American Dream Is Success Essay

Success is defined as both, “the attainment of popularity or profit” and, “a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.” As a child, most everyone dreams of becoming rich and owning everything they could ever want. This dream is most often referred to as the “American Dream”. While everyone’s perception of this so called “dream” may differ, the one cultivating factor is reaching a higher level of success from where they started. Today, there are three main features of this dream. The most significant aspects of the American Dream today include earning a respectable income, achieving success through hard work, and owning valuable possessions. The first aspect of the American Dream includes how much money you …show more content…
Children born into successful families grow up receiving anything they want; however, when they grow they realize they must work for these possessions and often times struggle to earn these on their own. The crave to own such items is often criticized, as Sitting Bull, the leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux tribe, writes, “Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.” Bull compares the love of possessions to a deathly disease. The most significant aspects of the American Dream today include earning a respectable income, achieving success through hard work, and owning valuable possessions. Among these traits, earning a high income may be the most valued by Americans. Almost every child dreams about achieving success. Everyone wants to own fancy cars, luxurious homes, the latest technology, and the most expensive clothes. The key to achieving all of this comes through years of hard work, and once you have reached a higher level of success from where you started, you have in some way reached your