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The development of the American dream
The development of the American dream
The evolution of the American dream in time
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The meaning of the American Dream has changed through out the course of history. The desire for people to use the American ideals industry, practicality, self-reliance, self-creation, and cultural contact is not a new way of thinking. In fact, it has been present in the world since the Puritans landed in the Americas hoping to find the New World. It is a list of ideals in which the freedom of the United States gives one the opportunity to pursue ones success. Mrs. Fields Bakery is a countrywide cookie franchise. Debbi Fields is the spokes person and founder of Mrs. Fields Bakery and she is a great example for someone who pursued the American Dream. She was never the smartest person when she was younger but she managed to make her tasty cookies …show more content…
into a multi-million dollar business. Along the way she had a few setbacks with her finances, yet she was later named the "Cookie Queen". Not only does she have stores all over the United States but she has expanded her company to seven different countries with a growing menu to new people with different food taste. Debbi Fields achieved her American Dream to become a successful entrepreneur by opening a cookie store embodying the ideals of self-creation, industry, and self-reliance. One of the reasons for Debbie Field's success is due to the ideal of self-creation: achieving success through one's own efforts by reinventing oneself.
After getting married at 19 to the CEO of Holiday Inn, Randy Fields, she became a housewife. In her biography it says, "She found it difficult at social gatherings when friends would ask what she was doing for a life and then their patronizing looks when she had nothing to answer" (Field's biography). All though she enjoyed being a housewife she knew she would regret not pursuing her dream, owning her own business. "So when she was 13 years old and got her first job at $5 per week, she used this money to buy 'real' ingredients to use for baking her cookies - vanilla, butter, chocolate chips" (Field's biography). This quote clearly states that she has worked hard on her cookie recipe. Being 29 years old knowing she had perfected the recipe in her teen years, she decided to open her Cookie …show more content…
store. Mrs.
Fields also holds another great ideal that an entrepreneur should have, which was industry: being devoted to a task or diligently working towards success. The auto biography stated that, "In 1977 she decided she would open a cookie shop and did just that - with, amazingly, the backing of a banker in this untried concept and inexperienced 20 year old. On August 16, 1977, Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chippery first opened its doors in Palo Alto, California" (Field's biography). It is evident that Debbie was working very hard to reach her goal and trying to make her business survive and a success. "She worked hard and her customer satisfaction was a priority" (Field's biography). This quote explains how important her customers were to her and that she cared more of what the customers got out of it then the money she
gained. One of the most important American ideal that she had when working towards her success was self-reliance, which is being independent or relying on ones self judgment and resource. "Halfway through her first day she had not made a single sale, so she went outside and started handing out her cookies for free. Soon people were streaming in to the shop to buy more of her cookies" (Field's biography). She relied on her own judgment and believed that she could truly become successful, so she came up with the idea of passing out her cookies for free. Ms. Fields biography says, "Her company motto "Good enough never is", says all about her business philosophy" (Field's biography). It states that she never gave up on perfecting her company. Debbi Fields was a very hard a driven woman. This shows to all Americans that if one works hard enough and stays true to their goal, they can pursue their American Dream. Even though, success can be though luck or hard work, the American ideals self-creation, practicality, industry, self-reliance, and cultural contact are usually the right path to success for achieving ones goal. She was willing to work blood, sweat, and tears to make her company a success. Overall, Debbi Fields would have ever pursued her American Dream without the ideals of self-creation, industry, and self-reliance.
Eventually all good business must come to an end because in 1985, Wally Amos sold the company to the Shansby Group. Though it wasn’t his company still, Wally still was a spokesperson for the company for a year before quitting because of frustration. The company was eventually sold to many companies including President Baker and Keebler. Even though his business didn’t fall through he still didn’t quit. Eventually Amos created another company called Chip and Cookie.
