Pursuing The American Dream: Cabeza De Vaca

Pursuing the American Dream The American dream can mean a variety of things. However, the greatest common view of the magnificent American dream would relate to freedom and prosperity. Even though these ideas and dreams can differ for each person, they all revolve around the same purpose. There is not a single person that would not want to be free or prosper in life. People all the time are chasing after their own form of an American dream. Therefore, everyone has some form of a dream, and countless people would refer to it as an American dream. First of all, everyone wants to be able to prosper. For example, parents want to observe their children grow up to be prosperous, as well as themselves so they can provide for their children. Prosperity

For instance Cabeza De Vaca: The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca, contradicts the American dream by talking about the opposite of freedom and prosperity. The story Cabeza De Vaca tells is about how a great hurricane came and took everything away from people, including the lives of a number of people. The hurricane left these people with absolutely nothing, and they were forced to move in hopes of finding new territory. These people were even naked and managed to travel from Florida all the way through Texas. Also, they stayed with the Indians during their journey and would not eat for days at a time. That definitely does not resemble prosperity. Vaca states, “My only remaining duty is to transmit what I saw and heard in the nine years I wandered lost and miserable over many remote lands” (Vaca 30). As you can tell, Vaca suffered some serious events, and overcame a rather traumatic event. However, just because these men did not prosper, does not mean they were not free. This story is controversial since it tells about how these people were already living the American dream and all of a sudden it was taken from them. They could not do much about the outcome either, except for going along with