The Changing American Dream: The Personalization of Success and Happiness - Essay Example

May 13, The Changing American Dream: The Personalization of Success and Happiness The Declaration of Independence captures the essence of the American Dream. It promotes the virtues of an egalitarian society: “…that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The American Dream begins with equality of all people and ends with equality of access to happiness. This paper analyzes the changes in the American Dream using the films Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross and Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, as well as Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club. The American Dream continues to embody the pursuit of happiness and success, although it has changed to become more ascribed to personal effort and less dependent on trusting social institutions to help them achieve their dreams, as well as the prevalence of broken marriages and families. The American Dream represents the ideals and aspirations of people who believe that in America, they have an equal access to success and happiness. It represents equality in all aspects of life, so that people who work hard, whatever their ethnicity, gender, and age may be, will have an equal chance to attaining a successful life. Success is measured in different terms, although it often equates to material wealth. Numerous immigrants, in particular, go the United States, because they believe that it offers them an equal opportunity to material success, as long as they work hard enough. Amy Tan rewrites a Chinese myth to capture the quintessence of gender and racial equality in the United States: Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of li wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey she cooed to the swan: “In America I will have a daughter just like me. But over there nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husband's belch. Over there nobody will look down on her, because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there she will always be too…” (Tan 17). This passage underscores that Suyuan, Ying-ying, Lindo, and An-mei left China, not only to escape violence and uncertainty, but to also evade gender oppression. On the one hand, traditional Chinese practices and beliefs result to the inferior treatment of women. On the other hand, the American Dream promises the fruits of success and happiness for men and women alike. For example, Suyuan, Ying-ying, Lindo, and An-mei want their daughters to find the kind of success that the former did not attain in China, because women experienced subjugation due to their gender. In Crash, Farhad and his family left Iran to also pursue their American Dream. They have a family business that helped them send their daughter to medical school. Dorri would not have had the same access to quality education in conflict-torn Iran. These characters know that America offers better economic opportunities for their children, because they ardently believe that America values hard work and eschews sexism and racism. For working-class and poor Americans, the American Dream signifies the fulfillment of through industry and perseverance. In Crash, Detective Graham Waters works hard on his career to nullify the racist views about blacks. He is a model of a hardworking police officer, who promotes truth and justice in his work. His American Dream is to have a career that gives him a chance to protect and defend ordinary citizens. Cameron Thayer also realizes his American Dream by becoming a successful scriptwriter. He has a well-paying job, a beautiful house and car, and an attractive and loving wife. He has attained the typical American Dream that stands for fame, prestige, wealth, and happiness. In Pleasantville, the American Dream is much more stereotyped with symbols of white fences and similar-looking houses. The community is composed of blue-collar workers, who work hard during the day and go home to their families every night. They have stable jobs, good friends, and traditional nuclear families. Like Cameron Thayer in Crash, the people of Pleasantville have nice houses, cars, and happy lives. They depict the notion that people who work tirelessly on their goals cannot fail in America. The American Dream, however, has increasingly related to personal efforts and less trust and dependence on social institutions. Modern America currently endures the effects of the Global Recession in 2008. Because of the mortgage and credit crisis, many people have lost their homes and jobs. In Crash, Officer John Ryan represents the frustrations of not achieving the American Dream. His father is sick, but his health insurance does not cover all his medical needs. After working hard as a company owner and employing black people whom he treated as his family, his father cannot depend on the government to help him with his health care needs. This means that ordinary citizens can no longer rely on social institutions to protect and promote their American Dream. In Pleasantville, when some people become colored and have changes in preferences and values, the government immediately reasserts its authority in preserving traditions. The Mayor and the Council create the new “Pleasantville Code of Conduct,” which basically deters people from freedoms of expression and pursuit of learning. This Code prohibits visiting the library and Lovers' Lane, playing loud music, or using multihued paints. Because of such prohibitions, Budd and Mary Sue start a resistance. Their idea of the American Dream is one where the freedom to be different exists. The American Dream does not rest on material wealth and homogeneity alone, but in celebrating and respecting individual and group differences. The American Dream has lately become more intertwined with material success, even if results to broken marriages and families. In Pleasantville, modern society is characterized with divorce and broken families. As a result, Jennifer becomes a typical rebel, while David creates a shell, where he lives in “better world” through being a dedicated fan to the 1950s TV series Pleasantville. Their parents have become too focused on the American Dream of wealth. They worked too hard, and as a consequence, they neglected their marriage and children altogether. In Crash, Graham’s mother accuses him of never being there for his family. Because of his absence in his family’s life, his younger brother, Peter, becomes involved in petty crimes and leaves home. Graham’s mother is shattered with the loss of Peter and she eventually develops a mental illness. Kamp provides a more balanced definition of an American Dream: “The American Dream should require hard work, but it should not require 80-hour workweeks and parents who never see their kids from across the dinner table.” Kamp asserts that the American Dream does not have to sacrifice familial happiness. The American Dream continues to embody people’s hopes for happiness and success. The means to success and nature of happiness have differed across the years, however. Nowadays, people depend more on themselves than social institutions to attain the American Dream. Furthermore, the American Dream has produced drawbacks of broken families and short-term marriages. Too much emphasis on material wealth produced parents who focus more on their careers than their families and marriages. The American Dream continues to evolve as people learn how to balance priorities and to seek for happiness that relies on lasting human relationships and not short-term wealth. Works Cited Crash. Dir. Paul Haggis. Perf. Karina Arroyave, Dato Bakhtadze, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon and Michael Pena. Bob Yari Productions, 2004. DVD. Kamp, David. “Rethinking the American Dream.” Vanity Fair (Apr. 2009). 10 May 2012. < http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/04/american-dream200904>. Pleasantville. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, and J.T. Walsh. New Line Cinema, 1998. DVD. Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. Print. Read More