The Adaptive, Achieving American Dream

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The Adaptive, Achieving American Dream Ashley Dowlin English Composition 1020 2/20/13 “America, it can be inspiring and beautiful; it can also be dark and ugly. It can be so many things, but it’s ours, it’s our America”-Lisa Ling, Our America Since the term The American Dream was coined by Truslow Adams in his book, The Epic of America, the concept and ideology of the American Dream has changed and adapted to reflect the goals and values of each generation of Americans and what they need to achieve it. In the early days of the American Dream, it more closely reflected the definition created by Truslow Adams; in modern America, it shows the changes that have taken place in society over time. In literature such as Gish Jen’s “In the…show more content…
He justifies these conditions by telling himself that he would one day be the CEO of his own chain of hotels. For the entirety of the story, Banks works with a determination respected by the people around him because he wants so badly to achieve his goals. In the end, Russell annexes the love of a woman. Banks did achieve this, but it was not initially what he set out to conquer. In the movie, “The Pursuit of Happyness,” Chris Gardner, his girlfriend, and their son live in a low income neighborhood in San Francisco during the eighties. They spent their life savings and invested in bone density scanners, which they thought would support them for a long time to come. Chris worked very hard and made many sacrifices to sell these scanners to hospitals in the surrounding area. In this story, hard work itself wasn’t enough, but dedication must also be present to achieve his…show more content…
Paul acquires large amounts of money every time he picks the winning horse. Paul comes upon the name of winning horse each night by repeating a vigorous routine. He rocks eagerly on his toy rocking horse until the name mysteriously pops into his head. The last and most important race in the story is the Derby and everything Paul stood to gain depended on this bet. Paul relentlessly rode his rocking horse until the name of the winner came to him. Paul collected his winnings off the race, which was quite substantial. On this night, Paul died unexpectedly in his bedroom. Luck was in Paul’s favor throughout the story, but greed would only destroy it. They should have appreciated and recognized what they already

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