Money In The Pursuit Of The American Dream

1361 Words3 Pages

Money can do a lot to a person. It can corrupt and manipulate them, it can change the way they think of others and themselves, and it can influence them to do things that in their right mind, they would not normally do. Money in the hands of evil or people who are not mature to handle it can change a totally pure thought or goal to one of evil and dishonesty. Everyone has a goal or feeling they want achieve at some point in their life, and they might have it all planned out on how they will achieve this goal and a main focus or method on how they will eventually make this goal an accomplishable one. In the world day people have made it impossible to live without not making money or having a well paying job to keep a steady lifestyle. Money …show more content…

The use of money for the wrong reasons can turn dreams like success, power, and happiness into false and impure ones. The American Dream is unattainable without the support of money or acquiring money in the pursuit of that dream, but too much money can turn people's dreams into ones that will corrupt them and change their entire way of life.

Every American wants to be successful. There is a certain job that they wish to have, a certain place that they will want to live, or a certain person that they want to someday be. One of Gatsby's ideas of success was being something far greater than what his life living in the midwest had to offer. He had a dream of one day being rich and when he saved the man in the sailboat that is when his dream became an achievable reality(Gatsby). When people are working towards achieving success they must be able to pick themselves up from failure. The only way people are successful enough to achieve great things is because they have gone through failure multiple times and are able to overcome it. It is …show more content…

They will make it their life goal to achieve that happiness once again before their time is up on this earth. I think that this happiness that people want starts off as an initial pure thought, but when a person is exposed to the elements of how the real world works and that everything revolves around money, they become corrupted by this and money becomes the center of their life. When this happens they will become so tied to having and achieving this money that all other thoughts of happiness and family and anything else will go out the window. When Walter is focused in on getting the money for the liquor store he forgets and blocks out his entire family. When he has his share of the money he quickly takes it and gives it to his friend, only to discover that soon after his friend has stolen the money and left town. Walter is so distraught, but when he finally realizes the man he has become he realizes that he will never truly be happy without his family, and besides the major loss he and his family have endured, they come back together stronger than ever. This is a good example from Raisin in the Sun because its shows how Walter practically forgot the person he was because of his lust for money, but once he realized what it could do to a person, he came back to reality and

Open Document