THE CONCEPT “American Dream” in the American culture.

Introduction.
Throughout the history of the U.S. – both before and after it became an
independent nation – the American Dream has changed, going through a variety
of forms and meanings while maintaining as its essence the core beliefs of
freedom and happiness in place.
The American Dream is rooted in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. That
document, created by America’s founding fathers, says two key things that are
largely responsible for shaping what the classic American Dream is. The
declaration says that “all men are created equal” and that each man/woman has
the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
It’s important to note that the U.S. Constitution – the legal foundation that
delineates how the government shall operate on a daily basis – reiterates this
idea in its Preamble, noting that its purpose is to help “secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
Materials and Methods.
To point out concepts’ core meaning and affect on society it made content
analysis. The current study's inductive technique, which entails studying the
object from a specific material analysis to a generalization and conclusion,
necessitated the employment of the inductive approach which consist from:
 Using etymological and lexicographical sources, locate information on
the origins of the subject under investigation (etymological and
lexicographical analysis),
 Identifying dictionary definitions that represent the idea under
investigation (dictionary definitions analysis method, componential
lexical meanings analysis);
 Corpus and context analysis of fiction prose (continuous sampling);
 Diachronic analysis.

The Results.
The etymology of the notion “American Dream”.
The lexicographical investigation of the dictionaries found that the etymology
of the concept "tolerance" is provided by three etymological dictionaries.
( Online Etymology Dictionary; Merriam-Webster.com dictionary, Etymology
dictionary 2014, The Oxford Dictionary of American Etymology.). The research
was conducted on the analysis of the notion “American Dream” in the American
culture, therefore only American Dictionaries of English Etymology were
selected. According to all dictionaries concept was coined in 1931 by James
Truslow Adams, U.S. writer and popular historian in "Epic of America”. There
he stated:
«The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and
richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret
adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of
it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social
order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest
stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what
they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.
According to Etymology dictionary(2014) American Dream is dream of a land
in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with
opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary states the notion “American Dream” is an
American social ideal that stresses egalitarianism and especially material
prosperity , also : the prosperity or life that is the realization of this ideal
[Merriam-Webster Online: Dictionary and Thesaurus].
According to Oxford American Dictionary it is the belief that America offers
the opportunity to everyone of a good and successful life achieved through hard
work. [Oxford American Etymology Dictionary]
Definitions:
As a result of the lexicographical examination of the dictionary entries, the
concept “American dream" has the following definitions:
[English World dictionary. V. Neufeldt. 2014.]
N[often A- D-] the U.S. ideal according to which equality of opportunity
permits any American to aspire to high attainment and material success
[English terms dictionary. 2015.]
NOUN ▪ the ideal of equality of opportunity associated with the US
[Oxford English Etymology Dictionary]
1. the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be
available to every American.
2. a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by
individuals in the U.S
[Useful English dictionary. 2012]
noun, the widespread aspiration of Americans to live better than their parents
did
Hypernyms: ambition, aspiration, dream noun the American dream : a happy
way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be
achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming
successful With good jobs, a nice house, two children, and plenty of money,
they believed they were living the American dream.
[The American Heritage, Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition
copyright 2022 by Harper Collins Publishers]
An American ideal of a happy and successful life to which all may aspire: "In
the deepening gloom of the Depression, the American Dream represented a
reaffirmation of traditional American hopes "
Meaning:
Used 8 dictionaries with different definitions, main context of concept relies on
words and phrases like successful life (The American Heritage), happy (Useful
Eng. Dict.), aspiration(oxford Press), opportunity, material prosperity( Merriam
Webster)
Difference in definitions mainly was in Merriam Webster’s dictionary, where
used term like “egalitarianism”( a philosophical perspective that emphasizes
equality and equal treatment across gender, religion, economic status, and
political beliefs).
The main principles of the conception — the equality of opportunities and its
accessibility — are disputed on social, ethical, economical and some other
levels. In some critics’ opinion, the idea on the whole is believed to be
misleading and even meaningless. Nonetheless, the question about the Dream
and its weak and strong points is still open and highly disputed in the American
society. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: American Dream, pages 2-8)

