What is the "American Dream"? A journalist called Patrick J. Kiger explained this belief in a website by quoting the well-known definition given by James Truslow Adams. Patrick J. Kiger wrote: "Historian James Truslow Adams often receives credit for first popularizing the idea of the American dream. In his 1931 book 'The Epic of America,' Adams described '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'"(Adams as quoted in Kiger, The Origins).
Although different people always have their unique understandings of the American Dream, we can still use James Truslow Adams's definition to generalize it into the idea that all individuals to gain the happiness and to move up to a higher social class by excavating their greatest potentials and being the best they can. This means everyone can become famous and wealthy with their efforts, no matter whether they are from the low social class or the high social class. They can own mansions, cars, fame, money, and all the things that ordinary people desire to gain and can never easily achieve in other countries, which usually constrain their freedoms and capabilities.
Although different people always have their unique understandings of the American Dream, we can still use James Truslow Adams's definition to generalize it into the idea that all individuals to gain the happiness and to move up to a higher social class by excavating their greatest potentials and being the best they can. This means everyone can become famous and wealthy with their efforts, no matter whether they are from the low social class or the high social class. They can own mansions, cars, fame, money, and all the things that ordinary people desire to gain and can never easily achieve in other countries, which usually constrain their freedoms and capabilities.
This American belief has attracted millions of diligent and ambitious immigrants to settle in this land of opportunities. One example of those immigrants was Nikola Tesla, a brilliant electrical engineer and a highly creative scientist. In 1884, Nikola Tesla was fascinated by the idea of the American Dream and traveled to the United States to work for Thomas Edison. His strong love towards the American Dream eventually caused him to become an American citizen and to start his own company which created many electrical appliances(Chopra). In a report called American Made 2.0: How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Continue to Contribute to the U.S. Economy which was used by the U.S. government as a reference, the founders of 25 percent of venture-backed companies are immigrants during late 1990s and early 2000s. Many of those well-known businesses, such as Google and eBay, were established by those immigrants who were inspired by the American Dream. This American spirit profoundly strengthened the American economy and helped this nation to grow into a super power(Anderson).
Furthermore, the American Dream not only helped the nation to build a prosperous economy, but also became a prevalent theme in the American literature. This theme appeared in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and many other American novels(The American Dream in Literature). One of the best example is F. Scott. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which tells a story related to the social mobility and the American Dream in the 1920s.
However, the American Dream started to lose its charms and magical powers. Less American people tend to believe in this belief which have been representing the spirit of the country for a long period of time. Although many U.S. presidents, such as Reagan, tried really hard to rebuild people's confidence and trusts towards their government and the American Dream, economic problems and the Vietnam War caused the American Dream to lose its charm and influences on the American people (Kiger, Will). In 2009, the "Great Recession" badly destroyed the morale of American people and even brought the American Dream to the edge of extinction(American RadioWorks). As time goes on, how did the American Dream change and what have people been doing to revive this American spirit?
As an international student, I also came to this country to pursue my own American Dream, which is getting educated and striving for success. Like the early immigrants in this country, I am filled with hopes and believe that the United States provides people with equal opportunities to achieve their goals. But after spending years in this nation, I also began to discover that the American Dream is gradually fading and changing in people's mind. In contrast, the American Dream still stays popular and is advocated by a lot new immigrants who were not born in the America. So, I usually ask myself why the American Dream is so different between an immigrant and an American? Even though I am always an optimistic person, I still feel that this is a really dangerous situation for this country and it is necessary for this dream to survive as a spiritual support for the Americans. As a result, I want to create this website to find out the essences of the American Dream whether the it still exists among people.