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”- Dalai Lama. In my opinion, the chocolate chip cookie has an interesting story. A woman named Ruth Wakefield discovered this delicious treat and from then on, everyone came to know it as the famous chocolate chip cookie. In fact, the chocolate chip cookie is one of America’s favorite cookies. Ruth Wakefield was an amazing and very lucky baker.
Before Milton Hershey had a world wide known chocolate business, he had a small, not so well known caramel business. Milton Hershey began his chocolate making business in 1893, when his father and him traveled to Chicago to attend a big job fair (Tarshis 14), but it wasn’t until 1900 when Hershey succeed in making the first milk chocolate candy bar (The Hershey Company). Hershey attended an exhibit hall of new and amazing inventions around the world at the fair in Chicago. As Hershey walked into the exhibit hall, he was struck by a delectable smell (Tarshis 14). “Hershey was already a leading candy maker. He had created the largest caramel factory in the country, but he became convinced that the future of his business would be chocolate. At the fair in Chicago, Hershey Bought chocolate-making equipment. He had it shipped back to his caramel factory in Pennsylvania. Then he hired two chocolate makers. Soon the company was churning out chocolate candies in more than 100 shapes” (Tarshis 15).
Madelyn McQueen - Twin Falls Idaho Have you ever wondered how the delicious, classic treat came to be? Well, any event you can think of after the date of 1938, the cookie was bound to be there. Several stories about how the country’s favorite baked good came to be, have been spread and believed by thousands. For example, Ruth Wakefield unexpectedly ran out of nuts for a regular ice-cream cookie recipe and, in desperation, replaced them with chunks chopped out of a bar of Nestle bittersweet chocolate. Another story is said that the vibrations from an industrial mixer caused chocolate stored on a shelf in the Toll House kitchen to fall into a bowl of cookie dough as it was being mixed. Sadly, all of these stories are false, says Carolyn Wyman in her recently published “Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book.” In her book, Wyman offers a more believable version of how the cookie came to be. Wyman argues, that Ruth Wakefield, who had a degree in household arts and a reputation for perfectionism, would not have allowed her restaurant, which was famed for its desserts, to run out of such
The term “American Dream” is defined as an idea which believes that all people have the possibility of prosperity and success. The idea first came from James Adams, a noted American writer and historian. He claimed, “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement.” Therefore, the core concepts of the American Dream were closely linked to hard work and opportunity.
The phrase the American dream is contradictory to it’s meaning. The American dream was for most people just that, a dream. However, these very people had their hopes dashed and were forever lost. One could argue that a much more fitting and appropriate name for the American dream might as well be the American nightmare. In the 1920’s and early 30’s, the American dream was a beacon of hope as well as prosperity for anyone unfortunate enough to fall under it’s alluring curse, with an exception of a handful of people. What was given instead of this promise of wealth and dreams, what was given was the deterioration of dreams, and usually lives. Sadly, Lennie Small, from Of Mice and Men as well as Jay Gatsby, from The Great Gatsby was not the exceptions.
The American Dream still lives today in society in which people strive to the top and accomplish their goals in life. James Truslow Adams coined the term in 1931 in his book called “American Dream”. He stated in the book "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement". The importance of this quote in Adams’ novel is that the American Dream can be achieved by anyone (Warshauer 3). There are no limits and bounds to these emotions and people from any social class can seek their dreams and desires in life. Over the years the definition of the American Dream has changed, but the underlying fundamental meaning had stayed the same. The American mentality is basically participation in the economy and society in order to gain a better social standard and be prosperous. The United States Declaration of Independence also had some influence in the definition of the American Dream. In the Declaration of Independence it states all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" includi...
