The American Dream with a picture

The American Dream

My definition of the American dream is that every person living in the United States can have a beautiful and happy life through her work and determination. I think that the American Dream is also a synonym of freedom and wealth. In America, someone who manages to achieve his version of the American Dream is said to be « living the dream ».

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This picture features Barack Obama. There’s the American flag behind him and, over his head, his famous sentence “Yes we can”.

I think that this man is the perfect representation of my definition of the American dream.

He was a child in a modest family and, through his work (he has gone to Harvard) and his determination, he became a famous politician and then the first black president of the United States of America.

Maybe that Obama’s American Dream was to change America, because he has succeed in it through his investment in the country and in American political life. For example, he has created the Obamacare, which is a law who protects American without health insurance. He has also set up an agreement with Iran to limit their nuclear production.

So thanks to this and other things he has done, he has received the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to me, the sentence “Yes We Can” is a way to say to people that everything is possible, that their American Dream is possible if they believe in it and if they do everything to succeed. For example, a student who has the ambition to become a lawyer can become it if he works a lot during his studies, and of course, if he has the motivation to study a lot.

In a more general vision, the American Dream has been very criticized. People say that it’s impossible for everybody to be able to realize their dreams; there are still inequalities in class, race, religion and ethnicity preventing people from « living the dream ».

But despite this, the American Dream is the reason why first migrants have begun to come in USA and it’s the reason why they continue to do it. Migrants are first of all attract by freedom, a notion that is perfectly represents in America by the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, after the attract of liberty, there’s the attract of money.

You must take decisions and act to achieve social and economic prosperity. This taking of risks causes dynamism in the society but also competition. Indeed, if meritocracy exists, people who work the harder will be better than the others. In fact, the American Dream is a wish to access to the Middle Class. The Middle Class is the one where people have succeeded but are modest and they don’t consider themselves as people of the upper class. Personally, I think that the Middle Class is just a step of the American Dream, but it’s a question of point of view. For some people, access to this class is satisfying and they live perfectly with that. But for some others, access to the upper class is a part of their American Dream and it can be the goal of their life.

In conclusion, I think that Barack Obama isn’t only the perfect representation of my definition of the American Dream, but the representation of everybody’s definition, whatever it could be. He has succeeded in all that we can dream of and he represents the idea that we can do it too.

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