American Dream in I Hear America Singing

What is the American Dream? Well first… the american dream is something that people all over the world come to America for. People from other countries come to the United States for better education and a chance to have the best life possible. The texts I chose to reference are” The American Dream Project”, “I hear America Singing’ by Walt Whitman, and “NPR More Americans Putting The American Dream on Hold’”. The American dream project is an organizational group that travels to places all around the country to show businesses that were once thriving and now aren’t or vice versa. Now in the poem “I hear America Singing’ the text is more about pride and joy of The American Dream. The text makes it seem like everyone and everything was all happy and that there was nothing wrong. The podcast NPR “More Americans Putting the American Dream on Hold” talks about the struggles americans have today with just providing for their families and how so many people believed that the american dream only consists of buying a home. The american dream is not achievable because it is not available to everyone and it does not matter how hard people work because at any given day or time it can be taken away from you.

In the poem “I hear America singing”, people are attempting to accomplish the american dream. People work their behinds off to make sure they reach that goal. In the poem, Whitman says that all over America there are working people singing and going about their work happily with no stress because they believe that they are living the american dream. “Each singing what belongs to him and her and to none else”. -Line 8 The text “ I Hear America Singing supports my claim because it demonstrates the type of people that were able to have the chance to live the american dream. This quote makes it seem like they only believe that certain people are able to accomplish the american dream.

Black african americans and other minorities were often excluded from a lot, The American dream was harder for them to achieve because they weren’t as wealthy and/or educated as the white americans. By the african americans not being well educated this allowed them not to succeed as well as the white people. People often figuratively killed themselves trying to build a better life for themselves in america. These people were very much often let down by the fact that the american dream was not what it seemed to be. NPR makes this idea known and proves that the american dream isn’t achievable for all people. “So millions of people bought homes for the first time and a lot of those people were African-Americans and immigrants who finally felt like their dreams were coming true. They were getting a piece of the American Dream by buying a house. But over the last five or six years that’s really turned into something of a nightmare.”- NPR. People will go and do jurrassic things and believe that this is what the american dream was that did nothing but put them in camps. This quote is exactly why i feel the way I feel about this so called “American dream”.

The american dream project is when two men go around the United States and they show us the darker parts of the US. Things that used to thrive have been abandoned and left to rot. So many people lost themselves to “temporary happiness”. Braddock, Pennsylvaina was most known for their steel mines and was a very nice place to go. Now it is a no man’s land. The town has nothing left and there was more poverty more than ever. “I think the american dream today sucks’- American dream project. The quote means just what it says. Braddock is now a poor town due to the steel mills closing and the town went downhill from there. All caused by the en-dustrialization of america. This is exactly what I mean. In a blink of an eye everything can just fall apart. The town is still in the process of building everything back up after many years. Therefore, the american dream is not realistic. People give their lives to be able to live the american dream…. And for what ?Just for it to be demolished in a couple of years. With that being said, the American Dream is not what we aspire it to be. Everyone from America has a different mind set on the American Dream. In conclusion, most people can say the American Dream is changing but people and times have changed what the true meaning of the American Dream is.

Works Cited:

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