Ryan Cedergren

The American Dream

The American dream is the idea that every American has the right to pursue their own

happiness. This was the dream of many American citizens and immigrants that came to pursue

a new life in the US. I believe that this idea was possible to achieve, but was hard for many,

especially in the early 1900s. Because of the amount of power big business owners had in the

economy, many people had a hard time escaping the agriculture life. The ideal economic

situation is a free trade market, which is stated in the Declaration. It is the idea that each man

should be looked at equally and have an equal opportunity to succeed in the US. I do believe

that this is possible to do today because many people have achieved it, and others are

achieving it everyday. For instance, take professional athletes. They work their whole teenage

years to become a player in the big leagues, and when that happens it is what they have been

working to achieve. A similar situation would be people in the music business. They work to get

signed to a record label or have a big hit in music and many succeed, but a much larger amount

do not. This is because of the media and social networking along with people running record

labels and choosing who they think is up next. The idea that your destiny is determined by

other people above you is sort of a counter to the American dream especially because in the

NBA and other professional sports it’s the teams that pick you, not you just deciding to play in

the NBA. However, because it is the person by themselves working towards that goal, they are

ultimately the ones who determine where they will end up through hard work. During the early

20th century this was an exceptionally hard task because if you were doing cheap labor it is very
hard to escape the poverty and make it up to a better job that gives you happiness. That also

ties in with today’s society in the fact that if you live in poverty you will have a hard time

making it out, especially as an adult. In the end though, it is said that the American dream is the

idea that any citizen can pursue happiness, so if someone is happy in America with what they

have, they have achieved the American dream.

https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-american-dream-quotes-and-history-3306009

https://www.johnhancock.com/articles/the-american-dream-in-modern-society.html