1. ) What was the american dream in the past and what is it now? America is a nation of immigrants and all its citizens, apart from the Indians, are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. The motives for immigration are religious, political oppression in their homeland or economic reasons to emigrate. And they all had the dream of a new society. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1776 in the Declaration of Independence of, , inalienable rights.” These rights are the equality of opportunity, and also political, racial and social equality. The individual freedom in case of religion, politics and economy.
And last but not least the pursiut of happiness, that you can fulfill yourself and go from, , rags to riches.” These older ideals of the American Dream got a strong influence by the frontier spirit, but today, the American Dream has changed hard. The new society got dreams of blind pursuit of material wealth and economic success. (140 W) 2. ) Describe the, , Melting-Pot” theory and show why other theories are more exactly. The main idea of the Melting-Pot theory was to describe the mixed american nation, with its wide spectrum of origins. A Melting-Pot is a pot in which different elements, eg metals, are fused together, with the result, that the ingredients are transformed into one different thing.
The Term Paper on The American Dream 5
... All came to pursue the Dream and entered the great 'melting pot' in the desire to become a successful American. The United States has ... to do. So is the American Dream dead or alive? The notion of the American Dream encourages people, particularly new immigrants, to reach for it ... a child of a different race. This part of King's dream, in theory at least, has come true. Segregation by race has ...
So in Americas case, all the different people with its different origins, culture, tradition and language are mixed up to become one nation. But in reality this dream has never become true. People speak the same language and got the same national identity. But there are still barriers between blacks, indians and whites.
The religion got also seperate sectors of Protestants, Roman Catholics and Jews. People kept their tradition and culture, slaves and indians were very long seperated, and so the, , Melting-Pot” Theory doesnOEt function at all. Another way to describe this theory was the sal at bowl or the pizza. There are also a lot of ingredients mixed up together to one thing, but in the result you can still distinguish them. It shows the multi-cultural, diverse and pluralistic American civilization. (177 W) 3.
) Describe the frontier spirit and how it influenced the future. The frontier was the westward moving boarder between the civilization and the wilderness. At the frontier was a very hard life but in peace. It implied independence, a primitive life and the struggle of the individual for survival. It demanded initiative, rugged-individualism and self-reliance. With the right will you can be the best.
At the frontier everyone is equal and only this one will survive and become wealth who work hard. These things had a strong influence on todays American society. They still got a strong mobility, geographically and socially. They also got things in the american dream that they can do everything they want to if they just work hard for it. The declaration of Independence still ensures them individual freedom. But also some negative aspects in american society got its reasons in the settlers time.
Eg guns are still popular and the frontier tradition has blocked gun control.
