American Dream Myth Essay

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“I have learned this, at least, from my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” This is a quote from Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I believe this can be applied to the American Dream. The American Dream is something that many strive after and set their goals based on this dream. It is the dream of freedom, opportunity and equality. However, some believe that this dream is a myth. They argue that this dream does not exist and is just false hope instigated by dreamers. I believe that the American Dream is a reality that allows people to pursue and achieve whatever they can dream, but it still has flaws …show more content…
Starting with first immigrants to the Americas, people have treated each other with contempt in order to achieve what we now call the American Dream. Native American populations were slaughtered for land as well as things as trivial as their skin color. Many would argue that the Native Americans never got the opportunity to pursue what they deemed to be their dream and were forced to pursue a Europeanized dream that would have never been their own. The government issued horrors of things such as the trail of tears, display to the fullest extent the fact that not all Americans in history were free to …show more content…
However, most if not all of those who originally came to the United States were shipped here forcefully, not by their own will. Not only could they not achieve the American Dream, but their enslavement was a byproduct of the American Dream. Part of the American Dream is the freedom to seek prosperity to the maximum. In order to make money in those days, they had to produce crop and they saw that they did not have enough hands to do the work. This desire for more wealth and the overwhelming greed caused Americans to see a need for slaves. In order for the Americans to accomplish their goals, the lives and dreams of the slaves had to be revoked. The American Dream had potential to be an amazing thing for all, but it is evident in history that not everyone has gotten to have this dream just because they lived in the United States. The American Dream was twisted and distorted by greed and human

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