How To Achieve The American Dream Essay

I was born in a middle class family in China and my parents care about me very much. Before I was even born, my farther adjusted the business hour of his clinic to make more profit by accepting more patients and my mother was a nurse who worked in my dad’s clinic, so they saved the money to send me to school and prepare to move to the U.S. Most of the members of my family already moved to the U.S. Moreover, once my aunt got her U.S. citizenship, she, as the sponsor, was able to apply for us to come. When I was 15, we finally got our immigrant visas and my parents told me we were ready for move to the America. Therefore, we sold everything we had in China we were staying at my uncle’s house in Hong Kong because we need to take the airplane from Hong Kong to Missouri, U.S. I still remember what my uncle said to me because he looked at me with a very serious face that caught my attention. “Qianxin, the America is different from China. I’ve heard people said life in the America is harder than China. However, if you work hard enough, you will get what you deserve.” The words are always in my mind. I tried to do my best in school and in everything because I want to be the person who can help my family.

However, we must remember an important fact: our generation of American faces the same wall of hopelessness that stood before those who lived through the Great Depression – and they overcame it. What we can take from them, is that we can succeed if we accept the simple fact that we must do what must be done, even if it isn’t desirable. If we graduate with a degree in fashion marketing and fail to secure employment, we work at a retail store in order to pay rent and get the bills paid. Running around for hours to work in a store takes grit; being underemployed takes gut; learning from experience and applying it to one’s life creates character. And one day, we grow. That in my belief is “the Dream.” For too many versions of “the Dream” equate prosperity to happiness, happiness I feel is not so simple. This makes it seem that the American Dream may always remain tantalizingly out of reach for some Americans, making the dream more like a cruel joke rather than a genuine dream. Perhaps, what our generation needs is to

Most importantly, the immigrants would have to bear in mind that one cannot have everything all at once and that success is gradual (Lucas). Most immigrants come to the United States with high expectations of making it big and earning fast money to live the life that they have always dreamed about. This usually stems from the optimistic information that they have been given by their immigrant relatives who had made it to the country before. The immigrants have to accept that everything works out gradually, that most people in America, including the Native-born Americans, cannot buy what they want when they want, and that they struggle like everybody else. The main problem with trying to live beyond one’s limit with the idea of living the dream is that it easily puts one in debt and once someone is in debt, his or her chances of achieving the America dream is limited.

In order to attain the American Dream people must dream it, plan it, and simply let it work itself into place and enjoy it. Even Though, it is hard to achieve goals in today's society, many successful people do it everyday with just three steps.

I have often wondered why so many people are obsessed with the concept of living the American Dream. Is it just the mere thought of becoming wealthy and living a stellar life that is appealing? How about equality and social justice? Our nation was built on the concepts of obtaining natural rights, social equality, and freedom. However, as years continued it seemed that people started to quickly lose the sight of the idea of equality. Women were placed and classified at inferior standards. Recently, women’s rights are being acknowledged and our nation is moving towards the right direction. But as for me, I can forget the American dream of freedom and individuality as a Bengali woman. As I grew wiser and older, I realized how the Bengali culture

For decades, the idea of homeownership has become synonymous with that of the American Dream. In order to encourage Americans to pursue this dream, the United States federal government has created a bevy of programs that subsidize homeownership, including mortgage loan insurance provided through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), government sponsored enterprises such as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) that increase the money available for lending, and the home mortgage interest deduction.

Growing up, I always thought the “American Dream” was having a nice suburban house with a husband, a few kids, and a golden retriever. I think of people within the Middle Class had it pretty good because of the nice house and adorable, tightknit family. The dream has never really changed, and I don’t think what my imagination of it ever will.

The American dream, proposed by James Truslow Adams states 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”(Adams). In today’s society this idea has come to a screeching halt. There is an inevitable truth that not everyone has this opportunity to have a fuller life. What affects the opportunity to reach the American Dream? Race? Gender? Gender and race both have a strong impact on the American Dream. For example, women suffer through the wage gap, and make 80% of what a man makes, however, for women of color, this gap tends to be even greater (Miller). The concentration of women in lower paying jobs leads to a lesser opportunity to choose their preferred career (Vox). A woman of Latina descent makes 55% of what a white male makes. Compared to the 60% that a woman of African American descent makes (O’Connor). To meet the expectations of the American Dream, you must be a man with white colored skin.

