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Is The American Dream Still Possible Analysis

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The American Dream, or the dream to be financially stable, is accessible to a certain point in that lower class Americans have trouble living off of lower wages and nonexistent benefits. The American Dream is very challenging to obtain when an American citizen is living off of lower wages. This is the case because without a foundation to build your Dream on, it will just collapse. In the article “Is the American Dream Still Possible” written by David Wallechinsky, David asks Simone Luevano, a hard working American citizen, whether she’s thought about retirement. Her responded that the words retirement and vacation were not in her vocabulary. She then adds, “It’s not the way of life anymore. I used to believe I was responsible for my own destiny. …show more content…

This idea of the American Dream being unattainable is also supported by Roberto Acuna. He discusses the working conditions of farmers under corporations and how their paychecks are way too limited. Mr. Acuna relating on his own experiences said, “It was 105 in the shade and I’d see endless rows of lettuce and I felt my back hurting… I felt the frustration of not being able to get out of the fields.” (Terkel 76). Mr. Acuna’s job as a farmer was very laborious and required hard work to get through each and every day. Even through the pain of his back, he continued to work knowing this would be his only way out of those fields. He eventually made it out of those fields for good but not many farmers did because of the pay and the working conditions. Most Americans will argue that through the hardest commitment we can all reach the destination we want in life. Barack Obama supports this claim in his Keynote Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention when he says, “But they sense, deep …show more content…

In “Roberto Acuna talks about Farm Workers”, Mr. Acuna comments on the corporation who runs the farming community he lives in. He reflects saying how bad the whole experience was. He was subjected to no running water, no medical care for workers, no adequate unemployment compensation, and had to live in a beat up shack with no heat at all. This all occurred while the animals on the farms were given heated pens, running water, and veterinarian care (Terkel 75). The living conditions of the farmers and the lack of benefits left them in a vicious loop of paying for expensive medicine because of disease being run rampant due to the farmers’ simple needs not being met. The other text mentioned above, “Is the American Dream still Possible”, also has examples of citizens that have yet to obtain the American Dream due to their living conditions. Shelly Comer, 43, is a divorced mother of 3 who has worked hard for her entire life. However, she just recently is going into debt so her eldest daughter, Michelle, can go to college. When Ms. Comer was interviewed about this, she responded, “I have nothing saved for me. I’m putting it all into the kids, so that they can succeed in school.” (Wallechinsky 57). By sacrificing everything she had for her kids, Shellie gave up the chance to live her own Dream by offering that chance to her kids. On the other hand,

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“The original term ‘American Dream’ was coined during the Great Depression by James Truslow Adams, who wrote that the American dream ‘is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth’ ” (573). He then addresses the views of liberal economists and activists, who think the American dream is dead, using facts from a survey done in 2009 by the New York Times. Essentially, the “survey found that 72 percent of Americans still believed it was possible to start poor, work hard, and become rich in America” (573).

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Americans are still achieving their dreams today by working hard. In the essay “They Live the Dream,” Dan Rather stated, “Delores Kesler… began her career at twenty-two with a series of dead-end jobs, struggling to make ends meet” (41). She was trying to provide for her child,

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The American dream is more alive than it ever has been. A recently published essay “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” written by Indiana University law student Brandon King, exposes readers to a few different approaches to fixing the United States economy. King begins his essay by discussing how within recent years the American population has been exposed to the national debt crisis, stock plummets, high unemployment and surviving through this Great Recession. As a reader you assume that with this deteriorating economy that American’s would lose hope and dread being poor, however King states that 72% of Americans still believe they could become bankrupt and be able to generate wealth again by hard work and determination alone. That

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In paragraph 24, Obama states “ These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.” Prior to this paragraph Obama described the levels of segregation of today, and the hate among the divisions but, in spite of that, he confesses his abiding love. Not to be forgotten, ethos is undoubtedly the most important rhetorical device employed in this speech. Barack Obama, a product of an

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A voice for the muzzled farm workers, a civil rights activist, outspoken about the unfair conditions migrant workers are faced, and inadequate wage given, Cesar Chavez speaks out in his Address in 1984 Commonwealth club of San Francisco. Chavez describes the injustice and unfair conditions farm workers confront on a daily basis, and what the farm workers, as a union the farm workers, must collaborate and do together in order to suppress the companies - growers - unfair conditions. In the speech, Chavez utilizes statistics, testimony, and repetition to not only win justice for the farm workers, but implement the urgent change that needs to happen in the eyes of Americans towards farm workers. The primary purpose of Chavez speech was to gain

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There was a kind of labors in the U.S. food industry stood on the floor with half an inch deep blood, and put up with the stench. But not only that, they worked faster, but earned less. In fact, they were immigrant labors, and this horrible treatment of them truly happened in the beginning of twenty centuries. The Jungle which was written by Upton Sinclair documented this inhuman treatment. However, a hundred years later, immigrants still suffer the harsh treatment in the modern food industry.