Fiction Prose
The American Dream is a notion in everyday use. It is heard in speech of
politicians, sociologists or analysts. There is large amount of literary works
dethroning it and showing its dangerous impact upon peoples’ minds.
Various sources of information (mass media, critical essays, Hollywood movies,
etc) have «encouraged» non-Americans to assemble a number of rather
perfunctory models regarding the American Dream. It may be understood as
averaged stable material well-being of a usual family as well as successful
career development. And the path from a dustman to a millionaire in its
different variations is considered to be the wildest dream of every American.
These are stereotypical images provided by cinema (movies for the whole
family where all vents take place against the background of a quiet family life);
books (recollect characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Theodore Dreiser) as
well as show-business, sports etc.
The American Dream1 in Political Rhetoric
1.Richard Milhous The American dream Written like fruit of
Nixon in his First does not come to those longstanding hardwork
Inaugural Address on 20 who fall asleep. [...]
January 1969 As we measure what can
be done, we shall
promise only what we
know we can produce,
but as we chart our
goals we shall be lifted
by our dreams.
2. Jimmy Carter in his The American dream Described as a hope to
Inaugural Address on 20 endures. We must once perfect future
January 1977 again have full faith in
our country - and in one
another. I believe
America can be better.
We can be even stronger
than before. [...]
3. Michael S. Dukakis in We're going to win Described as believe,
his nomination because we are the party equality to everyone.
acceptance speech that believes in the
at the Democratic American
National Convention in dream. A dream so
Atlanta on 21 powerful 150
July 1988: that no distance of
ground, no expanse of
 ocean, no barrier of
language, no distinction
of race or creed or
color can weaken its hold
on the human heart
4. William Jefferson May those generations Perfect and better future
(Bill) Clinton in his whose faces we cannot to their children, big
Second Inaugural yet see, whose names we hope.
Address on 20 January may never know, say of
1997: us here that we led our
beloved land into a new
century with the 335
American Dream alive
for all her children; with
the American promise of
a more perfect union a
reality for all her people;
with America's bright
flame of freedom
spreading throughout all
the world.
5. George W. Bush on You know, I Negatively described, as
Homeownership for All mentioned the word a empty words with no
on 18 June,2002 American Dream in meaning
Atlanta. I also recognize
that some people aren't
sure that dream extends
to them. Some 350
people don't even know
what the dream means.
And our job — our jobs,
our collective jobs, is to
make sure that notion of
the American Dream
extends into every single
neighborhood around
this country.

“Death of Salesman” by Arthur Miller

The Depression of the 1930s seemed Optimism and prosperity of the future,
to break the promises America had material wealth
made to its citizens. The stock market
crash of 1929, it was assumed, ended a
particular version of history:
optimistic, confident. The American
dream faded..
For the very structure of the play Hope and believe.
reflects his anxious search for the
moment his life took a wrong turn, for
the moment of betrayal that
undermined his relationship to his wife
and destroyed his relationship with
a son who was to have embodied his
own faith in the American dream

The stock market crash of 1929, it Concept characterized more

was assumed, ended a particular negatively according to historical
version of history: optimistic, backgrounds
confident. The American dream
faded.(Arthur Miller “Death of a
Salesman”,)

For the very structure of the play Characterized as something high ,

reflects his anxious search for the dreamy, with hope.
moment his life took a wrong turn,
for the moment of betrayal that
undermined his relationship to his
wife and destroyed his relationship
with a son who was to have embodied
his own faith in the American
dream.(Arthur Miller “Death of a
Salesman”)
The vaunted American dream, the As a aspiration and hope to live
idea that life will get better, that better.
progress is inevitable if we obey the
rules and work hard, that material
prosperity is assured, has been
replaced by a hard and bitter truth.
The American dream, we now
know, is a lie. We will all be
sacrificed. The virus of corporate
abuse – the perverted belief that only
corporate profit matters – has spread
to outsource our jobs, cut the budgets
of our schools, close our libraries, and
plague our communities with
foreclosures and unemployment.
(Chris Hedges “Days of Destruction,
Days of Revolt”)
Even middleclass blacks and Latinos Material comfort and equal life with
pay more for insurance, are less likely opportunities.
to own their own homes, and suffer
poorer health than Americans as a
whole. More minorities may be living
the American dream, but their hold
on that dream remains tenuous.
(Barack Obama “The Audacity of
Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the
American Dream”.)

poem I Hear America Singing by describe the American Dream as

Walt Whitman and The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great
Gatsby
something that can help the country
develop and bring positive changes to
society.
Fitzgerald depicts the American
Dream as something materialistic. It
comes in the form of wealth, success,
and social status—things that don’t
guarantee happiness.
The American Dream posits that
anyone who works hard can achieve
success in the United States, no
matter their social class.

