The American Dream In Today's Society

The self-made man in the 1920s embodied a man who once struggled to get by, but picked up his life by working hard, and became wealthy and therefore happy. People of the 1920s began to “enshrine wealth as the essence of value” (Beder). In The Definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams, Adams defined the American Dream as "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” The American Dream was promoted and glorified in this era to the extent that it became an unrealistic illusion and unattainable to most. Books and stories that “emphasised ‘hard work, punctuality, and reliability’” (Beder) became popular. Real life American success stories caught the attention

Benjamin Franklin’s philosophy of the American Dream is structured around the idea that government rule limits one’s own freedoms, causing a need to maintain one’s independence by becoming economically stable Franklin feared that a strong and central government would inhibit individual freedom to have any type of life wanted. His answer to this fear was to be economically sound so that you have more control over your own life (Johnson). In the mid to late 1800s, Andrew Carnegie was a self-made businessman who used his brains and his drive to build himself an empire in the steel business. Living in a poor town in Scotland, Carnegie’s family became involved in a Chartist movement to improve working conditions, but when the movement failed, his family traveled to America for a better life. At only 13 years old Carnegie worked as a “bobbin boy in a cotton mill, carrying bobbins to the workers at the looms” (Andrew Carnegie) and barely earned a dollar per week. After one year he was hired to be a messenger for a telegraph company, and was promoted to telegraph operator, followed by the company’s superintendent by age 24. Carnegie's boss, and superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s

“His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people - his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (Fitzgerald 98). He knew at an early age that he did not want this type of life and viewed his parents with contempt. Gatsby saw that others who had simple beginnings, were able to embed themselves into the higher strata of society. When Gatsby’s father meets Nick Carraway, he shows Nick a detailed schedule that Gatsby had made for himself as a child, which included his goals such as saving up three dollars every week, foreshadowing Gatsby's desire to become wealthy. After Nick is shown the schedule, Gatsby’s father describes Gatsby's work ethic and determination as a child, “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something” (Fitzgerald 173). Gatsby chose to write this schedule in the back of Hopalong Cassidy book. This book contained the adventures of a fictional cowboy named Hopalong. The classic western tales found in Hopalong Cassidy books present a strong, independent, successful cowboy who is a self-made man. The book most likely sparked Gatsby’s fascination with being successful, even as a young boy. Gatsby’s schedule that listed his daily requirements and underneath it, a list of general resolves, is similar to Ben Franklin's list of moral perfections where Franklin allotted time for each self-improving event of his day (Miller). Gatsby