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Alexis De Tocqueville's Interpretation Of The American Dream

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Rough Draft The term “the American Dream” has many different interpretations but no clear, comprehensive definition that is accepted by all. The individuals that believe in the American Dream, and those that oppose it seem to determine their feelings solely from their personal interpretations. It appears the American Dream is seen in different ways by different people depending on what their goals and ambitions are in their own lives and how they view themselves having access to opportunity. Opportunity does not define the American Dream, but it seems to play an important role in how people define the American Dream to themselves. Some view the American Dream as a free and open opportunity, whereby anyone can improve their circumstances …show more content…

But, while here, he decided to record all of his observations on the ways that this young, democratic nation functioned, not to limit himself to just its penal system.. He formed opinions about the behavior of the American people in all walks of life. He also observed has America’s geographical features often developed the attitudes its citizens had about life. in a book that is today known as Democracy in America. De Tocqueville observed that Americans, while in the midst of their prosperity, were unhappy in their pursuit of success. He saw a flaw in the American system long before the term “American Dream” had even been …show more content…

The respondents said that they believed that the contributing factors were, “lagging wages, a tough job market, and greater income inequality.” While these opinions might be circumstantially correct, the true reason why they believe that the American Dream is unattainable is because they were given the opportunity to define it in whichever way that they pleased. If the CNN money poll had chosen to define the American Dream in the same way that James Truslow Adams had done in 1931, the numbers would be vastly different because the last sentence of his definition included the words, “ with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” With this being said, the American Dream of the individuals in the poll could only be defined by their own potential and work ethic and not by their opinion on the attainability of the

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