The American Dream

To me, the "American Dream" is this idea of hope that allows people to rise from poverty in a land of opportunity. It is the idea of a country that gives people freedom and does not confine people to famine and desolation. To me, is represents a chance for anyone to attain prosperity. When I think of the American Dream, I often think about how it is represented through Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Ellis Island, located in the New York Harbor, was the United States' largest immigration center from 1892 to 1924 ("History & Culture"). Over 12 million immigrants passed through rigorous physical and mental examinations to determine whether they should be let into the country or not. It is often described as an "Island of Hope", or for those denied entry, an "Island of Tears" ("History & Culture"). It symbolized a gateway to opportunity, and with the Statue of Liberty in the sight line, an entrance to a land of freedom. Immigrants spent their lives' earnings to buy a boat ticket to America because of this idea of the American Dream, this great symbol of hope and escape from the economic hardships of the rest of the world. Immigrants would endure terrible living conditions on cramped steam ships, with rampant diseases, for the idea of the American Dream and a better life. To me this shows the influence of the ideology and its core foundation in the idea of hope and the fundamental human right of freedom. My grandfather was actually the son of two Italian immigrants, my great-grandparents, who passed through Ellis Island as very young children. They both came from very poor families and their parents had brought themselves and their families to the United States in search of a better life. My father is also an immigrant who was born in Belgium and moved to the United States after college, allured by the excitement of the United States culture and the esteemed graduate education system.

In the 1920s, this idea of the American Dream being a symbol of hope shifted to also include the constant societal desire for material wealth. This concept is represented in the novel The Great Gatsby by author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald created the character Jay Gatsby, a man deeply ashamed of his poor, farmer background who would do anything to obtain wealth. This drive came from his desire to attract his love interest Daisy, a wealthy and very materialistic-driven woman. Gatsby had fought in World War I, during which Daisy got impatient and left him for a rich man named Tom Buchanan. The book explores the extent to which this materialistic sense of the American Dream caused both corruption and ultimately disappointment, as the desires can never actually be completely fulfilled.

I think that this representation of materialism encapsulates the definition of wealth in that it shows this corrupting force of abundance. Both the old money and new money are in constant comparison with the Valley of Ashes, showing the great disparity between the upper and lower classes. This contrast shows the vanity and selfishness of the wealthy to just ignore the significant problems of the lower class. It also represents the corruption of wealth in that it is constantly used as a mechanism to avoid the consequences of one's actions. Tom and Daisy, in their excessive wealth, can just pick up their belongings and leave their troubles behind, while the poor are bound forever in a cycle of suffering from their own actions and the wealthy's. While The Great Gatsby criticizes this aspect of society, it can be understood that the social values of the time put money above all else in the construction of a social hierarchy. Money was emphasized on a societal level in representation of respect and opportunity.

I think that today, American attitudes towards wealth are definitely dependent upon their own socioeconomic status. There was a really interesting study done in 2012 by Dan Ariely, a professor a Duke University, who looked at how Americans view wealth and its inequality in the United States. He mentioned that the bottom 40% of Americans own only 0.3% of the wealth whereas the top 20% own almost 84% (Ariely). This is such a crazy statistic to me because there is such as disparity between the two that has hardly been addressed in my years of education so far. There is a great amount of ignorance for the wealthy recognizing just how little the poor have as well as the poor realizing just how much the wealthy have. This great divide is quite distinct so that the lower, middle, and upper classes have vastly different views on wealth and poverty, and whether the former is truly attainable for anyone in the current American society. My attitude towards wealth and poverty is still developing as I continue to learn more and more about American society, as well as different societies all over the world. In general though I do think that the gulf between the upper class and the lower class can truly only cause negative consequences if smaller and smaller portions of the upper class continue to monopolize the wealth of the United States.

In summary, the idea of the American Dream is really one of hope and of developing a future for yourself and family. I think that it is embodied by Ellis Island and the idea of immigrating to a new land to start this promising life in a completely different country. There is something very bold about risking everything and spending all of your money on this idea of the American Dream. The influx of materialistic ideology tainted the American Dream to become a never ending desire for wealth, a societal and cultural aspect that is criticized in The Great Gatsby.



Work Cited

Ariely, Dan. "How Americans View Wealth and Inequality." BBC News, 20 Aug. 2012, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-19284017.

"History & Culture." National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/historyculture/index.htm.