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Christian Torres
ENG-1A
Professor Sullivan
13 September 2016
The California Getaway: Where The American Dream Goes
The American Dream is the heart of American work ethic- work hard and save so that one may live
comfortably within their means and live happily. But those who work hard and find success tend to be upper
classed, cisgendered, heterosexual, white males; while those who arent are silently worked against. All the while,
the California Dream- although just as highly fanciful, has had an inherent inclusiveness since the birth of the ideal;
whereas instead of discluding minorities, it includes all who seek the California Dream in its high probability
against all odds. Since the times of the Gold Rush where California heavily marketed their state as one where
opportunity lies to people from nations all around, to the promising landscape and wondrous scenery to their own
country- California has declared itself a place where anyone can do anything and anything can happen. And
although either dreams seem to be a value to uphold, or sustain one can easily compare the two and find liberation,
individuality, and success within the California Dream than they would within its stringent counterpart.
The American Dream was build up on morals from the traditional lifestyle of the midwest. In essence, the
sense of community is what was derived from that lifestyle in every sense of the value. Community was created
through cooperation and judgement. In essence, both were used to measure who was part of the group and who was
not (Spooner 45). Strong sense of community is one had to have to share commonality with neighbors, the core
value of togetherness that FDR and like minded individuals shared and what made Americans, Americans. However,
with that community that includes a sense of judgement that one can argue are the societal values- such as but are
not limited to: womens expectations in society, racial issues and the severity, services for those economically inept.
The midwestern tendency to judge people when nativism was a force throughout the nation. Viewing anyone or
anything different as a threat to prevailing order was characteristic of both It isolated those did not conform to
various criteria, including the community norms of class, ethnicity, and religion. (Spooner 47)
The midwestern judgment is certainly one value that has been evident in the American dream even to this day; the
fact that groups against systemic oppression have existed since the birth of American government should speak
some truth into how attainable the American Dream really is for everyone. The suffrage movement, the abolitionist

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movement, black lives matter- all of these groups exist because the American Dream isnt quite attainable yet for
those groups.
A way for those to discredit those who claim is that the American Dream is unattainable is the vision of
hard work. The degree to which a person could be judged a hard worker, and adherence to traditional morals
such as honesty, were central elements of that code (Spooner 49). Ther arbitrary system of who can judge how
much someone works hard is a concept that set up the successor, who tend to be white males, to select who can
succeed and who cannot based on their experience. But not everyone has the same level of access to resourcesusually not of the fault of their own. Look around the neighboring areas in any given city and find that the areas that
have lower socio-economic standard of living have education and public services that match the area in which they
live in; whilst those who have higher socio-economic standard of living have cleaner, and newer areas. Lower
funding equals lower quality of education, living, and overall a worse chance at achieving their American Dream,
and these said lower economic areas tend to have non-white community members; vice versa for the higher
economic areas.
Enter California, an almost utopian area where the people could seek what the American Dream promised
at half the cost. The California Dream was the birthplace of diversity and and extravagancy; the Gold Rush in San
Francisco was a mass exodus of people coming from their homelands and their states seeking quick fame and
fortune. Every man who landed on this island was immediately devoured by these griffins; and although they had
enough, none the less would they seize them high up into the air with their flight (de Montalvo 32). The success and
the fortune that people had successfully earned in California, with little to no effort, brought them to a new status
that they pridefully carried with them, and who wouldnt give into the allure that riches with little to no effort could
be seizes here? But it went above the regular means of the American Dream; whereas the American Dream only
calls for living comfortably within the means of ones income (i.e house, car, and children), the California Dream
craves upon wanting whats bigger and better- or at least acting like as though already attained.Yet as the California
Dream succeeds in attracting ever greater numbers of people, the ability of California to fulfil its promises diminish
(Rawls 27). People coming to California means ones chances of becoming successful in this California Dream are
divided. California is a lottery, people dipping into the pool means less chance of someone winning the lottery.
Due to the shared probability of someone winning though, everyone essentially has the same chance of
winning- there are no criterion, no systemic barriers, and whether at a higher economic status or a lower one doesnt

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matter. The California Dream takes what the American Dream has and creates a freer environment to be. Images of
southern California as an escape from community in the Midwest, where judgements made about people on the basis
of class, ethnicity, religion, and adherence to traditional morals seemed to limit individuality (Spooner 52). The
California Dream doesnt discriminate against who can and who cannot achieve it considering the industries that
California harbors. Logistics, entertainment, technology, agriculture, and mining are industries that havent been
dominated by any one race- the entertainment industry here at Hollywood is another argument, however. And the
amount of people who left their old lives in order to risk their lives for the California Dream, and their reasons for
leaving, who they were, and what they did here come from multiple backgrounds from an oppressive society- and it
certainly cannot be said that California is oppressive inherently in the slightest.
The American Dream has not died or is unattainable, but it certainly has had problems with its ability to
provide the same access to everyone- and tended to serve those who were white males. However the California
Dream strips away any sort of privilege from any one background and culls everyone to the same begging status. It
may cynically optimistic about how the California Dream is executed- but the ability for everyone to be able to have
the same opportunity to succeed seems to be fair and accepting of when someone does achieve their California
Dream, than to limit ones chances of achieving their dream in the first place.