American Dream
The American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. This idea is rooted in the Declaration of Independence. It has to do with a set of ideals: democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity, and equality.
Background
The American Dream is the unquestioned assumption that hard work leads to success, and that success is measured in terms of economic wealth. Historian James Truslow Adams popularized the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America.
Uses in other disciplines
This term is used in literature. Some works that use it include the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, etc. Other writers used it as a theme in their works. Some authors include Hunter S. Thompson, Edward Albee, John Steinbeck, etc. The American Dream is also used in plays. In Arthur Miller's, The Death of a Salesman the main character Willy is striving for the American Dream.
See also
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References
"Advertising." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, Web. 07 Feb. 2017.
External links
Additional online resources for this keyterm.