The American Dream. Background and development E-Book

Carolina Bricks

• Herausgeber: GRIN Publishing
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Pre-University Paper from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, , language: English, abstract: Probably everybody has heard about it, being legendary and part of many people's lives: the American Dream. But is it really a dream? A myth, an Illusion, we wake up from – disappointing and simply untrue? Or is it reality? This question is answered through many points dealing with the issue. This paper defines the term "American Dream" and shows how the dream might have developed, examines the biographies of famous representatives, such as Martin Luther King and deals with the resulting massive immigration to the US in the past and today, giving deep insights into America´s history and showing the present day American Dream.

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Introduction:

“American Dreams are strongest in the hearts of those who have seen America only in their dreams.”[1] (4.)

This is a quotation made by Pico Iyer, a British-born travel writer, novelist and essayist. (5.) In his opinion, those people, who live outside America and who do not know much about this country and the American Dream, are the people who believe most in it. He has got the view that the American Dream is nothing you can rely on and that reality is completely different from the cliché. That it is not as easy as people might think, to build up a good life from nothing except hard work, only because you are in America. But is he right? (47, 1, 2 ,3)

Imagine the following situation: One of those people, who do not know much about America and see the American Dream through rose tinted lenses goes to America. He hopes for a better life, wanting to become rich and happy. Will he be disappointed by reality? Or is Pico Iyer right and will he be able to build up a good life?

The American Dream is a term that is very known. Many people believe, that you can become rich and happy, if you work hard and if you have got a strong will. (47, 1, 2 ,3) I am very interested in the country of the US and also in society. So in my skilled work, I would like to occupy myself with the topic “American Dream“. First of all, I want to know what the American Dream exacly is, because this is an important basic information. I am also interested in the question, how the dream has developed. I know, that the American Dream leads and led to massive immigration to the US, so I want to find out more about immigration in the past and the big waves of it and also about immigration today. Are there many people, who have or had made their American Dreams come true? Or is Pico Iyer right with his opinion, that reality looks completely different from peoples´ hopes? Does the American Dream still exist? Are there problems through (illegal) immigration? And how does legal regulation look like? The answers to all these questions should help me to find out whether the American Dream is a myth or reality. I think, I will be able to find a lot of information according to my topic on the internet and in books. The first point of my skilled work deals with the term “American Dream“. The information I get should help me to establish a clear definition for the American Dream and to find out when and by whom the term was used first. My second point is “Some famous representatives of the American Dream“. I would like to introduce Martin Luther King and Chris Gardner to the readers, wanting to give some information about their lives and how they lived the American Dream. My third point deals with the question, how that thinking could have developed. I would like to find out something about the first myths and imaginations according to America as well. My fourth point are the big waves of immigration in the past, while point five deals with the question of how the American Dream looks like today and with today´s immigration. And another interesting question is: How does legal regulation look like? My final point is a conclusion and an own statement towards the main question I want to answer: Is the American Dream a myth or reality?

Contents:

Introduction:

