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Focus on Gender

My focus for the third, and last, paper was on gender and the American Dream. More specifically it was  how the inequality between women and men has made women believe in the American Dream less and less. The chapter that I used from The American Dream in the 21st Century is the 5th chapter, “Whose Dream? Gender and the American Dream” by Sandra L. Hanson. I wanted to research gender and the American Dream because I am a woman and I am curious to how my American Dream is different from a Man’s American Dream. Throughout writing this essay I have learned a lot about how unfairly women are treated compared to men and how this affects each women's individual American Dream. Hanson discusses gender divide in many ways including race, class, opportunity, politics, education and earnings. By discussing all of this Hanson can show how not only gender effects the way the American Dream is viewed but so do other factors like race for example. Hanson talks about the idea of how me...
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Gender Divide and the American Dream

The gender divide in American has always been prevalent and will continue you to be. As with salary, rights, opportunity and so much more women are at more of a disadvantage then men because of they way society has given gender roles. Many men and women perceive the world differently solely because of the way society has told them that they should view it this way or that. The American Dream is no different in that men and women share different views and ideas of the American Dream.  While I was skimming through the book "The American Dream in the 21st Century" there were many chapters and ideas that caught my attention but the one that stuck with me that most was the chapter on gender and the American Dream. "Whose Dream? Gender and the American Dream" is chapter five in the book and Sandra L. Hanson talks about how, as you probably guessed, gender and the American Dream. Hanson identifies the background of gender rights and equality, she talks about how ...
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Two Different American Dreams

I've always thought the American Dream is something that you have to work hard for and earn. To achieve the American Dream you can't just sit back and hope that your life becomes amazing, Walter R. Fisher shows how this is true. Fisher wrote an essay in 1972 called Reaffirmation and Subversion of the American Dream about the American Dream and how they're is not just one ideal American Dream but there are two. The first one is a  materialistic view which is more of a work the hardest you can and you will be able to achieve what you want. While the other dream is a moral one where you want to help your fellow man and the idea of community. Fisher claims that these two views are contradictory but also vital for the American Dream to succeed. Throughout the essay Fisher makes claims about how the American Dream is a "myth." Fisher makes the claim that the American Dream is a "myth" but not the type of myth that we usually think of, he claims myths h...
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American Values

I have grown up in America all my life and it is pretty much all I know. Yes, I have travel outside of the United States but never long enough to really wrap my head around other cultures or experience things other then touristy things. I've been to Europe, Mexico and Spain and although they are amazing places I could tell they were very different from America. I personally love where I live/grew up and most of the values I believe in Althen brought up in his article. The values I that are more prevalent in my life and I believe in the most are equality, achievement, time, hard work and directness.  Equality and hard work are the two main values that I care/believe in the most. Although the Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal" this is not true in today's society. Racism, sexism and classism are all still very prevalent in many people's daily lives. "Although they sometimes violate the ideal in their daily lives, particu...
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Academic Writing

In high school I read many academic readings for my AP composition class. I'm not going to lie, I didn't enjoy reading or writing about these articles but it had/has to be done to further my education. I didn't like reading these articles because they were lengthy and many of them had language that I couldn't understand so, it just made them more difficult to read. I don't have anything against the writers or what they were writing, it's just that I don't like to read academic writing. I'm also not a great writer, I'm more of a math/science brain, so writing is hard for me and the paper I wrote on academic writing was one of the worst I had done.  Although I said all these things I don't like about academic writing, there are some things that I do like. I like that it teaches you about the topic and helps you further your education. Sometimes I enjoy reading academic writing when the topic engages me. It is also very helpful if the aut...
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Solidarity in America

Throughout the fifth principle Chomsky talks about how to attack solidarity. Chomsky claims that solidarity is "quite dangerous" because according to the "masters" you are only suppose to care about yourself. So, when people come together and agree that something is running badly, the "masters" are afraid that the people will speak up or rebel. When rich people think and act only about/for themselves it's okay because they're powerful but when the poor do it, it becomes destructive for the rest of society. Chomsky uses public education, social security, privatization and the government as a great examples of how the rich, wealthy and powerful do not like solidarity. "We see it [solidarity] in the attack on public schools. Public schools are based on the principle of solidarity." (Pg. 66) Chomsky claims that the rich, wealthy and powerful are attacking public education because of solidarity. Public education can only function becau...
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Is America Going Down the Drain?

Society has been built so that only the rich can be wealthy and it is almost beyond possible to be poor and become rich. Throughout the reading Chomsky talks about the 10 principles of concentration of wealth and power. The super wealthy only contains about 1% of our population or less, but this 1% still controls the structuring of society according to Chomsky. I 110% agree with Chomsky on the fact the wage gap is ridiculous and without it, more people would be able to have better opportunities. I think the quote, "It's not what you know, it's who you know," is very prevalent in this situation. Many people who are born in low class or lower middle class don't have the opportunity to become wealthy or land a great job that makes you able to climb in the class levels not because they're not educated but because they don't have connections within big business or corporations. Chomsky talks about how in America it used to be a lot easier to climb the cl...
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