The American Dream Essay Example

📌Category: American dream, Philosophy
📌Words: 566
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 25 March 2021

Do you consider the American Dream to have a nice car and to own your own home? The American Dream according to the Declaration of Independence states: “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.” While we as Americans claim, “one nation, under God” thinking that we are a nation when a nation is defined as “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.” None of us share any of that. But the American Dream is more about money and what you own but rather a place where you come to be respected, to share what you believe in while not being viewed as different. 

What is the definition of different and how might it make us, the people view the American Dream from a different perspective? According to Webster's Dictionary different means partly or unlike in nature, form, or quality. In other words, different means dissimilar or almost nothing alike.  Those who are different according to the definition are not allowed to “fit” into the American Dream when in all honesty, we are all different making the American Dream false to those who think being different means you can’t be a part of something. Being different is what this country is founded on, the whole “one nation, under God” is then a joke because we are not a nation because we are all different making us who we are. 

We as a county find ourselves from what we own to what we don’t have, or how that person has more money than that person. But it doesn't have to be about who has what. In the book Epic of America by James Truslow Adams defines the American Dream as "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." When we see that the American Dream is about being better and starting over, we see less competition and more friendships, more equality without riots, or being put down for having nothing when we all were there without knowing it. We don’t have to be defined for what you own but for how you view others. 

No matter who you are, what you believe in, or what you look like we can all live the American Dream. When you look up the American Dream you can get different answers to the same question. American Dream according to the dictionary means to have a good and successful life through hard work, but to an immigrant it might mean to have a new start and to live a different life from what they had known. But no matter what, the American Dream has many definitions, so anyone can live in it with their own opinion of what it means. 

The American Dream isn’t just about what you own but rather a place to be respected, to share what you believe in while not being viewed as different. We can see it as all of us being different, none of us are the same. While those who try to fit it can’t because we won’t see how different from them as we are to others. It’s more about who has what and competing with each other to show we are better than one another. Then who you are no matter how you are viewed, can live in the American Dream by your definition not by the person beside you.

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