Brooks 1

Miranda Brooks

Professor Casey Flores

English 1201

27 April 2019

Fig. 1. The stratified layers of the American Dream. Google Images. Accessed 22 April 2019.
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The American Dream

The American dream is seemingly both intrinsically and indelibly impressed upon on our

actions for purpose— with an inherent sense of equity, or so we hope. The individualistic culture

of America leads the pursuit of happiness down a narrow, rather insular course. Yet the

ingrained ethos boasts inclusive measures making the American dream the proverbial carrot. The

American dream is a symbol of our nation’s core values; it provides aspirational promise to

global citizens. In some ways, the American Dream is defended as a collective front for the

pursuit of our unalienable rights. But the sentiment of its fluid definitions seems essentially

personal. As we come full-circle with the many iterations of the American dream, the question is

not whether the dream itself exists rather how it is defined by those who long for it. Therefore,

the definition of the American Dream is subjective, based on standpoint and perception, and

impacted by politics and economics.

The actual phrase, the American dream, rose to popularity in 1931, when writer James

Adams wrote The Epic of America, where he explained:

“…that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and

fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or

achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to

interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and

mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a

dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain

to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by

others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or

position" (Adams, p. 214-215).

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This particularly charming, idyllic landscape was and is the basis for immigration,

emigration, and acculturation into American society. In her book, In America, from an

immigrant’s perspective, Susan Sontag wrote, “American is meant to mean everything.” (Sontag,

p. 74) The national and international attention given to the American dream creates a public

forum for scrutiny. So too does it create a varying, layered perspective of definition. If America

is meant to mean everything, then the American dream is as expansive as imagination allows. Or

is it?

Through the many years, the American Dream has been reinvented. In its original

iteration, the American Dream was morally, not materialistically guided. As capitalism grew,

political influence framed status by the collection of things (i.e. houses, cars, etc.). Now, as the

Trump administration defends the equation that the American dream means money, more and

more people are identifying with the original version of the American dream that equals human

connection and community. In a 2019 survey conducted by political scientist Samuel J. Abrams

and American Enterprise Institute, 2,411 Americans were surveyed about their attitudes toward

community and society (Abrams). The authors and researchers delivered their data in an opinion

piece called The American Dream Is Alive and Well published in The New York Times. The

surprising response was a definition that described “having the freedom of choice in how to live”

(Abrams). The surprise came because traditional attributes of the American Dream were not

present in the responses: wealth, status, material possessions. Those surveyed cited experiences

and community as being high priorities in living their best lives. The data showed that cynicism

and apathy regarding the American Dream was absent. The sample survey highlighted the neatly

placed application of the American Dream into each life of those represented, where their
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perceptions were manifested through the paths they chose as guided by their American Dream

definition.

When it comes to success and perception, Courtney Martin writes The New Better Off:

Reinventing the American Dream to discuss by what standards does it mean for future

generations to be ‘better off.” Many people may point to the hope of living a life better than that

of their parents. But a reinvented American dream takes the shape of our own defining

meditations. Martin pointedly says, “That’s the thing about success… it’s only satisfying if it’s

defined by you and influenced most deeply by the people you love and trust” (Martin). If you are

living someone else’s dream, can you ever be content when you reach the goal? The dominant

narrative therefore becomes obsolete. The American Dream is, in essence, that personally-

defined success where the qualifier is your own perception. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is

evident here. The self-actualized state is made better when the peak is situated by the perceiver.

But what if that peak is forever out of reach?

In A Field Guide to Getting Lost, author Rebecca Solnit describes the unattainable. “For

many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of

horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color

of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of

where you are not. And the color of where you can never go. For the blue is not in the place

those miles away at the horizon, but in the atmospheric distance between you and the mountains”

(Solnit). The longing of what Solnit describes is perhaps what it means to be human. But in

application, the American Dream is like the blue of the horizon that can never be touched. Seen

only from a distance, and when arrived upon, becomes the next horizon yet.
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In a recent interview with Congo-born Saleh Asumani, the perception of the American

