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The American Dream Brandon King Analysis

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The American Dream Brandon King Analysis
I want to be buried in the middle of a huge yard surrounded by a white picket fence. I want my children to laugh and cry, knowing I gave them everything they needed. I want my parents to be proud and my husband to know I love him. I want the American Dream. Perfection is faultless, free, exact, ideal, the ultimate, and most importantly, different for everyone. Just as perfection varies for each person, the American Dream can not be consistently defined with the same eight-or-so words. In Brandon King’s essay “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or On Hold?” he argues, “The American Dream, however, is based on perception, on the way someone imagines how to be successful,” claiming there is no wrong way to live the American Dream (King, para 5). Similar to perfection, the definition of success is not exclusive. King stresses …show more content…
At first, Brandon King uses examples of the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and other economic standpoints to support his allegation of proving the American Dream is still alive. King contradicts his economic claim with, “Instead of trying to interfere with the enterprise that creates jobs and growth, we should rely on the values of the American Dream: that anybody can climb out of hardship and achieve success” (King, para 8). King is saying it does not matter where someone begins as long as they aspire to be successful. This counters the previously mentioned comment by Paul Krugman: not everyone can achieve success no matter how hard they try. Brandon King adds another source from a newspaper editor in Atlanta to affirm this claim, “’the Great Recession didn’t kill the American Dream. But the promise of a good life in exchange for hard, honest work has been bruised and frayed for millions of middle class Americans’” (Chapman in King, para 8). The American Dream is attainable for those who have to resources, but most people fail because they have to start at the
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