Sunday, July 25, 2010
21st Century American/access to the "American Dream"
For my final blog of the semester I'll revisit the questions I attempted to answer in my first couple blogs. First, what does it mean to be an American in the 21st century? After completing the coursework for this literature class, I am inclined to say that there is no one who defines the quintessential American today. Everyone comes from such unique and diverse backgrounds. Everyone's lives are made up of their own stories. So if no two people are exactly alike, how are we expected to find one thing that unifies us all into one stereotype? We simply cannot. Whether you think of Americans as looking for an escape from reality like Hunter S. Thompson, as an individual struggling with an identity crisis like John Smith, or as someone who has struggled and survived discrimination like Sethe or Kingston, Americans are just people who are looking for the right way to live their own lives. I also think Americans (like other societies) are constantly searching for personal and collective happiness, which brings me to the American Dream. People are searching for personal happiness within themselves, but a lot of people would claim that they are searching for happiness for all of society (peace on earth, etc. etc.) or at the very least happiness for their family. In searching for this happiness individuals are faced with struggles, some more than others. As I believe I expressed in my previous blog on the subject, I do not believe everyone has access to the American Dream, because for many people the American Dream includes happiness, security, safety for their family, etc. My person American Dream is to be able to attend college although no one in my family has before me, and be able to have a successful career as an attorney in order to support my family so that they never feel stress over my financial burdens. I truly believe that those who are born into poverty have a much tougher time crawling out of it and being able to support their family so that their own children do not suffer. I certainly was not born into poverty, but I was born into a family who could not spare a dime to pay for my college education, thus I will be starting out my adult life with at least $60,000 in student loan debt--and that does not include law school. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to be faced with the idea that your children may never achieve their American Dream due to your inability to ever achieve your own.
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I think that you’re right in that Americans come from many different cultures. It is impossible to categorize Americans as they are all too unique. People immigrate from all over the world and they don’t leave their old culture at the airport. When people move to America they blend their old culture with their new American culture and make something unique. I’m sure that there are statistics to tell us what the majority of Americans are like, but there are too many exceptions to the rule to generalize. I agree that most people just want happiness for their own families. It would be a very unique and good person to want happiness for the whole society. It is in human nature to think of one’s self and one’s family first. If people have excess money and can afford to help society they might, but most choose not to. They instead choose to live in excess and splendor. It goes against human nature to help others before people help themselves.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with you on the fact that everyone has equal access to the America dream. I come from a family that did not have the extra money to spend on my college education that is why I joined the Navy. I figured that I could spend some time serving my country and see places that I read about in my books. Which I was able to do and enjoyed doing. I also agree that we cannot define us in one word or even two. We are all very unique and complex individuals with our own thoughts and aspirations. At times we may seem alike but more often than not we are different. Like you said we can’t simply categorize us into one stereotype.
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