The American Dream
History of the American
Dream
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Term “American Dream” first used by James Truslow
Adams in The Epic of America
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“The American Dream is ‘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…It is
not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a
dream of social order in which each man and each woman
shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are
innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they
are, regardless of fortuitous circumstances of birth or
position.’”
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http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/dream/thedream.html
Foundations of the American
Dream
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Puritans
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Declaration of Independence
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Settled New England in 17th century
Leaders and common people searching for freedom
“…that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”
Benjamin Franklin
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Self-made man
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy,
and wise.”
Key to wealth is hard work!
Foundations of the American
Dream
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Horatio Alger (1850s roughly)
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“Rags to riches” stories
People of poverty (particularly young boys) find
middle-class comfort
“Luck, pluck, and virtue”
Roosevelt
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New Deal
Social Security Act of 1935
Foundations of the American
Dream
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“Levittown”
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Houses with two
bedrooms, a bathroom, a
kitchen and a living room
Suburban conformity
1950: 55% of people
owned homes
American Dream
included car, house, and
television ownership
“Consumer culture”
People lost work ethic due to a
sense of entitlement
The American Dream
Today
Interviews with Celebrities
Maya Angelou
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“The American Dream, whether attainable or not, is to
have freedom, freedom in all things. To go as far as
ambition impels us, in work, in play, and religion and
even in love.”
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“I think that is what sent the first pioneers away from
Europe and caused them to struggle with the Native
Americans here and caused them to bring people,
unwillingly from Africa, to indulge in slavery, and it
is what caused the slaves to struggle against slavery.”
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“Everyone is looking for freedom, freedom to live their
lives, to control their own destiny.”
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Interviewed by Evelyn Rusli
Buzz Aldrin
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“I think the American Dream used to be
achieving one’s goals in your field of choiceand from that all other things would follow.
Now, I think the dream has morphed into the
pursuit of money: Accumulate enough of it,
and the rest will follow. We’ve become more
materialistic. For balance, I think we need to
get back to idealism and patriotism but also be
realistic with our monetary goals.”
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Interviewed by James Clash
Tyra Banks
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“The American Dream is about fulfilling
your potential to the max. It’s not a chase
for material goods, it’s about learning what
inspires you in life and creating a plan to
turn it into your life’s work.”
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Interviewed by Hitha Prabhakar
Mel Brooks
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“When I was a little kid 50 years ago, in
1946, I had just got out of the Army after
two years fighting in the war. The
American Dream was a house and a car.”
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“Today, the American Dream is winning
American Idol. It’s changed slightly.”
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Interviewed by Miriam Marcus
Elizabeth Dole
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“The American Dream truly is defined by
individuals. It is their positive ambitionssuch as getting an education, owning a
home, serving our country, holding elected
office, or having a productive career- and
their commitment and courage to see these
goals through.”
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Interviewed by Miriam Marcus
Hugh Hefner
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“When you think of the American Dream, you think
about the ability to be free and secure in your own
personal lives. [It is] the right to own what you want, to
own property and to worship the God of your choice, and
privacy in your own home. It’s an idea unique to
America and shared by other countries as well.”
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“I think, by and large, the federal government has lost
sight of some of those rights and freedoms that the
American Dream stands for. Going on the quest for it,
and the very fact that we refer to it as a dream, tends to
separate the idea of it from reality, but it is what the
country is founded on and it will behoove us to remind
ourselves of that.”
Interviewed by Hitha Prabhakar
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Frank McCourt
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“The American Dream boils down to selfknowledge. I like an illustration I saw once
in a volume of the Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, where there’s a kid sitting under a tree
dangling a line into the Mississippi. He was
just sitting there, doing nothing, and that’s
something we need to do more of- to sit and do
nothing, and dream, and to follow that
dream.”
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Interviewed by Mary Crane
Chuck Norris
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“I used to think the American Dream could be
obtained through the accumulation of possessions,
positions, and prestige. The “truths self-evident” to
our founding fathers eluded me for too long.”
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“ ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ is so
much more than fulfilling our own dreams, doing
what we want and feeling good. It’s about using our
God-given potential to make a positive difference on
this planet.”
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Interviewed by Mary Crane
Vanity Fair article
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“The American Dream should require hard work, but it
should not require 80-hour workweeks and parents
who never see their kids from across the dinner table.
The American Dream should entail a first-rate
education for every child, but not an education that
leaves no extra time for the actual enjoyment of
childhood. The American Dream should accommodate
the goal of home ownership, but without imposing a
lifelong burden of unmeetable debt. Above all, the
American Dream should be embraced as the unique
sense of possibility that this country gives its
citizens—the decent chance, as Moss Hart would say,
to scale the walls and achieve what you wish.”
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http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/04/americandream200904?currentPage=5
Assignment
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Write a paragraph (AT LEAST FIVE
SENTENCES) about your definition of the
American Dream. Think about it. Don’t
just copy others’ ideas or the ideas we’ve
discussed here. This should be written
nicely on cardstock or construction paper.
Your homework should have some “extra”
decorative element, such as photos,
drawings, song lyrics, quotes, etc. This
will be due Tuesday!