By definition the American dream refers to the national ethos of the great United States of America (Mailer,1965). It contains a defined set of ideals that include the chance for not only prosperity but also success and freedom. Further the American dream entails the upward societal mobility that can be achieved through hard work. James Adams in 1931 defined the American dream by saying that life should be richer , better and fuller for all individuals , with the a fair opportunity for everyone according to their ability and achievement regardless of circumstances of birth or social class. The American dream idea is deeply rooted in the declaration of independence which proclaims that all of us are created equal and that we are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights such as life ,liberty and most importantly the pursuit of happiness(Vatanpour 1991)
First, what is the American dream? According to David Wallechinsky, “the traditional American Dream is based on the belief that hardworking citizens can improve their lives, pay their monthly bills without worry, give their children a start to an even better life, and still save enough to live comfortably after they retire” (1). “The American Dream” states, “It has always represented the possibility for individuals to succeed and live a life of wealth and comfort, made possible by both the political and economic attitudes in the USA and the individual’s own hard work” (1). Daniella Nicole adds that “in years past, chasing the American Dream meant the sky was the limit. . .” (1).
In the 1920s, the American Dream was much different from what we believe the American Dream is today. Although it is changing, the American Dream is also fading and people are making their own dreams. The American Dream is the traditional social ideals of the United States and many people’s lives revolve around trying to achieve what they perceive this dream as.
In the United States there is an idea many pursue called the American dream, which differs from person to person. The American dream according to americanradioworks.publicradio.org is “a revolutionary notion: each person has the right to pursue happiness, and the freedom to strive for a better life through hard work and fair ambition”. Yet it has been said there is no real definition of American dream, instead it merely proves that it has an unconscious influence in American mentality (Ştiuliuc 1). The American dream is different for each person because everyone yearns for things that will they hope will in return make them happy. Whatever that may be, each person goes through different struggles to obtain what they want. According to Frederic Carpenter, the American dream “has never been defined exactly, and probably never can be. It is both too various and too vague” (3). The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse depicts the different interpretations on what the American dream actually is through the opinions and actions of Hector Esperanza, Efren Mendoza and Mrs. Calhoun.
In 1931 when the American Dream arose, Americans believed that the harder one worked, the more one would prosper (Meacham, 2012). In other words, they strongly believed that the American Dream was gaining a better, richer, happier life. Today, the American Dream is still hoping to earn a college degree, get a good job, buy a house, and start a family, but according to MetLife’s fifth annual survey, 41% of the respondents said it was about personal fulfillment, while most American’s say it is out of reach for many (White, ...
Up until now, the term American Dream is still a popular concept on how Americans or people who come to America should live their lives and in a way it becomes a kind of life goal. However, the definitions of the term itself is somehow absurd and everyone has their own definition of it. The historian James Tuslow defines American Dream as written in his book titled “The Epic of America” in 1931 as “...dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” The root of the term American Dream is actually can be traced from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 which stated “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
The American Dream was and always will be something that makes America great. It allows those with aspirations to make them come true. In America alone needs is a dream and the motivation to carry out that dream. Ambition is the driving force behind the American Dream. It allows any one that has an aspiration, a desire, a yearning, to carry out the individual dream. It knows no bounds of race, creed, gender or religion. It stands for something great, something that every one can strive towards. A dream can be a desire for something great. In America, the American Dream allows dreams to become realities. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, the American Dream is defined as "An American social ideal that' stresses egalitarianism and especially material prosperity". To live this dream is to succeed. It allows anyone, rich or poor to have the opportunity to succeed. It is the ability to come from nothing and become so me thing. To succeed at any thing you do, you must have patience and persistence. It requires hard work, persistence and a desire for something better. To have these qualities and the desire and ambition to carry the moutis part of the American Dream.
When the term ‘American Dream’ was first mentioned in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, he described it as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” (Clark). When Adams mentioned the term, it had much more of an idealistic meaning, rather than the materialistic meaning it has in modern society. At the time of it’s mention, the dream meant that prosperity was available to everyone. In the beginning, the American Dream simply promised a country in which people had the chance to work their way up through their own labor and hard work (Kiger). Throughout history, the basis of the dream has always been the same for each individual person. It