Hope O'Malley

Mr. Smith

Junior Lit

8 September 2022

American Dream Carousel

Since America was founded, the idea of “The American Dream” has gone through lots of

change. Beginning with a dream of equality and freedom for white men to be able to become

financially successful and have a ‘picture perfect family’. Later the idea became to protect

American freedoms as World War I, II , and the cold war challenged those ideas, and provoked

fear by showing countries that had failed to honor those ideas. Later protests from minorities

showed how the American Dream purposefully excluded a large portion of Americans, changing

the country's views on equality. After changing views on what the “American Dream” means to

everyone, laws and societal standards changed. As technology has increased in the country, the

American dream has been seen as “lost” or “discarded” by the newer generation. Although the

American Dream is undoubtedly viewed differently now as opposed to 80 years ago, I believe

the idea of the promise of success in America is still alive in younger generations. Technology

and the spread of information has shown everyone the true highs and lows of the country and the

harsh reality many face. Because of this polarity between political parties has increased and

challenged the ideas of how this country has been built, and how it is run now. Even though this

change has caused short term chaos, I believe it will improve the countries ideals and truly define

what “The American Dream” means.