Juliana's RWS 200 Blog

This week when we were told to read the introduction of "The Making and Persistence of the American Dream," I found myself rereading it a lot. The information was interesting and all, but jeez they threw out so many dates and names at us. There was a particular section that stuck out to me when I read it that I realized would be perfect to write about for this blog post. On page 7 or so of the introduction chapter, I came across a paragraph that talked about a possibly explanation as to why the American Dream persists after so much time even though so much has happened in that time frame. What I found interesting was this quote that I'll share:  "Instead of questioning the American Dream, Americans are more likely to blame themselves when things do not turn out as they hoped." What I find so interesting is that the American Dream is something that is so well known that people trust it that much even tough it's not even concrete idea. The America...

The American Dream is always something I remember learning about in boring history classes where teachers would rant about the writers of the Constitution and other American history like that. It seemed like the American Dream was always something that some men back in the 1700’s decided for an entire country. Now that I’m older, I feel like I understand more about what it truly means, which is in fact that it means different things to different people. In The New York Times article " American Dreams " from late last year, a man goes around and interviews people on what exactly those two words mean to them.   To me, the American dream means so many different things. Really, it’s just an idea. It’s not concrete. It’s not determined by any one person. It’s a set of ideals that people hold about what they expect from their country. If you go to someone in New York and ask them about what the American Dream means to them, it will be extremely different than what you hear f...