Comparing The American Dream In 'Alexander Hamilton And My Shot'

Encompassing an individual’s goals of economic prosperity and upward social mobility regardless of race, class, or any other predetermined factor, the American Dream represents the telos of United States citizenship. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical, Hamilton, perpetuates the notion that hard work allows the ambitious to beat the odds and better themselves along with their country. With a cast comprised of people of color, Manuel reimagines the romanticized American Revolution to inspire a diverse audience to attain the American Dream. However, this pinnacle of success traditionally discriminates against people of minority status. Explained in reference to the songs “Alexander Hamilton” and “My Shot”, the messages of the American Revolution

engender sentiments of pride among proponents of a small government, capture the idealized faith in America of Old World immigrants, but highlight the difficulty among communities of color in living up to the founders’ vision and achieving the American Dream.
Deriving nationalist views from a reimagined American Revolution, the words of Hamilton demonstrate the Tea Party’s response to what they viewed as governmental overreach. In “My Shot”, Alexander Hamilton lambasts the crown for its overbearing policies in the colonies: “Essentially, they tax us relentlessly/Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree/He ain’t ever gonna set his descendants free/So there will be a revolution in this century.” The Tea Party drew from these anti-establishment attitudes, criticizing the Obama Administration for high taxation, a large government stimulus package, and national healthcare spending in the wake of a debilitating recession. Nationalism, from a white conservative perspective, involves reverting back to America’s imagined roots when more desirable government policies existed. According to the Tea Party’s followers, who disregard the study of history as “conspiracy”, there exists a sanctity and indisputability to the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and other founding papers. In her book explaining the relationship between the colonial and modern revolutions, Jill Lepore equates the documents’ value to that of religious texts for a fundamentalist Christian. Twisting the history of the nation to assert their grievances, today’s Tea Party accentuates an American Exceptionalism optimistic immigrants also expressed upon arrival to the New World.
America presents a new series of challenges and aspirations for immigrants who desire to achieve the ideals established in the nation’s founding.“Alexander Hamilton” captures the anxieties and dreams of newcomers seeking to reinvent themselves in America: “The bow of a ship headed for a new land/In New York you can be a new man.” Hamilton’s process of climbing the ranks and serving his country echoes the tales of other immigrants to the United States. Making a name for oneself, a central theme in American culture, manifests itself in Bread Givers’ Sara Smolinsky, a second-generation Polish immigrant who embarked on a Hamilton-esque adventure in which she achieved the American Dream through her unrelenting persistence to assimilate into the new culture. Her father, while a strict adherent to old-fashioned values, frequently acted as a mouthpiece for the entrepreneurial spirit of American nationalism, spouting, “How do you suppose Rockefeller, or Morgan, or any of those millionaires made their start in America? They all began with empty hands. Their only capital was hope, courage to work out their ideas.” Building upon the beliefs ingrained within her from a young age, Sara sold herring in the street, worked in factories to support her independent lifestyle, received an education, and used her knowledge to escape the burdens of the Old World. While immigrants entered the nation with an optimistic outlook, the virtues of the American Dream often failed to apply to the African American population, whose centuries of oppression often inhibited their ability to climb the social ladder.
The exclusion of Black people during the nation’s founding manifested itself 200 years later in hostility toward the American bicentennial. John Laurens, both a critic of slavery and character in Hamilton, interjects in “My Shot”, saying, “But we’ll never be truly free/Until those in bondage have the same rights as you and me.” The debate over the freedoms each man would receive under the U.S. Constitution failed to extend to African Americans, who lacked equal status under the law until the 1960s. However, the founding documents served as a tool for civil rights leaders who utilized messages of the Enlightenment to further their agenda. Vernon E. Jordan Jr. of the National Urban League expressed interest in celebrating America’s 200th anniversary in order to raise awareness of the “uncompleted revolution” for Black Americans. He wrote, “Its ideals had an extraordinary impact on the world of the late 18th Century and their influence has been felt today, both in the inspiration they’ve provided African liberation leaders and to black Americans seeking the fulfillment of 200-year-old policies.” From before the Revolution until the legislation resulting from the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans remained inferior to white people in the eyes of the law. Though, with the support of the Constitution, some within the Black population viewed the bicentennial as a moment to exercise their rights and emphasize the social and economic hurdles that inhibited many of them from achieving the American Dream. This debate over an African American’s role in the nation echoes that of a similar exchange of ideas ten years prior.
The contributions of African Americans to the structure of the United States often go unnoticed, hindering them in their goal of reaching the American Dream’s ideals.

“Alexander Hamilton” shows the necessity of slave labor and the founders’ lack of desire to alter the economic system: “And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted/Away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up.” Alluding to America’s deep-rooted discrimination, manipulation, and suppression of Black people, the song confirms James Baldwin’s argument in a debate titled, “Has the American Dream been Achieved at the Expense of the American Negro?” Baldwin identified with the African American slaves who built the foundation for America’s economic prosperity, spent lifetimes working under the hand of white masters, and struggled to forge a life for themselves, even with the necessary legal infrastructure to ensure freedom. He declared, “It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, or 6, or 7, to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.” Invoking nationalist sentiments, Baldwin’s use of the flag as a prejudicial national symbol railed against the establishment that oppressed people of color within the United States. Facing a broken criminal justice system, wealth and income inequality, microaggressions and blatant racism, the African American population of Baldwin’s time and today inherited a nation that sought to systemically disadvantage them. From the first colonists, who brought African slaves into the New World in order to achieve the American Dream, to modern institutions that perpetuate discriminatory and oppressive policies, the American Dream seems out of reach for many people of

color.
The impact of the American Revolution, as displayed through Hamilton’s “Alexander Hamilton” and “My Shot”, holds special significance to members of the modern Tea Party movement and immigrants from the Old World. However, it illuminates the challenges African Americans face in satisfying the ideals of the nation’s founding and achieving the American Dream. The mythology surrounding the birth of our nation wields the ability to prompt waves of activism, inspire newcomers, and discourage those that society discriminates against. With the perpetuation of the American Dream acting as a pillar to United States nationhood, the country’s diverse population views its core tenet of individual success as a result of hard work in different lights based on an array of collective American experiences.