The American Dream In Today's Society

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The “American dream”, according to James Truslow Adams, is that "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.” America has lost its way and promise as a nation, largely because the original ideals embodied in the idea of the “American dream” have become far too abstract and unachievable for a majority of people. The concept has further been corrupted by over-simplification that has turned many people's perception of the American dream into one that is mainly materialistic in nature. As an example, the engineer in the screenplay Miss Saigon assumes that Americans are very keen to purchase the services of escorts based on the desperation of American soldiers that have been deprived of such services for a long period of time. The engineer continues to say how he will have a “club that’s 4-starred” with a “lawyer and a body-guard”…show more content…
gave his speech in terms of legislation and programs designed to remove racial barriers, recent events have shown that the American people haven’t come as far as they’d like to think they have, especially in terms of racial equality and that there is still a lot more work to be done in this area. However, in other areas, there have been some glints of hope for America in the shape of the photo taken by photographer Thomas E. Franklin titled Raising The Flag at Ground Zero. The photo depicts three New York City firefighters raising the American flag in the rubble of the September 9th, 2001 attacks, similar to the way US Army soldiers raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. This expresses the fact that the people can come together as a people and demonstrate the courage and perseverance that is in the hearts of all Americans and at the same time, conveying that they still can stand united as a people in the face of their
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