The American Dream: historie, idealer og kritik

When I hear the sentence “The American Dream” I think about the rich Americans who are happy, and live their lives. But it’s an idea which suggests, that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all people have the potential to live happy, successful lives. The idea of an American Dream is older than the United States. In the 1600s, people began to come up with all sorts of hopes and aspirations for the new and largely unexplored continent. The American Dream started as a dream for the hard struggling workers in America, who wanted to get a better life, be richer and full of happiness. Not just for themselves, but for everyone. And the idea had also changed a lot. Many of these dreams focused on jobs, businesses and ideals of religious freedom. For people who believe in the American Dream, say that anything is attainable through hard work. People who got the idea want to, that people are not discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, gender and national origin. Critics of the American dream also point out, that many versions of the dream equate prosperity with happiness, and that happiness may not always be that simple. These critics suggest, that the American Dream may always remain tantalizingly out of reach for some Americans, making it more like a cruel joke than a genuine dream. On the 4th of July in 1776 the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. America’s declaration of independence was written by Thomas Jefferson who would later become America’s third president, explained why America had chosen independence and what sort of vision the founders of the new country had for the future. The declaration of independence has some famous words and it’s this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”