The American dream, something our founding fathers fought for, lost their life for, and something Hollywood has made intangible. We learn about the ways that liberty and the “American dream” have been protected, preserved, and passed on. Yet outside of history class, we do not think about those sacrifices, those traditions, or how important those traditions were to be fought for. We go to the store and see the magazines on the shelves and wish we could be rich and famous. This is not what the founding fathers fought for. Our whole life Hollywood has skewed our image of the American dream, making us think that the life of the rich and famous is the ideal end to a normal life. I am here to say “that’s not right”.
Hollywood, tsk tsk tsk. They make claims that anyone can be a star. They can take any one person and fabricate them into a celebrity, for better or worse. This “ease of fame” has helped skew the image of what we strive for in life. Instead of wanting to be a doctor or a firefighter, little kids want to be the next Kanye West, Rhianna, Ben Stiller, or some other movie star or pop artist. After all, they have so many to choose from. Not all of this idea is negative. For example, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie about a “lower class” individual who is given a chance on a game show and wins it all, the fame, the fortune, the babe. Well maybe not the babe, but you get the picture. This is a nice destiny, but it is not very practical.
Every day we here of celebrities who are filthy, stinking rich. Every news cast, every news website, every MTV new series. With so much exposure to these stories, it’s no wonder we have lost sight of the meaning of the “American Dream.” For example, let’s look at a sample lifestyle of the “rich and famous”. Kanye West lives a life worthy of example. He has a lot of money, huge house, and I’m not sure about his love life. Kanye goes from recordings to “gigs” to singings, lather, rinse, repeat. He has hardly any time for personal enjoyment, no relaxation, all work, money, and fame.
All throughout life we witness people struggling, people succeeding, or people being content financially. Unfortunately, this “statistic” is not a measure of success. You can work your whole life away and the only thing you had succeeded in doing was working your life away. No time for fun, excitement, or adventure. Granted, some people can get those benefits from working, but those kinds of people are few and far between. I would much rather work as needed and fill in the rest of my life with relaxation, fun, enjoyment. This to me is the true American dream. If you are doing what you enjoy doing, have a happy, healthy family, a little money for enjoyment, then you are right in the center of the American dream.
You’ve grown up and you are out of college, you live on your own with a wife and kids, small house but big enough for the family. You make some money, not billions, but enough to stay alive and have fun every now and then. This, I believe, is the true meaning of the phrase “American Dream”. People need to realize that material things are not what define you or make up who you are as a person. The decisions you make, the times you had, memories, events, all define you. Just because you own a lot of things does not mean that you have lived a better live and have achieved the “American Dream”. A person who has struggled to get by, struggled to provide for the ones they love, that person could have found the “American Dream”. I guess what I am trying to say is the “American Dream” is intangible, and it varies between individuals. Every person has a different “American Dream”, just as everybody is biologically different. No one has the right to tell another person what their dream is, and Hollywood, in a sense, is doing this, whether purposely or not.
The way you are brought up may also affect your vision of the “American Dream”. If you lived in the less desirable life style, your vision may be slightly more basic, say house and kids and a little money, as opposed to a person who was brought up in a high end family. Now that’s not to say that the high end family’s child would always go for the rich and famous lifestyle, but they would be closer to that realization. Of course, there are always special cases in this kind of topic, but generally this trend is followed.
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