Sergio Berrios

Prof. Bailar
English 1000
18 May 2016
Essay 1: The American Dream
What is the American dream? Is the American dream dead? We all now what the
American dream is and we all have an image in our minds of what it should look like to
be living the America dream. Some people believe that the American dream is dead. Keli
Goff, an America journalist, wrote an article explaining why the American dream is dead
and how its change financially, socially and how people personally have change the
American dream.
Keli Goff points that the American Dream is dead and that is out of financial
reach for many people; she sites USA Today provides us with financial information and it
says that for anyone to have the American dream they need to have at least have 130,000
dollars. She also points out that there are specific standard that people need in order to
achieve the America dream. The standards that Goff list out are: being married and
having two kids, a good car and home ownership. An example she mentions is that home
ownership is key to achieving the American dream but people from New York might say
that having a good apartment is living the American dream. She then mentions that the
definition of the American dream is lost and we tend shift our understanding of the
American dream back to those specific standards. An example that Keli Goff gives us is
that the original phrase The America Dream by James Truslow Adams was meant for

people to understand that everyone has a chance to be equal in this world; but through out
the years we have change the meaning of that phrase.
Keli also argues that the American Dream has been pounded into our lives for years and
people always have this image of what she refers to the white picket fence. She
establishes that adults living by themselves and children free adults are increasing and
more people are shifting away from the original American Dream. The text also says that
since the American dream is now of financial reach that people are having different views
and meanings of what the American Dream means for them personally.
I agree with Goff in that the American Dream is dead and that Americans have
change the American Dream to fit their own standards instead of the standards that Goff
points out in the article. She says But for many of us our American Dream doesnt
involve all of the above, and in some cases any of them what she means by this is that
people dont have the same standards and for some of them it could be just to be
successful in life or to be able to have a professional job or to be married. Others prefer
the standards that were mention at the beginning.
Goff explains that the definition of the American dream has been lost and that the
original meaning of the American Dream has been forgotten and the phrase created by
James T. Adams has not being emphasized as much as it was in 1931. The reason for the
original phrase being forgotten is not because we forgot what the American dream is but
instead we as a culture have change dramatically because of the mixture of cultures and
different races from all over the world and for many of them the definition of American
Dream is different from Americans. Speaking from personal experience and I myself
being from Puerto Rico and a different culture, my version of the American Dream is just

to be successful in everything that I do and to enjoy life as much as I can. For example
when we watch commercials about families in the 1930s and 1940s they show us a
family of two kids a husband and wife with probably a pet watching T.V together;
however commercials now sometimes show families with one kid or people who live by
themselves trying to buy a car.
Goff also argues that the American Dream has been peddled to us by years. She
says Perhaps nothing is more responsible for the lack of contentment plaguing some
Americans today than the outdated notion of the American Dream that has been peddled
to all of us for as long as we can remember. We all know the American dream to be the
ultimate goal people need to achieve; but as I mention before people are changing the
meaning of the American Dream to fit their own standards and having people from all
over the world now living in America and bringing their culture and different versions of
the American Dream has made us change the original meaning of the American Dream.