What is "The American Dream"?

Answer 1

The chance to excel to the level of ones own ambition.

Answer 2

Although I'm Canadian I am bombarded by the American media my understanding is that the American dream is that any American, either born and bred there or not, can be financially successful and happy if they work hard enough. They can have a great education, a successful career, the family with 2.3 children and the house in the nice neighbourhood in the suburbs, and the 2-3 cars and all the lovely electronic appliances, toys and gadgets that go along with it and take two vacations per year and keep up with the Jones in general and have something to brag about to the relatives in their annual Christmas family newsletter.

Answer 3

Have you ever read the "Great Gatsby"? That book is all about 'The American Dream'.

Basically it is the belief that one can be rich in America. That one can prosper so much that his life will be forever changed (for the better). They can live luxuriously and be carefree..when actually, it just makes life depressing.

"The American Dream is the faith held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage, and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations. What the American Dream has become is a question under constant discussion, and some believe that it has led to an emphasis on material wealth as a measure of success and/or happiness."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream

Answer 4

I am the American Dream

Answer 5

The American Dream is working hard to get exactly what you want out of life. It is the "American" dream because it is the only country where you can achieve anything you want to achieve in life.

Answer 6

What is the American Dream?
The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream is "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. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (p.214-215)

In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: "…held certain 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." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream?

Were homesteaders who left the big cities of the east to find happiness and their piece of land in the unknown wilderness pursuing these inalienable Rights? Were the immigrants who came to the United States looking for their bit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their Dream? And what did the desire of the veteran of World War II - to settle down, to have a home, a car and a family - tell us about this evolving Dream? Is the American Dream attainable by all Americans? Would Martin Luther King feel his Dream was attained? Did Malcolm X realize his Dream?

Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their family’s survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.

Thomas Wolfe said, "…to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity ….the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him."

Is this your American Dream?

Answer 7

Used to be a house with a white picket fence, wife that stayed home with 2 kids, a car and a dog.
It has slowly changed into getting rich without really working at it.
It has also become the American Way to live beyond your means

Answer 8

The American Dream is the ability to have NOTHING(immigrant/or poor people) but because of the freedoms that America allows be able to make something of yourself...........either through hard work, education or talent.

Answer 9

Freedom

Answer 10

The American Dream is that anyone, of any race or sex, can be succesful.

Answer 11

In school, I learned that it was having a family of 2-3 kids, owning your own house, car, and stuff like that. Like the Johnson family.