American Dream A Dream Unreachable for the Lower Class

Hilaire 1 Antonia jean Professor Irizarry ENC1102 1 November 2020 American Dream: A Dream Unreachable for the Lower Class Every year millions of people immigrate to the United States pursing a better life. The United States one of the most powerful country in the world is also known as the country of opportunities. The concept of American Dream had changed so much that its existence had been questioned by many of us. Trump the actual president of the nation had mentioned that the American Dream is dead, and he will bring it back bigger and better if he ever elected to run the White House. The country immigrates millions of people from different part of the world that share one thing in common, the famous American Dream. Besides of the question mark that follow the existence of the American Dream, the concept has changed and the percentage of people living in poverty make it harder to believe in such dream. Although some people believe on an American Dream that is accessible for everyone, the lower class is living a nightmare where that same dream is unreachable. The American Dream has becoming part essential of our life. Adams on his book Epic of America defines the American Dream as a land where life would be better, richer, fuller for everyone with opportunity conforming to ability or achievement. Thomas Jefferson asserted in the constitution of the United States that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The country offers the opportunity to make fortune for everyone through hard work, and perseverance. Even though the American Dream differs from one to another depends on Hilaire 2 their dreams, the concept is supposed to offer the same opportunity of success to everyone that wants to improve their situation. While every year millions of people leave their country to immigrate to the United States pursuing a better life, the lower class are still pursuing a dream that is more absent than real. The percentage of the American population that live in poverty increase considerably the last couple of year. The lower class is living a life where the American Dream seems either absence or unreachable. The U.S. Census Bureau on its recent year of study reported that one out of seventh Americans were living poverty. Works Cited AuthorLastName, FirstName. Title of the Book Being Referenced. City Name: Name of Publisher, Year. Type of Medium (e.g. Print). LastName, First, Middle. “Article Title.” Journal Title (Year): Pages From – To. Print. A. Irizarry ENC 1102/Palm Beach State College Prompt for Paper One During his 2016 campaign, now-President Donald Trump boldly proclaimed, “The American Dream is dead…but if I [am] elected President, I will bring it back, bigger and better than ever!” As we have discussed during the first few weeks of class, the American Dream is a complicated subject – and whether or not it even existed in the first place is certainly up for debate. Our first readings are designed to give you an idea about the complex relationship between the ideal (or even myth) of the American Dream and poverty. As we have learned in our readings, the poor have always been an integral part of American society, and what to do about poverty in America has long been the work of intellectual and religious leaders, politicians, and advocates. And, as we are learning, the relationship between the ideal of the American Dream and the reality of poverty in America has yet to be reconciled. Your first assignment is to create an argument about the relevance or importance (or lack thereof) of the American Dream. You are required to quote from or refer to at least two of the readings from class, but you can also use your own experiences and beliefs. Questions for consideration: these are designed to help you think about your argument, but you are not required to answer all of them (or, even, any of them). What is the American Dream? (It is HIGHLY recommended that you contrast James Truslow Adams’s definition with our typical definition of the American Dream being hard work and money = success and happiness.) https://up.atavist.com/up#chapter155117 Was the American Dream ever possible, or has it always been a myth? If it was possible, is it possible now? If not, what factors have changed? What role does idealism and/or American exceptionalism play in the American Dream? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism Does the American Dream ignore the fact that huge portions of the American population live in poverty? Why is the American Dream such a powerful concept in America? Special Note: You are required to quote directly from at least two of the readings and use those quotations as evidence towards your argument. These quotations must be properly cited in MLA format. Learning to use quotations from texts and MLA are requirements for this course. Please do not use additional sources from outside of the class readings or films. Paper Requirements • The minimum word count requirement for this paper is 800 words, or just over three pages. This does not include the paper heading or the Works Cited page. Please put the word count at the end of your paper to make sure that you have reached the required word count. You can go over the required word count, but it will not guarantee you a better grade. • All papers must be typed and submitted through our Blackboard grade center in .doc or .docx format. No other formats will be accepted. • All citations, in-text and on your Works Cited page, must be in correct MLA format. Your papers must also be formatted according to current MLA standard. This is available in the Bedford Handbook or online at the Purdue OWL website. • Papers will be submitted electronically and returned electronically. I will send clear instructions via email on how to submit papers, view grades, and view comments in the newest edition of Microsoft Word. • Drafts for papers are optional. If you would like me to look at your draft, please schedule an appointment with me during my office hours. • I reserve the right to penalize late