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The American dream is not as easy as people say it is. The American Dream is being able to afford the necessities you need, without having to struggle and suffer just to put food on a table for their families. People think it’s easy to live the American Dream, but little do they know that there are people out there struggling to support their family. The American Dream is difficult to achieve but very possible if people could find the opportunity and available to them.

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A writer named Barbara Ehrenreich states it is impossible to go from being poor and living paycheck to paycheck to being successful and having a good well paying job. There is another author who thinks the American Dream is alive and can be achieved and his name was Adam Shepard. He believes it is possible to go from nothing to having a job and a home that is fully furnished with a well paying job. The American Dream is when a person has a successful job that pays well with a good home that is well furnished and in a good neighborhood. They say that American Dream is achievable for those who work hard and have a positive mindset.

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First off, the American dream isn’t accessible to impoverished families in the U.S. The American dream involves having money to occasionally blow on entertainment or extra purchases. But for 50 million Americans, according to the Huffington Post,

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To most achieving the American Dream is obtaining success and economic stability. To some obtaining the American Dream is making more money than their parents. According to David Leonhardts’ article “The American Dream, Quantified at Last”, New York Times (8 Dec. 2016) provides statistics that show 50 to 60 years ago an individual was able to drastically exceed the amount of money their parents earned. Thanks to rapid, widely shared

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The American Dream is so essential to our country as it is an honor to reach your goals and make it a reality. The American Dream is the national ethos that people’s lives would be better and more abundant with many opportunities. The American Dream was more accessible to attain back in the days, however, changed over the years. Although the “American Dream” is still possible, many people, minorities are affected by the lack of improvement in social mobility in our society. The American Dream is still alive by being able to live a middle-class lifestyle and by obtaining it through perseverance and hard-work.

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No matter who you are or where you have come from, you have undoubtedly heard of the American Dream. The idea that no matter who you are or where you have come from, you can do whatever it is you desire in America. What was once one the main driving forces for immigrants to flock to the new world, has slowly changed over the years, but still holds its value in the eyes of those who are looking for a promising new place to live. The American dream might not hold the same awe inspiring sound that it once did, but for many generations before ours it was a beacon of hope that helped build the foundation that the United States was built on. And, still, today the American dream might not be as achievable as it once was, but it is still an important

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The American Dream was created for all to be equal with the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A dream is a series of thoughts on possibilities one can attain, hence, only one can choose to believe in the American Dream and if it’s achievable. In particular, Steve Tobak’s article called The American Dream is Alive and Well focuses on the opportunity Americans have unlike others and that the dream is attainable by all who work for it. A book by John Winthrop called City Upon a Hill implies that all men are capable of anything if they put God first. The American dream should make life fuller for all, provide happiness, and lead every American to believe they can do anything.

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False Illusions "For many the American Dream has become a nightmare. " These words of Bernie Sanders are accurate to an extent. The American Dream is the idea that anyone, with enough resolve and determination, can climb the economic ladder, regardless of where they start in life. It is called the American Dream because the United States is depicted as the greatest nation in the world, that offers the most opportunity and freedom to achieve upward mobility in society. However, many people attach themselves too much to the hope of achieving this dream that they fail to realize the inequalities that take place in front of their own faces, which are the factors that are hampering them from this illusion.

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On the income side, 84% of Americans have surpassed their parents when it came to the American Dream. Some things that happen to come with it is student debts, legal problem and health care complications. The American Dream is still alive but there are some disadvantages related to financial problems, legal problems, and healthcare complications. In my opinion, financial problems are the leading cause of the downfall of most Americans not achieving their dreams. The average income of a part-time working student is 9 to 10,000 dollars a year.(¨¨)

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