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American Dream Dead Analysis

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From a young age, children all over the world are taught that America is the "Land of Opportunity." Their parents and their parents' parents have all experienced some type of fulfillment from the American Dream which prompts them to relay belief in it to the newest generation of Americans. However, nowadays, populations of Americans have become increasingly critical of the American Dream and what that dream entails. That particular group claims that the American Dream is now dead due to many different facets of society. Is it possible to demand the "death" of an ideal that is essentially the backbone of a powerful country such as America? There are people who argue strongly both for and against the death of the American Dream with the "for" …show more content…

One example of minorities despairing about their treatment can be found in the poem "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg: "Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?" (Ginsberg). Ginsberg asks his idol, Walt Whitman, if Whitman's America was the same as Ginsberg's. This is thought to be Ginsberg reflecting on the treatment of homosexuals in "his" America and how he criticizes the attitude the majority of Americans held at that point in time as he had to personally deal with the retributions of that attitude due to him being frank about his homosexuality. To Ginsberg, the American Dream was infeasible for most in his predicament owing to discrimination based on sexual identity. Even today, as Rich Bellis points out in his article, "Only 19 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws preventing LGBT Americans from being discriminated against by employers. Three others protect employees on the basis of sexual orientation but not gender identity" (Bellis). Although this shows only a fraction of America's minorities, it is still a fair indicator that the American Dream is unachievable to certain groups in America all because their differences cause them to have unequal opportunities for success. This is outrageous, especially when the American Dream means equal opportunity as mentioned in a prior

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