The American Dream

The American Dream

In text 2 we read about the American Dream interpreted by a foreigner. To this foreigner, America is the Promised Land, and it is the place where dreams come true. He does, however realize, that no dreams come true, unless they are striven for. He thinks, that the American Dream can become true through hard work, learning to speak English, learning the American culture, and participating in the political process instead of taking democracy for granted. He believes that everyone should serve the society, so that the society is not just drained by people chasing their dreams, but filled with good deeds by those.

Text 2 starts out by mentioning, that Americans are very pessimistic about their lives. It attacks the capitalistic version of the American Dream by stating, that above a certain income, the money does not make people any happier, and if everyone lived like the Americans, the earth would not be able to take it. It is pointed out, that the American Dream should be a dream of spending time with the family and the loved ones, instead of spending time at work to afford "keeping up with the Joneses".

At the end, it is mentioned, that young people emphasize governmental investments restoring the social safety net, and that the new American Dream is not as fancy as the older one, but it might actually make America last.

The author of text 3 doubts that the traditional American Dream will survive. The traditional

American Dream is, according to the text, the belief, that the citizens can better their lives, better the lives of their children and save up for their old age through hard work, but many Americans are struggling against rising costs, debt, declining wages etc. The hypothesis is exemplified in the story of Shelly Comer. She is a divorced mother, who works her life away to afford the education of her children. Her oldest child is in college, but also she is working in parallel with the studying, and Shelly has no pension, so it seems like they are working hard to survive, and not just to better their lives.

Contrary to text 1, text 2 is written in a personal style taking a starting point in the narrator's own experiences. This is probably because the second text is written by Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a political purpose, and the first one tries to explain, what the American Dream is, although it also reveals a political intention of equality. Arnold Schwarzenegger probably writes, like he would have said, if he had been giving a speech. The text is very much like a speech, where he tries to convince the immigrants to work hard and give something back to the society for example, while the other text is in a much less personal style. It is more wondering, not making a final conclusion, more neutral, while text 2 is a bit admonishing: Arnold Schwarzenegger wants immigrants to work hard and get involved. The language is more simple in text 2 than in text 1. This is probably because Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to reach the general audience, while text 1 turns more to educated people. Text 1 uses finer words and wordings, than text 2.