1. The term “American Dream“

1.1. Definition: What is the American Dream?

1.2. When and by whom was the term used first?

2. Some famous representatives of the American Dream

2.1. Martin Luther King:

2.2. Chris Gardner:

3. How could the American Dream have developed?

3.1. Foundation myths :

3.2. The Declaration of Independence:

4. Immigration to the US in past and the tidal waves of immigration

5. The American Dream today

5.1. Is the American Dream still alive?

5.2. Imigration today:

5.3. Illegal immigration

5.4. Legal regulation of immigration

6. Conclusion and my own statement towards the question whether the American Dream is a myth or reality

7. Sources:

1. The term “American Dream“

1.1. Definition: What is the American Dream?

It is difficult to define the term “American Dream“, because everyone understands something else under it. But at the core, the American Dream consists of the notion that a person can achieve his or her goals and improve his or her position in life, if he or she works hard. Everybody has the chance to have success, independently from sex, skin colour, religion and origin. There are many different ideas in American peoples´ minds when they have to talk about the American Dream. For some of them, the American Dream is the dream of fame and wealth. They believe that anyone can become rich, successful and respected if he or she works hard and if he or she is able to deal with his or her savings. There is also the idea to work one´s way up, starting without any money. For others it is the dream of a fulfilling, happy and simple life. The American Dream does not always refer to material or financial goods. For some people it is the dream of feedom and equal rights. An example for that thinking is Martin Luther King ( see point 2.1.). The dream is seen as a quality, every person is born with- whether born in America or not. The dream leads and led to massive emigration to America. (B1, 1,2,3)

1.2. When and by whom was the term used first?

The first one who used the term “American Dream“ was the historian James Truslow Adams. He used it in his book “The Epic of America“, which was published in 1931. In his book, he writes about how America´s national story was created and about what was represented by it “in the first half of the twentieth century“(8). He writes about the historical origins of different characteristics, people consider “typically American“, for example the American concept of “bigger and better“, the Americans´ attitudes towards business and also about the American Dream. In the book the term “American Dream“ is used to “describe complex beliefs, religious promises and political and social expectations“ (8). The dream wasn´t Adam´s idea. That thinking had already existed, but the term “American Dream“ became an expression for it. (B2, 3, 6, 7, 8)

2. Some famous representatives of the American Dream

2.1. Martin Luther King:

“I have a dream.“ (48)

Martin Luther King was born on January 15th in 1929 in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia. His mother worked as a teacher and his father was a Baptist parson. Martin Luther King was black and was already confronted with racial segregation when he was a child. Until the 60s, black people and white people had no equal rights in the US. There was racial segregation in public transport and public buildings, for example, there were separated schools, hotels and restaurants. There were separated signs for wite and coloured people in toilets, on benches and in waiting rooms. White people also had a better income and better living conditions. (B3, 10)

When Martin was young, he saw Ku Klux Clan members appearing at night frightening the black people. He saw how brutal the police treated the blacks and how unfair they were treated by court. He knew towns and villages, where they were even killed. When he was a little child, he played with two white children every day. One day he was said, they could not play with him any more. Even as a child, he already had the following opinion: racial segregation was not fair. (B3)

Martin Luther King was a good student and in 1944, he started to study sociology at Morehouse college. There, he read Thoreau´s essay “Resistance to Civil Government“. He was fascinated by the thinking of not to support a bad social system. When he entered the Crozer Theological seminary after competing his undergraduated work at morehouse in 1948, he started very intensive research. He wanted to know, how to fight social evils. He studied Aristoteles, Plato, Rosseau, Hobbes, Mill, Locke, and Rauschenbusch. He also read Karl Marx, but he did not like the idea of communism. In November 1949, he listened a lecture by J.A. Muste, that introduced him to pacifism. His doubts of the effecs of a resistance without violence were taken away, when he was explained the thesis of Mahatma Gandhi. He bought books about Gandhi´s life and his work. He also studied Niebuhr, who criticized pacifism, but Martin Luther King still believed in the efficience of peaceful resistance.(B3)

In September 1951, King finished his studies in theology. He went to Boston University, where he started to work on his dissertation, where he was encouraged in his pacifistic thinking by his teachers. In June 1953, Martin Luther King married his wife Coretta Scott. They had four children. Even before Martin Luther King received his Ph. D., he had started to work as parson in Montgomery. (B3, 10)

One of King´s first successes according to the fight against racial segregation was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 5th Rosa Parks, an African American woman refused to give her bus seat to a white person. She was arrested. This led to a bus boycott. Some black people decided to boycott all the buses of Montgomery and they requested all black people to do that. The MIA, an organisation to improve racist relations was founded. Martin Luther King became its president and the leader of the boycott. After one year of resistane, arrests and even an attempt on setting fire on Martin Luther´s house, the black people won. The highest court of Alabama decided, that the bus-segregation was unconstitutional. (12)