Nathan Rivera
Mrs. Merrell
AP English Lang
30 August 2023
The Old Man and the Dream
The American dream was the idea that you could achieve whatever you most desired.
This applied to people who immigrated from countries that had harsh working conditions. They
would work endless hours with little pay, barely enough to afford food. If they came to America,
they believed that they could achieve anything they wanted as long as they worked hard. In
America, their hard work paid off unlike in their homeland countries. In Mike Royko’s short
story, The Old Man and the Farm, the old man was able to achieve what most would consider the
American dream. He has obtained wealth that he could not have obtained in his original country.
His father was a poor man who worked for 15 hours making only 90 cents. He had nothing to eat
and no work so he moved to Pennsylvania to work the coal mines. He saved up enough to buy 80
acres of land and owned a nice farmhouse. He went from having nothing to eat to having over 80
acres of land and his own profitable business. The American dream is represented throughout the
passage because the old man was able to obtain what he wanted which was wealth.