Dream from an immigrant’s standpoint is tremendous. The information gleaned from the

interview describes how a geographically distant perception of the American Dream changes

shape when actualized firsthand. In fact, Asumani points to the abundant fluidity of the

American Dream as basis for its global perceptions and subsequent misconceptions. For

example, Asumani explains how an African family of five may live on less than two dollars a

day. When that family is given the chance at a life in America, they will, without hesitation, take

the opportunity to leave all they know behind. And most of their hopes are based on their current

perceptions of the American Dream, for better or worse. It is clear that Asumani is speaking from

experience. “Everyone wants a piece of the pie,” he says. From afar, the American Dream

represents immediate relief. But when Asumani arrived in America, he thought “now what?”

Culture shock set in when Asumani witness rampant homelessness in Washington, D.C. “Back

home, in Congo, only crazy people sleep outside! I had to ask myself, ‘am I really in America?’”

Asumani says, “The American Dream is hard; just because it exists does not mean it will provide

you with a better life.” Asumani works as a civil servant for local government for the City of

Dayton’s department of Finance. Having lived in American for twenty years now, Asumani

halfway jokes about his re-formed perception of the American Dream. “My family calls from

Congo when they need money. I tell them I don’t have enough for every time they call. They

don’t believe me. They say, ‘you live in America! What do you mean you don’t have enough

money?’ They don’t understand because they only know what they think life is like here”

(Brooks). Asumani’s standpoint as an immigrant provides insights on the aspirational nature of

the American Dream. The definition for him has changed through achievement, where it is not as
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easy as he once thought. The result supports the notion that the definition of the American

Dream relies on who is providing such definition.

Fig. 2. The upward mobility of the American Dream is in question. Google Images. Accessed 20 April 2019.

Inequality is set aside as a condition of the American dream, where the foundation for

opportunity is more of a challenge when considering the American dream’s perceived guarantee

of upward movement. The idea of fairness is raised when privilege is an undeniable factor of the

American Dream. Where, in terms of disparity, the American dream may not be as financially

mobile as the world perceives. Recent studies suggest that there is less economic mobility in the

United States than has long been presumed (Economic Mobility Project). Federal Reserve

chairman Ben Bernanke recently noted:

Although we Americans strive to provide equality of economic opportunity,

we do not guarantee equality of economic outcomes, nor should we. Indeed,

without the possibility of unequal outcomes tied to differences in effort and skill,

the economic incentive for productive behavior would be eliminated, and our
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market-based economy — which encourages productive activity primarily

through the promise of financial reward — would function far less effectively.

That lack of guarantee for the promise of financial reward is crucial for rightsizing perceptions

versus actual realities of the American Dream. We hope we all have equal opportunity. In fact,

the American dream gives basis for the chance to merely hope for success, but that notion, again,

does not guarantee any certain results. From the essay Another, more beautiful America is rising,

author Rebecca Solnit says, “The time when you don’t need hope is when your hopes have been

fulfilled. Hope is for when you don’t have what you need and for when things are not OK”

(Solnit). The spirit of the American dream exists with duality. At its core, the ideal is that of a

collective well-being. But in its application, the American dream embodies individualism as

experienced through the insular notion of, not what the dream means for all, but what the dream

means for me.

There are further economic factors for consideration when talking about the American

dream. Yale economics professor Robert J. Shiller writes about the financial consequences of a

drifting definition of the American dream. Shiller cites language as utmost importance when

discussing the American Dream. He notes how the American Dream used to mean essential

freedom, based on morality more than any material successes. This foundation is compared to

America’s current administration and their attempt to reignite excessive lustfulness through

growing capitalism. Shiller mentions how such a drift in meaning is significant because the

American Dream — like the Australian Dream, or Le Réve François — represents core values

(Shiller). And in America, these values can easily turn political where economic policy is

concerned. For example, the housing crisis in the early 2000s was an example of an inflated

American dream, literally. Consumers sought acquisition of items for proof of status. If
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transactional industry is weighted more than human interaction, the American dream stands

metamorphosis yet again, being turned in on itself.

Fig. 3. I Have a Dream. Tom Foster.