papers. Please try to turn in your work on time so that you will not fall behind and risk failure of the course. If you are having trouble with your paper, please schedule an appointment with me and/or the Writing Center. Student 1 Totally Awesome Student Professor Irizarry ENC1102 09 July 2017 The American Dream and What it Means For almost ninety years the idea of the American dream has inspired the disadvantaged and weak to work hard for the dreams. It is, after all, one of the oldest ideals of the United States that through hard work, self-sacrifice, and discipline anyone can achieve success in this country. For as long as this notion has existed there has been a raging debate over the specifics. Some believe that it may have existed once but has since been sacrificed in the name of profit margins; There is also an argument that it never existed in the first place and was instead a ruse to elicit labor from the poorest of citizens and immigrants. This paper seeks to define and explore the American Dream while also trying to understand why this concept has become so prevalent in the culture of the United States. As with most details pertaining to this subject there is a debate around the exact definition of the American Dream. This paper will refer to what is most likely the original definition. The phrase was first coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931 and he defined it as the “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”. This definition focuses on one’s own abilities as the vehicle by which a person can improve their situation. Based on this, all ablebodied adults who are willing to put forth the effort should be able to improve their circumstances and personal wealth. This version of the American Dream is what has inspired Student 2 millions of people from all over the world to leave their home countries behind and migrate thousands of miles to the United States. It has also served to give hope to the poorest American citizens that their situations are not permanent and through determination they can achieve the financial stability and comfortable life experienced by those in the upper classes. Whether this concept is true is another debate entirely. While the definition of the American Dream clearly states that all people who come to the United States should enjoy the same opportunities based solely on their skills and hard work, this may not be the case. In many cases a person can be prevented from advancement not because of any fault of their own, but instead because of their gender, race, or ethnicity. In John Iceland’s “Poverty in America: A Handbook” he explains that African Americans in the Jim Crow era southern United States were legally barred from most of the career options that would pay them enough to escape poverty. Instead they were forced to work as sharecroppers or in other forms of manual labor which paid insufficient wages for long, hard hours. This type of work meant that any kind of economic advancement and securing proper education for one’s children was impossible; this ensured that generations of African Americans would remain in this vicious cycle of poverty. Immigrants often experienced similar disenfranchisement when they arrived to the United States. In large, industrially advanced cities in the late nineteenth and twentieth century Immigrants were used as pseudo-slave labor in factories and construction jobs. They were paid meager wages, worked long hours, and could only afford to live in disease-ridden tenement buildings. Their children didn’t receive an education but instead worked in factories for wages that were even lower than their parents. Despite the long, hard hours that immigrants worked they saw no real path out of poverty. The history of African Americans and immigrants appear to Student 3 directly contradict the promises of the American Dream: that through hard work and determination you can be successful in this country. While there are definitely flaws in the logic of the American Dream, there are many who argue that is still attainable. For many immigrants from third world countries, poverty in the United States is a marked improvement over the conditions in their home country. While there might not be much chance for upward mobility, many immigrants to this country have an easier time finding jobs, have much better living conditions, and have a much higher chance of securing a good education for their children then they would in their country of origin. Even though these first-generation immigrants sometimes live in extreme poverty, the lowest socioeconomic classes in the United States still live in better conditions than the poor in many areas of the world. According to Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield in their article “Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today” the average American poor family has many modern amenities that can make living here very comfortable. Most households below the poverty line had television, air conditioning, kitchen appliances, and many other conveniences that are considered necessities in this country but may be luxuries to many poor immigrants. With this in mind we can see that the American Dream could very well be true for many of these immigrants. The American Dream is not an easy concept to understand, even if one knows more or less what it stands for. It can mean different things for different people, and its level of attainability changes depending on one’s individual circumstances. For some it’s the height of American idealism, and for others it’s a mockery of what this country pretends to stand for. The American Dream is not dead, but it also isn’t alive and well. It’s the same as it has always been: A formality for some, and an impossibility for others. Student 4 Works Cited Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company, 1931. Iceland, John. Poverty in America. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003. Rector, Robert and Rachel Sheffield. “Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today.” Heritage Foundation 19 July 2011. …