The American Dream

The United States of America is known as the land of the opportunity.  For hundreds of years, immigrants have come to the U.S.A. in hopes for a better life.  In hopes to live “The American Dream”.

But what really is “The American Dream” today?  Is there one common dream we all share no matter what race, social class, gender, or sexual orientation we hold?  Has the dream been distorted in the last 50 years?  If yes, how so?  I hear people talk about “The American Dream” often, but I’ve never stopped to think about what it really is.

Many of you may believe that all Americans share the same dream of having the stereotypical: wife/husband, the 2.5 children, the white picket fence, the steady job, etc.

If you believe that most people today either live or strive for that stereotypical dream, that’s a pretty narrow-minded theory. 

What about gay people?  What about the homeless?  What about the men and women who have all of that but leave it anyway?  Like everyone else, most gays, homeless people, and the men/women who choose to be single, are happy with their situation.

So it is safe to say that one person’s “American Dream” can be different from another’s.  My “American Dream” is most likely different than yours.

But let’s go back 50 years.  That stereotypical dream I mentioned would be what most Americans strived for.  It was much more simple back then.  You get married, the husband worked, the wife stayed at home because she couldn’t  work.  You stayed married whether you liked each other or not and stuck it out until death did you apart.

If you ask me, the term, “The American Dream” is outdated, and I think that is a good thing.  To me, you shouldn’t even put the word the in front of dream, because it’s our  dream.  It shows how far American Society has come in the last 50 years.

Don’t get me wrong we still have not reached equality, but we are continuing to go in the right direction.  Instead of being a slave, or being a housewife, or being in an unwanted marriage, we can choose to live our own “American Dream”