The Myth of the American Dream. Dream or Nightmare?

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,9, Technical University of Braunschweig, language: English, abstract: This essay will focus on the origin of the American Dream and its key elements on the one hand, and try to prove its veracity on the other hand. Even though the term 'The American Dream' became a well-known saying describing an assumed very specific phenomenon, its meaning is as vague as it is ambivalent. It is, nevertheless, a crucial part of the American national identity and a symbol of a nation's self-conception. One could argue that Thomas Jefferson already lay the foundation of the most famous myth of all time by declaring 'these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent,' and are thus entitled to 'preservation of life, & liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' (Jefferson 243). More than a century later, James Truslow Adams rewrote Jefferson's words in his novel The Epic of America by saying, 'The American dream, the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.' (Adams 404). While Adams focused on the hope for a better and happier future for everyone, regardless of their social, ethnical or religious decent, Richard Nixon stressed the material aspect in his First Inaugural Address in 1969, by defining 'full employment, better housing, excellence in education; in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas; in protecting our environment and enhancing the quality of life' (Lawler and Schaefer 84) as key elements of the American Dream. Martin Luther King dreamed of freedom and equality for all American citizens and that they 'will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character' (King qtd. in Kirck 82) and two decades later, during his First Inaugural Address in 1981, Ronald Reagan reminded his people of their uniqueness as 'too great a nation to limit (them)selves to small dreams.' (Reagan qtd. in Grafton 109) Although often merely political calculation during election campaigns, those previously mentioned variations of the most famous dreams of all times illustrate two things; On the one hand that each generation interprets the American Dream in its very own way, and on the other hand, it's fundamental value for the American society.