Anson Zhang
Published on 2025-02-13 / 17 Visits
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A Brief Analysis of the American Dream

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.


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