On an everyday bases people never think about the big dream. What dream people might ask? The American dream of course and how it got started and how it has changed from yesterday to today with jobs, houses, school, ownership and how we went back and not forward.

At the heart of this nation, in the core of its most fundamental principle, is the belief which states, “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.” It is here, in this declaration of freedom and prosperity, that the hearts of all those who dreamed of a better life were stirred. Likewise, it is a belief which has captured the minds of poets, writers, artists, and the media which has shaped the universal perception of this seemingly boundless dream—a dream that so champions individuality, but also creates a longing for acceptance. In truth, while the essence of this nation embodies a mixture of varying identities and cultures, it is also strife with internal conflict. Therefore, while this declaration trumpets equality, freedom, and prosperity, it was limited to a single group: white men, unshackled and unburdened, with the bounty of riches in land. In its inception, this limitation favored a single group, but as history progressed, it became apparently clear that these words held an omen. Throughout the history of this nation, the exclusivity of this dream would persist, and a tremendous chunk of its population would struggle to obtain it. In its simplest and most idealistic form, the American Dream is a powerful belief that all those in search of success may do so by hard work and determination. Immigrants across centuries who flocked in pursuit

The American dream is the desire of many students throughout the world for decades because of its strong economics and multicultural society. In other words, studying and living in this country is the dream of many international students. However, one of the most common problems that immigrant students face is dealing with the differences in culture and language. My family moved to the United States more than one year ago. As the time that I arrived in America, I felt overwhelmed, confused, unsure and uncomfortable about everything I was doing here since my biggest problem is the language barrier. As being a new immigrant student, I had gone through a lot of academic challenges, such as feelings of being lost, breaking the ice with my professor and maintaining my confidence to continue my future plans

Arthur Miller described those in pursuit of the American Dream as ‘ultimately misguided’. And in many ways, he was not far from the truth. In the American Dream, as described by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” In essence, success is the end goal. It doesn’t matter what one does, as long as they are successful. The main issue with this line of thinking is that one can lose sight of the important things in life in their pursuit of pure success. Similarly, if one’s goal is to win the lottery, and they fail to do that, they can become greatly frustrated, and they may even lose all hope. But is this the only end goal, the only indicator of happiness? Is this the only important thing in life? For many, the obvious answer would be ‘no.’ But even so, it is possible to become so wrapped up in a goal that you become blind to everything else. The same can be said for those chasing the American Dream. The scale and merit of success in a capitalistic view comes from having money and various material comforts, rather than nobility, honesty, and truth. Suddenly your values change, and you become blind.

One evening during a summer day while the moon was in mist of clouds, I remember waking up from a dream that left me in awe. The dream felt surreal and magical. I was in a place where everything seemed perfect, where hundreds of people with different cultures communicate with different languages. That dream was what I wanted for my future.

The “American Dream” is a concept of living that has been based in America. This concept dictates how everyone who lives in America should strive to have enough wealth so they can have a comfortable life. Immigrant-Americans try to reach the American Dream by gaining a mid-high income, living comfortably, owning a home, have a promising job, and having a loving family. What they are really doing is working towards the life they desire. At the same time they are seeking safety, health, happiness, and wealth.

First, since the nineteenth century, the American dream has been such a popular topic to discuss in American literature; based upon real, historical events that lead up to the American dream. The term, American dream started in 1931, when James Truslow Adams wrote a book called, The Epic of American. James Truslow Adams stated his ideal of the American dream in the book, through the idea of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776; “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they’re endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This comparison idea of what the American dream is evident when James Truslow Adam states, “The American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with the opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Regarding to any person’s race and regarding to the type of social class any person is designated. The American people have the opportunity to achieve anything desired; the freedom to prosperity, the freedom to building a successful; wealthy and hard working life. In order to achieve the “American dream,” we must not wait for it to come to us, because it won’t. We will never achieve the American dream if we wait for it to be handed to us. We have to be the change. We have to be original. For ourselves, we have to understand that the American dream