My English Essay - The American Dream Project

Hey everybody! I had to write this essay for english. We had to find a song, poem, or news story that we feel best represents the American dream, either in the present or in the past and write 2-3 paragraphs discussing the poem, song, or news story. she gave us some questions that we could frame our response around and stuff on the direction sheet but I'm not gonna bother listing them or copying the entire set of directions, you get the gist of it from what I've told you, hopefully. lol Anyways, I just figured I'd put it up here just for kicks and to see what people think of it, and also cause it's somewhat musical.. haha I chose to do a song and the song I chose for this was Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer", good song. :) haha Anyways, I hope you like my essay, and I'm also gonna attach the link to the song here soo, enjoy! :) haha

 

The American Dream Project

      

                 To many people, the American dream is simply, opportunity, self invention, possibility, freedom, the idea of the self made man, the idea that if you are an honest, hardworking person, nothing will stop you. To me, it is more than that. It is all of that plus, going from rags to riches, working hard to get from the bottom to the top. It is going from having nothing to having everything you want, all through hard work and dedication. It is living your dream and doing what you truly want to do and being where you really want to be in life. It is working hard to succeed and living life to the fullest to get where you truly want to be in life. That is the American dream, at least to me. Of course, it is so much more than that and the definition of the American dream is defined differently by most people and tends to change a lot but that is at least part of my definition of the American dream.

                 I chose to do a song for this project and the song that I chose was “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. This song is basically about a fair couple that have been working hard to try to make a better life for themselves but they say, it doesn’t really matter if they make it or not because they’ve got each other, which is enough for them, although they would still like to have a better life for themselves and are working hard to attain it. The song was written and released in late 1986. At the time, there were a lot of hard working families working to attain better lives for themselves and the couple mentioned in this song is no exception. The song sort of exemplifies the American dream because it is about this couple who have been working hard to attain better lives for themselves. This kind of exemplifies the American dream because the American dream is basically all about working hard to attain your own American dream and to get to where you want to be in life. The American dream basically says that if you’re an honest, hardworking person, then, nothing will stop you. This song sort of shows that the American dream is attainable with a lot of hard work but it also kind of shows the illusion side of the American dream, the idea that you might not always make it, because in the song they say “It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not..” which kind of shows that there’s a big IF there and that not everything in life is so predictable or such a sure thing. However, I believe that the American dream is, eventually, attainable with enough hard work and determination. With hard work and determination, you can pretty much pull anything off, including the American dream, if you so desire. Also, I think that although the song is more of a modern song (written in the 80’s), the American dream from the 1920’s to then, had not really changed much and was still basically the same. Even now, it’s basically the same as it was and has not changed much over the years. That American dream is still basically, opportunity, self invention, possibility, freedom, the idea of the self made man, and the idea that if you are an honest, hardworking person, nothing will stop you. This has remained basically the same over the years and is still just as attainable now as it was in the 1920’s or any other time, with a lot of hard work and determination.

Thanks for taking the time to read that, I hope you enjoyed it. :) 

Thanks again for reading that and if you've read this far, THANK YOU!!!! Again. lol 

thanks, 

Kelsey.