Alan Burkhart
Enc1102
Kelly Warren
Tuesdays 6:00
American
Dream
What
is the American Dream? Is it when a child grows up in the perfect neighborhood
and gets good grades through school only to sit at a desk his whole life and do
paperwork? Could the dream be the one boy who loves to use his hands and later
on becomes a mechanic even though he failed high school English? The American
Dream is whatever any one person makes it for themselves. (Wisegeek) We could
call it the dream to become a car repo man, or a mail man. The dream is doing
what you love in your everyday life.
For
an immigrant, the dream would most likely be to become a US citizen and to have
a job that could support his family better than he could in his home country.
Some people in other countries send their children at young ages of 12-17 to
come to America and make a better life for them in hope of one day becoming a
citizen and meeting their children somewhere to live happily. The path of an
immigrant coming to US is a difficult path to navigate with the problems in
customs and with the Border Patrol. Many immigrants get caught, however many
make across and begin their version of the American Dream. The passion they show
and the drive they put forward to get here is what really deepens our thoughts on
what the American Dream is. (Moyers)
US
citizens make the dream out to be becoming a success in a corporate company and
driving their BMW or Mercedes by the time they’re 35 years old. However, some
Americans make the dream out to be driving an old beat up pick-up and coming
home to a hot meal in their small house. These people are the American that
makes the corporate dream possible for the other people in this country. The
mechanics that jam their hands in every crack and crevice of the corporate
man’s foreign car seem to make a sacrifice everyday with their lower pay and
their dirty clothes with their less than average vehicles, but if you talk to
any of these men and women, 90% will tell you that they love what they do. Time
and time again, people make the mistake of thinking that they have to live in
the big house with the nice foreign car and poster wife that they don’t really
love. This is all making the American Dream seem materialistic. (Khurram) The
American Dream is what you want it to be and what you want to do with your
life.
No matter what you do, what you enjoy, or
where you’re from, the American Dream is what you make it. Don’t let people
tell you what you have to do with your life, do what interests you. The
American dream is whatever you make of it and however you do it.
Work
Cited
Khurram, Shanzeh. "Is the American Dream Becoming Too
Materialistic?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Feb.
2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2013
Moyers, Bill. "Deepening the American Dream." PBS. PBS,
n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2013
"What Is the "American Dream"?" WiseGEEK. N.p.,
25 Feb. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2013
