American Dream Essays (1137 words) - English-language Films

American Dream The American Dream What is the American Dream? Is it fame? Is it fortune? President Franklin Roosevelt explained the American Dream as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. (AAC) I think that the American Dream is different for everyone. It is simply the urge for a better life. The American Dream is still valid but is totally different from what it used to be. For the early immigrants the American Dream was a better life not with material goods, but by freedom. Freedom to worship whoever they want. Freedom to say whatever they want without fear of being arrested or shot. (AAC) This Dream stayed with America untill the 1900s. Thats when things started to change. Norman Rockwell was a famous artist during 1910s through the 1930s. Rockwell drew pictures of the American dream during his time. His art of the American dream consisted of families having a great time, or of a happily married couple. (Rockwell) The American Dream was happiness with a family or a loved one. The ending of war caused the American Dream to completely changed. I think its because we no longer had to worry about freedom, we filled the gap of freedom with wealth.The American Dream is now to marry a beautiful wife, start a family, and become rich. Its turned into greed. Everyones dream is to become just like Bill Gates. People no longer do their work because they enjoy it. They do their work because of the money. A perfect example of this is pro baseball. When Major League Baseball first started the players did it because they loved the game and loved playing in front of the huge audiences. They got paid low wages but still plated the game because they loved it. Major League players these days complain because theyre not getting paid enough when they are making millions of dollars a year. Kids set their goal to become a pro baseball player so that they can earn millions of dollars too. Arthur Miller does a great job illustrating the new, corrupted American Dream in his play Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller shows us that the American Dream is valid, but those who hope to substitute popularity and lucky breaks for hard work are likely to fail. Miller does this by using characters such as Willy Lowman who cant achieve his American Dream of becoming rich and famous. In Millers Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman makes two grave mistakes while trying to achieve his American Dream. Willy grew up believing that being well-liked was important to becoming a success. (Death, Homewok hotline) He believed that being well-liked could help you charm your boss and open doors in the business world. (Garrison) A perfect example is on page 64 when Willy is preparing Biff for a job interview with Oliver. He says Dont wear a sport jacket and slacks when u see Oliver. Wear a business suit, and talk as little as possible, and dont crack any jokes. (Miller, Death of a Salesman) This just shows how worried he is about being accepted. I think this is what caused Willy to fail. He worked his hardest trying to suck up to people and become popular when he should have just worked harder at his job. Miller also uses Charlies son Bernard to contrast Willies thoughts and help show that anyone can achieve their American Dream. Willy thinks Bernard is a physically unattractive, spectacles-wearing, anemic, pathetic little lad. (Elsom) Bernard gives Biff the right answers to the exams in math. In exchange for this, Biff lets Bernard carry his shoulder pads into the locker room at game time so that he can get some attention and feel like part of the group. Bernard is not well liked. by his former class mates at all. He is the total opposite of Biff. Bernard and Willie run into each other at the end of the play at Charlies office. Bernard tells him that he has a case in Washington and Willy says How did you? Why didnt he ever catch on?(Miller 92) Miller says this because he is amazed that Bernard got as far as he did. He doesnt understand why Biff didnt get anywhere. It proves to him that you dont have to be well liked at all to become successful. Willies corrupted view of the American Dream also included the belief that successful people were risk-takers. He thinks that people take risk in order to get rich