To discuss the American Dream as defined by the people, we must look at the

inescapable reality of inequality—the idea of systemic racism; its manmade origin, masked

application, and lasting effects. Author Sarah Churchwell writes "Behold, America: A History of

America First and the American Dream" in order to compare the ‘American Dream’ and

‘America First’ as isolating terms used as rhetoric for advancing racism. Churchwell describes

these two terms as the most loaded phrases in America today, and also two of the most

misunderstood. “Behold, America” is essentially a battle for the identity of modern America. The

American Dream began as a pledge for equality rather than as a dream of supremacy and 'making
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it big'. America First has not just served as an isolationist term, but as an early slogan of the Ku

Klux Klan. Both phrases were born nearly a century ago with common themes of entanglement

over capitalism, democracy and race, coming to embody opposing views in the battle to define

the soul of the nation. As America struggles again to project a shared vision, to itself and to the

world, Churchwell argues that the meanings and history of these terms need to be understood

afresh so that the true spirit of America can be reclaimed. In this sense, the American dream may

be used for ulterior motives where race is concerned. Where certain populations are concerned, is

the American dream readily available for all to embody?

To provide a full view, the American Dream must be criticized. The term “dream”

implies some notion of nonreality. Comedian George Carlin said, "The reason they call it the

American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it." In this sense, the American

Dream is suspect. The limitations of inequality and injustice essentially undermine the American

Dream as a whole. In his book, “Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the

American Dream,” author Sasha Abramsky highlights the fear-focused culture of modern

American, especially as politics are concerned. An immigrant himself, Abramsky describes

irrational fear as motivation for racism, classism, and xenophobia, and how this produced fear is

the disintegration of the American Dream. Using science, Abramsky explains the limbic systems

fight, flight, and freeze response to perceived crisis. For example, police shootings of unarmed

African American’s is a phenomenon that degrades humanitarian freedoms right here in

America. The triumph of the American dream may be its endurance, but fear outweighs the

ability to identify commonalities when people are scared of being vulnerable in addressing their

privileges. This is Abramsky’s standpoint. His view of the current state of the American Dream

is impacted by his reality, and compared to our shared realities, his perception is just as fitting as
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the next. Even if Abramsky claims that the American Dream has reached its end, hopefully the

dead limbs of the ethos of perpetual oppression and bias are trimmed for new growth.

For many of us, the idea of success is a climax that only exists in hope. The commonality

of the American Dream is evident. When our pursuits for the same general idea form into one

national ethos, it is our specific realities that create fluidity in defining the American Dream. The

real linchpin is struggle for attainment where the American dream is concerned, and this

underbelly of the American dream is usually glossed over for one reason or another. The

difference then lies not in the results of our individual aspirations, but on the foundation of

opportunities we are afforded to even dream.

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Works Cited

Abrams, Samuel J. The American Dream Is Alive and Well. The New York Times, 5 Feb. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/opinion/american-dream.html.

Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Simon Publications, 2001 (first published 1 June

1931).

Brooks, Miranda L. Interview with Saleh Asumani. 29 March 2019.

Churchwell, Sarah. Behold, America: A History of America First and the American

Dream. Bloomsbury, 2019. Print.

Economic Mobility Project. Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well? 2010,

Online. Ohio Link. Sinclair Library, Dayton, OH. 19 April 2019. www.brookings.edu/wp-

content/uploads/2016/06/05useconomics_morton.pdf.

Foster, Tom (American, 1944). I Have a Dream, view of image. 2000. Artstor,

library.artstor.org/asset/AWSS35953_35953_28272607

Martin, Courtney E. The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream. Berkeley: Seal,

2016. Print.

Remarks before the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, Omaha, NE, Febuary 6, 2007,

http://www.federalreserve. gov/BoardDocs/Speeches/2007/20070206/default.htm.
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Shiller, Robert J. The Transformation of the 'American Dream'. The New York Times, 4 Aug.

2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/upshot/the-transformation-of-the-american-

dream.html.

Solnit, Rebecca. Another, more beautiful America is rising. 29 December 2016. Online Essay.

Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Penguin, 2006. Print.

Sontag, Susan. In America. Milano: Mondadori, 2003. Print. Print.