal perspective on the american dream, counterarguments to the american dream, references:.

• Kelly, P. (2020). The American Dream. Forbes.
• Gallup. (2020). Americans Still Believe in the American Dream.
• Kochhar, R. (2016). The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold? Pew Research Center.
• Wilhelm, H. & Schulte, B. (2020). Is the American Dream Dead? Global Young Voices.
• Delgado, R. & Stefancic, J. (2001). Understanding Words That Wound.

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