Myths and heroes : the American Dream

Myths and Heroes

I am going to talk about the notion of Myths and heroes. I would like to give a definition of this notion : it is about stories concerning heroes and explaining the origins of a community, often with some universal messages about the human condition.

I have studied documents about 3 American heroes from the twentieth century : Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. And I am going to talk about these heroes and the myth of the American Dream, which is part of the American culture since the origin of this country.

The first part of my talk will be about these 3 extraordinary men and how successful they have been. The second part will be about the myth of the American Dream, what it is and how these 3 heroes are good example of the American Dream.

In 1913, Henry Ford invented the first assembly line to build cars in a more efficient manner. His idea was to organize the work of the workers like machines. Workers had to do the simple tasks, the same again and again, to assemble cars quicker. It was the beginning of mass production in our societies. His invention was very successful, the Ford company became the largest car company in the world and Henry Ford became very rich.

Later, Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, had also an extraordinary life. In 1975, when he was only 20 years old, Steve Jobs created the first personal computer in his garage. A few years later, Apple computers were sold to people all over the world. Then, Steve Jobs created iPod, iPhone, iPad and many other products. Apple products are used in all countries and most people really like Apple products. They work well, are easy to use and good looking. Steve Jobs created all these products, Apple is a very successful company and Steve Jobs became very rich.

At the same time, Elon Musk is another American hero. Born in South Africa in 1971, he moved to the US when he was 20 years old to study at university. At the age of 25, he created a software company and later PayPal, the payment company, which were very successful and which he sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. When he was around 30 years old, he decided to invest in electric cars, called Telsa, which are now sold in the US and many European countries. He also decided to create spacecraft to go to Mars. His company, SpaceX, has been successful and launched the most powerful rocket in the world, doing better than the space agencies of the US and Europe. Elon Musk created many successful companies and has shown that private companies can take more risks and do better than large public companies.

These 3 heroes illustrate the myth of the American Dream. It is the belief that America is a land of freedom where any individual, poor or rich, can succeed through hard work, independently of their origin and their social status. The myth of the American Dream explained why so many people from Europe, Asia and Latin America have immigrated to the US, to have the opportunity to work hard, have a better life and become powerful and rich. The American Dream explains also why the US is so powerful and why so many US companies are so successful.

However, the American Dream is not perfect. It is a selfish and materialistic view of the society. It is about the economic success of a few individuals and not about the well-being of the entire population. The success of these few extraordinary individuals

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