An American Dream

The American Dream has been a very persistent and relevant topic in our class. It's considered something that is actively changing, a reflection of our values, or something that has been increasingly hard to attain. Not yet have we came across a text that discusses how there's two versions of the American Dream: a materialistic and moralistic one. His claim that these two different ideas of the American Dream exist is interesting to analyze. He defines the materialistic American Dream as something that values the tangible aspect of success including wealth, status, and power. He claims that this form of the American Dream encourages things like manipulation and exploitation. I agree with this claim when I think of large businesses such as Apple and Walmart that exploit labor overseas in order to reach high sales. A lot of people don't know how heavily outsourced the productions of Iphones are in countries that are considered third world or struggling to reach a 1st world ...

The values and belief system of a country always have some sort of impact in its people. In Gary Athen's book American Ways: A Guide to Foreigners in the United States in a chapter called "American Values and Assumptions", Athen discusses the values and belief systems of the United States and its effect on people. The first and one of the most notable (in my opinion) characteristics he mentions is individualism. This is the idea that one can express themselves in their own unique manner, be self-reliant, and practice independence. Individualism is a very promoted and encouraged idea in our country. It is so admired that our education system is slowly adhering to this concept. 200 student lecture classes in which the professor explains everything and the communication is only one-sided are constantly being criticized by pedagogists, teachers, and students themselves. Classrooms in which the creativity and individual thoughts are expressed more often in a manner in which ...