Mrs. Scheer
English 11
8 September 2015
American Dream: Hope for a Nation
The American dream is the largest influence over the vast number of men, women, and children under the influence of American culture and is different for each of them. The American dream is the ideal that anyone, regardless of their starting conditions, can achieve their goals through hard work and dedication; James Truslow Adams creates this ideal in his novel: The Epic of America “The 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.”(Adams, 214) Anyone who is currently in a bad position and wants to make a difference is under the enchantment of the American dream. Anywhere from the …show more content…
Matthew Warshauer says in his research of the American dream, “John Winthrop envisioned a religious paradise in a ‘City upon a Hill.’ Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of racial equality. Both men yearned for what they perceived as perfection.”(Warshauer, 1) This shows that the American dream does not have a set definition but, instead a variable one. Though the main perception of the American dream is that anyone can achieve success in their goals through hard work, a few components of this perception change. Success is a subjective term; success for one person might mean failure for another. Success is the most essential part to obtention of the American dream however, the hard work implied in obtaining that success is of the same, if not more, importance to it. Hard work is the most easily