Summary Of The American Dream Dead Alive By Brandon King

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

The tone behind his work is a way King uses his language to persuade the reader. As a young law student King deliberates a fresh point of view on our nation that is both professional and relatable. His tone is not too serious so King does not repeal any young or medial-academic readers and his tone is still professional with plenty of research and logic involved. King’s tone is essential to the affect he has on the reader and makes the piece very effective. Along with the tone King uses his point-of-view and personal opinions and beliefs as a way of persuading the reader. When presenting one’s own beliefs it’s very easy to become biased on the subject and lose credibility toward the matter. However, King presents the other opinion and agrees that our economy is fragile and that we must be cautious. He introduces economist Paul Krugman who states “the lack of clear economic progress for lower and middle income families is in itself an important reason to seek a more equal distribution of income (pg. 3).” Krugman is explaining how no progress has been made for equal distribution for lower and middle income families. King displaying these opinions of the other side and agreeing with them shows how he’s has an open mind on the subject and is open to discussion from both sides. It was essential that King wasn’t biased on the subject mentioning the other view and has both a

King’s appeals to the Pathos, Logos and Ethos of the reader is how the rhetoric was developed overall throughout the paper. The Ethos or the credibility that King creates is very essential component to how the rhetoric was built throughout this essay. King provides multiple quotes, statistics and facts to support the claims and ideas he is attempting to get across. King provides many quotes from credited writers from both point of views. The Logos or the logic that King appeals toward is both the reality of our everyday lives and the possibilities of what our nation could become if we make the wrong decision. King understands that American’s share a logical sense of our place within the American economy as we could not make a difference by ourselves alone. However, King describes in detail the events that would transpire before, during and after if we were to make a decision moving forward with our economy. King begins to draw a lot of emotion from the reader appealing to our Pathos as a reader. This appeal, when used correctly, can be extremely persuasive to a reader forcing them to take action. For example, King writes “more and more people now rent their homes instead of buying; a recent study showed a decrease in home ownership from 69% in 2005 to about 66.5% in 2010, with an increase in renter households of 1.1 million (pg.2).