Question: Is the American Dream just a dream?
My question entails whether the American Dream really is attainable for everyone and if is luck is on our side. I believe that this idea has been a long held goal especially to immigrant families to arrive in America. While everyone has their own version of the “American Dream”, I plan to focus on what the word symbolizes, being stability. I also would like the reader to eventually realize this idea stretches beyond financial wellbeing, and should incorporate some aspects of their wants and needs. For evidence, I hope to use statistics to show the barriers that prevent certain people from climbing this ladder such as the minimum wage and gaps seen between race and gender.
Doubts: I am not completely sure if this question is too broad still and whether I should apply it to a certain group particularly. The reason I didn’t make it about a specific type of people is because this idea is applied to everyone. Like everyone has their own “American Dream” so it would be too exclusionary to just talk about some of it. But I don’t know, maybe it has to be more specific to explain a group’s point of view better. Still on the fence.
First off, not only do I love the prompt, but I love how you rebrand “The American Dream” as stability. I think as Americans we often view the American Dream as fantasy-like photo album, ripe with images of sports cars, McMansions, and private schools for our children. However, as many of us know, this perception is skewed and does not speak to the more grounded, and realistic ambitions of those who chase this dream.
I also think that your prompt touches on the philosophical implications of what it means to live well. I think interjecting some thoughts on this, will help viewers move towards a more realistic and “fair” understanding of The American Dream. I think this can also help solve some of the doubts that you mentioned as well. If you can pinpoint one culture, possibly an immigrant group in NYC, you can garner a collective, culturally-based opinion of what it means to live well. After garnering this collective opinion, you can rebrand The American Dream specifically for that culture, based off of what they consider to be “living well in America”.
Great start! I wouldn’t worry too much about your doubts on this one, as I think there are definitely solutions, and ways in which you can make this a meaningful research essay.
The American Dream is a topic that can be taken in many different directions. The very idea entails a certain mindset that I believe you will cover. This mindset of dropping everything and chasing your dreams seems unrealistic, but seemed to be many immigrants salvation. The concept of stability in terms of this American Dream is a interesting topic that parallels with its ideas. I hope to see this essay because it’s going in a great direction.
reading the question I was already interested because I feel like this can go in so many different directions. totally try not to be too vague tho, besides that you have a great choice.
I like your research question, however I feel like you shouldn’t lean towards using the word luck since luck isn’t really something that can be qualitative or be shown through statistics and such. But I do like how you mention that there are different definitions of “The American Dream” and that everybody has different goals in mind. Maybe delve into surveys of what immigrant people/ non immigrant people want to accomplish in life in the U.S. or some statistics along those lines. I also like the evidence you plan on using, that seems like it would benefit your research question. All in all, your research question seems really interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Hope I was able to help.
It sounds interesting. You probably can show how the American dream is a dream, or is just a pit for immigrant families to fall into to be used by the superior ones, then end off with what you think