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The Impact of Gender and the American Dream

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For my final paper, I decided to focus on the impact of gender in the American Dream. Before deciding on this topic, I skimmed through a few chapters in The American Dream in the 21st Century by Sandra L. Hanson and John Kenneth White. This topic stood out to me because Hanson wrote an interesting chapter on it within the book. While reading the chapter “Whose Dream? Gender and the American Dream,” I learned that the American dream is kept out of reach primarily for women based off of three factors. The first is that there are different standards for women and men within education. Women are discouraged from entering science-related majors, and even those who demonstrate significant potential in the field do not stick with it. According to Hanson, “[a]lmost half of women who enter college with science-related interests switch to other majors” (79). Women are setup to fall behind men in the real world before they get out of the school-system; therefore, women have a harder time...
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The New American Dream(ers)

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When I opened up The American Dream in the 21st Century by Sandra L. Hanson and John Kenneth White, I flipped to the Table of Contents page in search of an intriguing chapter based on its title. Usually, I am one to not judge a book by it’s cover, or an article by its title in this case, but the article titled “Want Meets Necessity in the New American Dream” written by John Zogby grasped my attention. Firstly, the contrasting demands of want versus need within the American Dream is a concept that is interesting to me. Over generations, this idea has developed in several ways, creating a balance of moralistic and materialistic dreams within the whole American Dream. Since this is a topic I continue to explore, I decided to read over this article. Another part of the title that captured my attention was the word “new” and following with “American Dream.” This title provides insight into the article. I know that Zogby will be addressing the development of the American Dream and how i...
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The Essence of America

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Since America was formed, there has been something special about it that set it apart from other countries: the American Dream. As time has progressed, the American Dream has adapted to different contexts in which the citizens are living in. In the past, people dreamt about becoming rich plantation owners; however, today these same people fight for equality. In his scholarly article titled “Reaffirmation and Subversion of the American Dream,” USC professor Walter Fisher discusses the two forms of the American Dream and its importance to American society. In the beginning of the article, Fisher claims that the American Dream actually consists of two dreams. He states that there is the materialistic form of the American Dream, which is the “rags to riches…grounded on the puritan work ethic and relates to the values of effort,” and the moralistic version which comprises of “values of tolerance, charity, compassion, and true regard for the dignity and worth of each and every individua...
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Unique Values

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People from all over the world hold different values according to their customs, beliefs, and backgrounds. America is a diverse country, making it difficult for foreigners to understand American ideals. For this reason, foreign student advisor Gary Althen identifies and explains some core American values in the chapter “American Values and Assumptions,” taken from his book American Ways: A Guide for Foreigners in the United States. One key American value that Althen emphasizes is informality of “speech, dress, and body language” (11). I did not notice the informality of American life until I began taking Spanish classes in high school. I have never been out of the country; therefore, I am not exposed to various cultures and traditions. I believed that everyone universally addresses their parents and professors in the same manner that we do here in America. What I came to learn throughout four years of taking this class is that people of Latin America have more respect for the...
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Insight Into a World of Academic Writing

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While reading through “Teaching the Convention of Academic Discourse” by Teresa Thonney, I learned several things that we, as first-year college students, are doing wrong. Although that I am grateful that I am being introduced to these concepts prior to writing my first official college paper, it is also a wake up call and a mild slap in the face about the differences between high school and college writing. I have heard stories of friends who have spent days on their college papers only to receive a C at best. Obviously this is not the grade they were going for, and they could not figure out what they were doing wrong. They say that after the first few papers they begin to figure out what their professors are looking for because they were never taught to write in this particular style. This is an interesting topic because as Thonney mentions in her article, scholar David Russell believes “...there is no ‘autonomous, generalizable skill or set of skills called ‘writing’ that can...
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Greedy Masterminds

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Our country is simply the best. That is the only way to put it. I have grown up knowing and believing that statement thanks to endless reinforcement through television, the media, popular figures, and from the biased opinions surrounding me. Immediately after diving into Requiem for the American Dream by Noam Chomsky, my previous thoughts about America are torn apart and questioned. What I thought I knew about our country was completely obliterated. Obviously I knew that America has several issues that in need of addressing; however, I was not aware of the complexity nor the extent of the problems in our so-called “opportunistic” society. Once upon a time, America represented a symbol of hope, a symbol of optimism, and a symbol of desire for a new life. Past settlers came to our new and amazing country in search of a fresh start and equal opportunities. Unfortunately, this reality of the American Dream is no longer a roaring flame, it is nothing but a small ember. As Chomsky ad...
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Education Exposed

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What you think you know about America’s system is about to be tragically reversed. Typically, when we think about the concept of the American Dream, we look towards ultimate wealth, equality, or whatever else we desire most. However, Noam Chomsky presents an opposite approach to the idea throughout his book Requiem for the American Dream. He lays out the 10 greatest issues that are responsible for ultimately destroying the American Dream. Personally, I found Principle #2: Shape Ideology to be most interesting. This principle deals with the concept of the modern education system. He takes what we know about the system (the fact that universities are expensive, the belief that Charter schools provide the children with a better education, and the truth that children raised in areas corrupted with poverty have a more difficult time focusing in elementary school) and flips it on its axis to reveal the truth behind the common misconceptions set forth by those in power. Whe...
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