Does The American Dream Exist?

Does the American Dream exist?
The American Dream has been questioned on its legitimacy in whether it is fact or fiction. Writers have pondered this idea in many forms in their writing, poems, songs, and essays. The American Dream seems to be a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained yet so many long to achieve it. It proves to be true to some, but breaks promises in others. It has the power to give hope or take it away. The American Dream is in fact true many would argue, but for the hopeless, it was only a Dream, a Dream that no longer exists today.
“A hope deferred makes the heart sick…” (Proverbs 13:12). Many immigrants coming to America see America as the Land of Opportunity, but much like this verse, their aspirations are struck

“As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding…” (America and I, Pg16). To many, America seems to promise a life fulfilled, but it doesn’t uphold its promise and immigrants seem to seek a reason for their suffering. They desire to be heard, to be understood. Anzia Yezierska, author of America and I, expresses the viewpoint of the average immigrant desiring a successful life. She begins to explain how American was the land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing desire, and how it was a sunlight burning through my darkness, but later in the story she doubts whether the American Dream really exists. “Where is America? Is there an America? What is this wilderness in which I am lost?” (pg19). As an immigrant she struggles to obtain the hope she once had,

She tells of a time when the settlers first laid eyes on America, and standing triumphantly in front of them, was the Statue of Liberty, high and mighty. Its shadowing presence seemed to take away all fear as it cried with silent lips, “… Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door” (Pg 9). As the new settlers stepped foot onto the Land of Opportunity, as they step through the golden door, the American Dream patiently awaited them. With high hopes of what is to come the settlers boldly stepped off the ships and into, The Promise Land. A dream was what motivated these settlers. It’s what drove them to earnestly seek what they desire. The American Dream is what gave them hope, and without hope, they couldn’t expect to ever comprehend the American Dream. President Roosevelt, a man of great honor, gives a speech addressing the fiftieth anniversary of the Statue of Liberty. He goes back to when the immigrants first came to the new world and solidifies that if not for their sheer effort, and devotion towards the American Dream, America would not be the same without the bravery and hope they longingly held onto. The American Dream is not always about having success right at this very moment in time, but believing that you will become