The American Dream The concept of “rags to riches” has been around since the mid-1800s. Many people used to believe that the social class people were born into did not necessarily determine their life’s path. A great example of the American Dream is Andrew Carnegie. Andrew began as a poor Irish immigrant, and went on to almost monopolize the American steel industry. Proving the fact that determination and work allow every-day people to achieve their dreams. The American Dream was once an idea that anyone could become anything with hard work, but now it has become a vague concept of getting rich with no work that is almost impossible to achieve. The majority of today’s society relies on pecuniary hand-outs to get them along in life. This
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People will do whatever makes them ultimately more successful in the end. This raises a question: is the American Dream even worth it? I think that the poem entitled Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson says that no, it is not. In the end of the poem a man named Richard Cory, who is seen as a virtual god by the people below him, shoots himself in the head. What reason would he have for committing suicide if he was rich and successful? My thought is that Richard was so lonely and guilty for stepping on people to get to the top, that he couldn’t live with himself. The narrator of the poem, which is essentially the middle and lower classes, work and starve to try and reach his level of wealth. These people show no signs of unhappiness except for their empty stomachs, whereas Richard has everything he could ever want and still is the saddest of them all. So it would seem that the American Dream isn’t necessarily succeeding, but having a major goal to convince your mind that you are accomplishing something. Maybe the stereotype of everyone living in identical houses that line up in pretty little rows is the ultimate goal. Perhaps the real dream is learning to be content with what you have, and putting the idea of vertical corporate progression in the back of your
People will do whatever makes them ultimately more successful in the end. This raises a question: is the American Dream even worth it? I think that the poem entitled Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson says that no, it is not. In the end of the poem a man named Richard Cory, who is seen as a virtual god by the people below him, shoots himself in the head. What reason would he have for committing suicide if he was rich and successful? My thought is that Richard was so lonely and guilty for stepping on people to get to the top, that he couldn’t live with himself. The narrator of the poem, which is essentially the middle and lower classes, work and starve to try and reach his level of wealth. These people show no signs of unhappiness except for their empty stomachs, whereas Richard has everything he could ever want and still is the saddest of them all. So it would seem that the American Dream isn’t necessarily succeeding, but having a major goal to convince your mind that you are accomplishing something. Maybe the stereotype of everyone living in identical houses that line up in pretty little rows is the ultimate goal. Perhaps the real dream is learning to be content with what you have, and putting the idea of vertical corporate progression in the back of your