The whys and hows of writing the American Dream essay
Everyone’s heard about it, but few have seen it, and even fewer have achieved the American Dream.
While the term was first coined in the 1930s, many believe the ethos was established through the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that guarantee freedom for all citizens. And that freedom translates into a multitude of opportunities for social and financial mobility. Mass media and marketing campaigns alike seeded the idea of a working-class family putting their child through college to get a well-paid job and buying a house in the suburbs. The American Dream became an ideal to strive for not only for several generations and millions of Americans but also thousands of immigrants entering the country with hopes of building a better future.
How do you achieve the American Dream?
According to the well-established mythology of the American Dream, you have to work extra hard to get to the top. Unfortunately, that thinking resulted in millions of workaholics, broken families, and early strokes. Besides, as plenty of examples demonstrate, hard work doesn’t always pay off, though passion, vision, and networking can go a long way in getting you where you want to be in life.
Getting a college degree was considered the first step to the glorious dream by many. Making enough money to send children to school was an unattainable goal for many Americans until student loans became more widely available. However, choosing the right major, getting into the right line of business and progressing up the career ladder were also required. This path was so well-paved that the slightest wrong move could push someone off course for the rest of their life. Following this algorithm to the letter would get you on top, but it would also make you the same as thousands of others. Diversity and uniqueness were hardly valuable in the race towards the generic ideal.
So is it still possible to achieve the American Dream?
According to a 2013 survey, only about a third of Americans believe that the American Dream is achievable. Over the last thirty years, the income gap has doubled, meaning the rich get richer faster while the poor remain poor. Only 8% of the children born in the bottom 20% of net family income get to the top 20% within their lifetimes in the US, while the same indicator is almost twice as high in Denmark. So in the 21st century, the Scandinavian Dream sounds more plausible than the American one.
Besides, the American Dream has remained the same throughout the last century, while society and economics went through wars and crises. Becoming a homeowner or starting a business may have been life’s goal in the 50s and 80s, but millennials and Gen Zers do not share the same ideals anymore. Moreover, happiness and success are no longer measured using the same metrics, so it stands to reason that achieving the American Dream should mean something different now than it did thirty years ago.
How do you write an essay about the American Dream?
For such an easy and straightforward topic, the American Dream is a surprisingly complex social and economic issue to research. So writing an essay or a research paper can take you on a long journey through success and failure cases, ethical and philosophical debates and an endless array of opinions from both Democrat and Republican supporters.
Whether or not you believe achieving the American Dream is possible, getting your thoughts in order should be the first thing on the agenda. And for that, essay examples are your best option. You can browse them to find exciting ideas and controversial points to support or annihilate in your piece. You should also pay attention to organizational tricks and transitions between points you can utilize in your assignment. And the reference sections are a goldmine of useful sources to support your arguments.
Our database of free essays is at your disposal whether you need inspiration or research material. However, reading and browsing won’t get you closer to completing the assignment. And getting caught up in research can lead to missed deadlines in a heartbeat.
If you find yourself stuck at the early stages of writing with the submission deadline right around the corner, it’s intervention time. To achieve the American Dream or your own, starting with a college degree, get professional writing help from SpeedyPaper experts. They work wonders under pressure and will deliver your piece on time, even if you have less than 24 hours to spare. So get in touch, set your requirements, and your assignment will be in your inbox before you know it!