I would like to respond to Victoria’s post, entitled “Why America?” On her thought of the American dream dying, I do agree, but was it ever truly there to begin with? If we look through history, the immigrants coming into America in the 1800’s and early 1900’s were subject to poor working conditions, tenements housing in city ghettos, and a huge amount of discrimination holding them down. The 1950’s idea of the suburban house and the white picket fence (which had its downfalls) had one major requirement - you had to be white protestant. The American Dream has always been romanticized, but it has always remained in our imaginations to some degree.
The idea of the American Dream is ever changing but one thing that has remained is it doesn’t come easy for certain people. The American ideal of hard work and individualism has been rooted in us ever since our earliest settlers. Achievement of the American Dream (what ever it means to you, I feel it is different for everyone) can be attained through hard work. Immigrants and people living in poverty definitely do have a harder up-hill climb to get there than someone born into a middle class home, but perhaps the beauty of America is that it still CAN happen for those people, it just takes more (seemingly unfair amount) of hard work and individual initiative. To be clear, I am in so way saying that it would be easy, it is just possible and maybe it is that possibility that draws and keeps immigrants here
Meredith Cotter, Post #6
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