What Does It Mean to Be an American: Essay Guide

What Does It Mean to Be an American: The American Dream

The American Dream is an indispensable part of American cultural heritage and society. It is glorified in Hollywood movies, pop songs, and comics books. The American Dream is frequently the first concept that comes to mind when people think of the USA. Thus, it is believed that keeping the American Dream close at heart is necessary for anyone who calls themselves American.

The American Dream cannot be considered dead. People from all around the world study, craft, and fortuitously land themselves in what is often considered the greatest country on Earth for the opportunity to be successful. However, we must realize that what was once considered to be the American Dream is no more. Accessibility to affordable housing and well-paying jobs are considered luxuries of the upper classes, depending on where a person lives. While thought to be achievable for the average person, the American Dream has been diluted in a sense. No longer are people coming to America for grandiose living, but rather to flee the perils of their home countries, with America being the land of the most opportunity.

The term “American Dream” is not new. James Trustlow Adams penned the term in his book The Epic of America, originally published in 1931, stating: “The American dream that life should be made richer and fuller for everyone and opportunity remain open to all, had been kept alive by constant waves of thought and emotion flooding back from our successive frontiers.” Despite this book being written almost a century ago, Adams was correct; the idea of the American Dream has been subtly pushed upon new generations, making it so we believe that we have the same, if not more, opportunities than generations before us.

The American Dream promises a white picket fence home, a loving family, and a well-paying job that will give you the resources to provide for your family. This idea is becoming more abstract to the average American. According to the United States Census, currently over 45 million Americans live below the poverty line, or 14.5 percent of the US population (US Census Bureau, 2014). In 2013, 20 percent of all American children lived in poverty, according to the PEW Research Center (Patten & Krogstad, 2015). Hence, we must ask this question: If so many of Americans live in poverty, then why do we still believe in the American Dream? This could be attributed to what is called Vroom’s expectancy theory. Fred Lunenburg, of Sam Houston State University, stated in his journal that “expectancy theory is a cognitive process theory of motivation that is based on the idea that people believe there are relationships between the effort they put forth at work, the performance they achieve from that effort … In other words, people will be motivated if they believe that strong effort will lead to good performance and good performance will lead to desired rewards.” The American Dream has been pushed by media, family, friends, and co-workers, all in an effort to subconsciously keep the average worker motivated. The average person would therefore believe, that in America, if they work hard and stay out of trouble, they will be successful. People begin to expect that one day, because of their efforts, they will become rich or affluent. This is despite the fact that several of our children’s peers are living in poverty, and our workforce is riddled with people living paycheck to paycheck.

In conclusion, I believe that the American Dream once existed, and still does, but in a 21st-century capitalistic fashion. No longer are people expected to have a house with a picket fence within a few years of coming to America, or after obtaining a corporate job, but rather people are expected to work hard, and therefore, the potential for people to achieve the American Dream is always there, but never culminates for the average person.

References

Adams, J. T. (2017). The Epic of America. Milton: Taylor and Francis.
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: 2013. The United States Census Bureau, 16 Sept. 2014,
www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-169.html.
Lunenburg, Fred C. Expectancy theory of motivation: Motivating by altering expectations. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, vol. 15, no. 1, 2011.
Patten, Eileen, and Jens Manuel Krogstad. (2015, July 14). Black child poverty rate holds steady, even as other groups see declines. Retrieved from
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/14/black-child-poverty-rate-holds- steady-even-as-other-groups-see-declines/