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Definition Essay: The True American Dream

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The True American Dream Is it possible to know how long the American dream has been around? Would it be possible to find the person who started it all those decades ago? The simple truth is that there is no one person that began the dream for greatness, no one person who came up with the idea of making a better life for themselves, and the fact is that the American dream was around long before America came to be. The true American dream does not just belong to Americans, but it is called the “American” dream for a reason. America is the land of the free, where all people can shoot for the stars and dream as big as they would like. In the United States of America people are able to follow the true American dream, which is simply stated as unalienable …show more content…

When most people think of the ideal lifestyle, they think of what would make them the happiest. It could be argued that since this aspect of the American dream is so different for each and every individual, and in most cases the hardest part of the dream to attain, that the American dream is not actually possible to achieve. This is stated rather plainly stated by American comedian, critic, author, and actor, George Carlin when he says, “It’s called the ‘American dream’ because you have to be asleep to believe it.” It’s doleful to think that many people actually believe this, when in reality happiness is a choice. Keeping an optimistic point of view is not always easy but it does make life better. Being able to push through hardships and continue to chase dreams is important. Sometimes when a certain dream has been imagined so much that the real dream is no longer attainable, it’s important to either get a reality check or chase a new dream. The character Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby was not able to move past his dream of having the love of the married Daisy Buchanan, and his obsession with her and his fantasy he had created in his head may have ultimately been the cause of his downfall. This lesson is exemplified when Fitzgerald closes the book with the famous quote, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year

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