The American Dream, Accessible or Not?
The All-American family with the wife, the husband, one boy and one girl, the steady income, the nice house, the two-car garage, the family pet, perhaps a Golden Retriever, and of course the white picket fence: all included in what many Americans believe as the "American dream", where life is good, life is comfortable. But is this dream accessible? Can you have this convenient lifestyle? Or is it just that, a dream, a fantasy, a myth? The idea that virtues of hard work and ambition will only lead you to success has become a part of many Americans' mentalities. Yet there are also those who do not believe in it. These people lacking faith, believe that factors such as discrimination and unequal opportunities provide barriers to one's chance of reaching this "American dream". While others believe anything is possible with determination and overcoming obstacles. If kids once living in poverty and in slums can becomes lawyers or doctors, if an immigrant can become California's governor, if handicapped kids can play basketball, if ordinary people can become extraordinary people, then the American Dream is quite possible. Though fate, chance, and luck have a lot to do with one's success, so does willpower, the control of on
Where you feel as if you are being racially profiled, where people stereotype you to have ice cream trucks, drive taxis, or own "quik-e-marts" like "Apu" from the Simpson's, it is tough, but obstacles, only make me want to try harder to succeed. Because one drinks Starbuck's everyday or one shops at Nordstrom's frequently, maybe they have a nice cell phone or shiny car, you might think they were affluent people, but often times it is an illusion. As Hamblin says he draws his strength from the heartbeat of America (Hamblin 382), so do I. If "the white majority has supported legislation that makes the American Dream truly accessible to all black citizens" then why is it not being seized? Many minorities are to busy feeling sorry for themselves, feeling oppressed. I would like to believe that the American Dream is accessible in order to motivate me to reach it. Some Americans have set their expectations so high that it has become to difficult to achieve, which causes many to give up on the American Dream. (Mantsios 333) Those are the myths however, the realities show that there are "enormous differences in the economic status of American citizen"and that "the middle class in the United States holds a very small share of the nation's wealth, and its income is declining. Is it everyone's desire to have a mansion, limo, and sparkling swimming pool? Or is it enough that you have a stable job and a loving, supporting spouse? Depending on what your definition of the "American Dream" is, it is up to you reach the goals you set, and the fantasy you hope for. America, being the naive country it can be, likes to believe that the United States is a classless society, that we are a middle class nation, we are all becoming more and more wealthier, and that everyone has an equal chance to succeed. "At last count, nearly 35 million American across the nation lived in unrelenting poverty. "If they can do it, why can't we?" is the attitude of some, while others still argue "There is no way. Though there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor, there is still chance to bridge that gap, or if not, become a part of the so-called "upper-class". In regards to equal opportunity, Mantsios argues that class affects ones lifestyle and chance at success: "Even ignoring the extreme poles of the economic spectrum, we find enormous class differences in the life-style among the haves, the have-nots, and the have-littles. Hamblin's counterpart to "white trash", "black trash" is just as evident in American society.
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Acceptance Essays
