What is the American Dream?

A House, A Family with Two Kids, A Car in the Drive Way

American Dream常常被理解为：

A house, a family with two kids, a car in the drive way.

• 这个理解可以被总结为：materialistic。

• 这个画面象征着对此类stable生活的向往。

随着时间演变，很多人往往将American Dream与money and wealthiness画上等号

但，这真的是the American Dream吗？

The Origin - 追溯根源

这个单词首次由James Truslow Adams在Epic of America中提出，他是这么理解金钱的：

Adams concluded that America had lost its way by prizing material success above all other values: Indeed, it had started to treat money as a value, instead of merely as a means to produce or measure value.

https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/state-of-the-american-dream/churchwell-history-of-the-american-dream

以前，金钱是一个可以帮助我们produce value的东西，或者可以说可以帮助我们衡量一个物品的“重要性”；如今，金钱被认为就是value。

比方说：if you own a sports car, is is valuable because of is properties and luxurious nature, determined by factors such as horse power; however, now we believe a sports car is valuable often because of how much it is in terms of money and not its nature.

在这个情景之下，American Dream被曲解了，而人们也开始认为：

Billionaires are the epitome of the American Dream.

因此，在第二次世界大战前，

The American dream was rarely, if ever, used to describe the familiar idea of “Horatio Alger” individual upward social mobility.

https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/state-of-the-american-dream/churchwell-history-of-the-american-dream

The American dream往往被理解为向上社会流动，然而American Dream的本质并不是如此。

对于Truslow Adams来说，

the American Dream则是democracy的产物

按Adams的话来说，就是：

It is an image that takes for granted the value of education, of shared knowledge and curiosity, of historical inquiry and a commitment to the good of the whole. It is an image of peaceful, collective, enlightened self-improvement.