The American Dream

Final Exam. English class.

"The American Dream is a dream of a land in which life SHOULD be better and richer and fuller for everyone." That is how James Truslow Adams defines the american dream and I agree, but to an extent, which is why I underlined the world "should". I believe the American Dream is one for the pursueing of any man or woman, its how one pursues their dreams that can make or break an eventful, fulfilled life.
 

One of the best ways of achieving ones American Dream is by going out ones ways to work to that said dream. One of Benjamin Franklin's most famous aphorisms is "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." and such thing is true. Money is time and time is money.That is not to say that one needs money to achieve one's dream, though it helps. That is another matter worth discussing. The American Dream is different for everyone. I can say that my dream would be to go to collage after high school and then live a respectable life with my life partner. But I cannot speak for everyone else and less for those in my classroom.
 

The idea of the American Dream had changed over the passing decades. One could say that the first AMERICAN dream was Thomas Paine's "...Give us liberty or give us death..." and the dream of freedom form the Brittons.But since then, especially in the nineteen twenties, all the way up til now, the american dream had become very materialistic. Immigrants far and wide come to America with hopes of having a job and a better life, their hopes turned into their American Dreams, giving everything they had to this so-called "land of opertunity". Only to be later decieved and let down to the unstable promise of America's rise and fall of it's economy that reflexes even today's day and age.
 

It is clear that "No pain, no gain." shall get anyone anywhere. One cannot just hope that what he or she desires will be just handed to them without the promise of something in return. One must earn their American Dream and some may not get to actually live their dreams, but because of what they did, their children and their children's children will. And they too must work to keep up said dream. That is what Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine mean. It's not about this current generation any longer, its about the posterity to come and the molding of said minds to know what they must do for their posterity. That is the neverending cycle that America, and any other nation for that matter, must live by in order to survive. "Survival of the fittest.", Darwin's harsh reality words have never been so true, regardless of one's religious beliefs, for nothing comes free in this world. It never has.
 

An American Dream is a dream of land which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, it is how we pursue that dream that makes the difference in our posterity's eyes. Things are never going to be just handed to you, one must work for what they want.And those dreamers that just sit and wait for said things to be given to them, their dreams will soon be nothing but, "...a dream within a dream...".
 

Author's Note

originally written December 16th