Classification: Sketchbook
Prompt: What does it mean to be an American? What is the American Dream to you?
In my opinion, to be American is to live in America. America is a place where people are supposed to be able to be free, and have basic rights that cannot be taken away. It's supposed to be a place where people can come to live better lives without facing hate or discrimination. However, America isn't truly those things. What it is, is a place where straight white men have easier lives and everyone else at some point in their lives, will inevitably face some form of hate and/or discrimination. America is a country that was founded on the principles of freedom and equality, but doesn't enforce these rights for everyone. It's also a place being run by people who want to separate families and deport refugees.
The American Dream is an idea, where you own a nice house, two floors with a garage and a basement maybe, a nice car, you have a yard, and a dog and a good job that pays well and you can eat anything you want. It's an idea of success and happiness as a middle class citizen.
In pop culture, it's portrayed as a type of freedom, to do whatever you want whenever you want. Which I suppose is true, within reason, but only for certain people. I would keep this definition, but I would change it. If we are taking into account what America is like today, I would define it as: the idea in which one achieves success and happiness, with perhaps some drama here and there.
However, I believe that the American Dream shouldn't necessarily be just that. I wish I could define it as: The idea that everyone can achieve success and happiness and live without fear of hate or discrimination, no matter where in the U.S. they live, or where they came from.
AN: Now I realize that the way I wrote this I made the U.S. seem like a place full of racist and discriminatory people, however that is no entirely true. In reality it depends on where in the U.S. you are. People are much more tolerant and accepting towards other people in larger cities as well as their suburbs, but there are places such as small towns or cities in conservative states where hate is much more widespread.
I just wanted to clear that up real quick. I wrote this essay about a year ago and going back I realized it was a bit off.
Word Count: 304 (not including the AN)
# of Pages: 2
YOU ARE READING
Life as I see it
RandomThroughout her life, NyxChampion has seen and lived through much. Bullying, heartbreak, loss, betrayal, a civil rights movement and even a global pandemic. She writes down her thoughts and turns them into essays and poems. But these essays are diff...
