The American Dream

The American Dream can be defined as a belief and the freedom that allows all citizens and residents to achieve their goals in life through hard work in the United States of America. For some, it is the opportunity to achieve more prosperity than they could in their countries of origin; for others, it is the opportunity for their children to grow up with an education and career opportunities; for others, it is the opportunity to be an individual without the constraints imposed by class, caste, race, or ethnicity. The main characteristic of the ideology of the American Dream is that it’s all about success, of which there are varying levels. They include absolute success, competitive success and relative success.

 Absolute success is a type of success that everyone hopes to achieve but few do. It usually implies reaching a state of total well being, better than one would have started out with. Those who are of low socio-economical status, and by those who immigrate to America especially seek this success out. In the play, Death of a Salesman, the main character Willy Lowman looks up to his older brother Ben because he has achieved absolute success, in becoming rich in Alaska.

ompetitive success as its obviously called is a form of success that requires victory over someone else. The American way fosters competition between two parties, usually people, and in essence, when someone is successful, it implies another person’s failure or defeat. Sometimes the competition is known and identifiable, like an opposing team, whereas sometimes the competition is unknown and cant be cut down to one person, such as applicants for a job. In Death of a Salesman, this type of success is seen when Willy’s neighbor Charlie, and his son become successful, whereas Willy and Biff are not, so Willy becomes resentful to Charlie.

Lastly, relative success is success is achieving the American dream by becoming better off than some comparison point, whether one’s childhood, people in the old country, one’s neighbors, a character from a book, another race or gender-anything or anyone that one measures oneself against. This is success a t its core. Its not just becoming rich and popular but also just being better than what was before. It is the drive to do better that is the driving force for success.

Many people equate the American Dream with success. Success in this society is something that people see as the result of hard work. Its what we make of ourselves. Though there may be many views on the American dream, and many factors, such as race, sex, and economic status.