Death of a Salesman criticizes the American society of the

1940s for its materialistic values. The
author shows the struggles that each
character has to go through in an
attempt to achieve their American
Dream.
Rather than directly criticizing the
American Dream, the play talks about
 the confusion that comes with it.

John Steinbeck’s “Mice and man”
Steinbeck argues that the American
Dream of “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness” is an illusion
and can’t be achieved. The author
shows the reality of poor workers
trying to make it in America.

In conclusion “American Dream concept” in 80% described and characterized

as an optimistic worldview, mostly in sentences meaning of concept: hope,
great future, wealth,prosperity.
QUOTATIONS
The phrase ‘American Dream’ is broadly represented in political speeches and
mass perfomances. As our research covered the study of the concept ‘American
Dream’ in the American culture, we were focused on the study of the quotations
of American politicians, presidents, famous people solely.
1.“The American Dream is a phrase Neutral meaning, redefining the
we’ll have to wrestle with all our lives. concept in other way
It means a lot of things to different
people. I think we’re redefining it
now.”
–Rita Dove, poet
2.“Barack knows the American Positive, means hope and belief to
Dream because he’s lived it, and he perfect and successful future.
wants everyone in this country to have
that same opportunity, no matter who
we are or where we’re from or what
we look like or who we love.”
—Michelle Obama, former first lady,
lawyer and author
3.“I was a poor kid. I came from Positive, stands out about concept in
nothing. We didn’t have any money; a practice, say that concept not only
lot of times we didn’t have any food, words –it is reality.
and now, all of a sudden, I’m a
superhero in a Marvel movie? Talk
about the American dream, man –
I’m living it.”
—Dave Bautista, American actor
4. “I love entrepreneurship because Positive, prosperity and faith to
that’s what makes this country grow, concept.
and if I can help companies grow, I am
creating jobs; I am setting foundations
for future generations. It sends the
message that the American Dream is
alive and well.”
—Mark Cuban, American
entrepreneur, television personality,
media proprietor, and investor
5. “The American Dream is a term Neutral, about spiritual and inner
that is often used but also often importance of concept
misunderstood. It isn’t really about
becoming rich or famous. It is about
things much simpler and more
fundamental than that.”
—Mark Rubio, United States Senator
for Florida
6.“The American dream comes from Neutral, identifying concept to
opportunity. The opportunity comes nation’s values and ideology.
from our founding principles, our core
values that’s held together and
protected by the Constitution. Those
ideas are neither Republican,
Democrat, conservative, liberal, white,
or black. Those are American
ideologies.”
—Ted Yoho, United States
Representative
7.“Our workforce and our entire Positive, concept as a opportunity for
economy are strongest when we everyone, equality.
embrace diversity to its fullest, and
that means opening doors of
opportunity to everyone and
recognizing that the American Dream
excludes no one.”
—Thomas Perez, U.S. Secretary of
Labor
8.“When we make college more Positive, about importance of high
affordable, we make the American education.
Dream more achievable.”
—William J. Clinton, 42nd President
of the U.S.
9. “My father worked in the Post Negative, to sacrifice oneself for
Office. A lot of double shifts. All his dream, problems which face people on
friends were in the same situation – the way of achieving dreams.
truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, grocery
clerks. Blue collar guys punching the
clock and working long, hard hours.
The thought that sustained them was
the one at the center of the American
Dream.”
—Gary David Goldberg, writer
10.“I have spent my life judging the Negative, fake of concept, judgement
distance between American reality and for nothing
the American dream.”
— Bruce Springsteen, musician
11.“To me, the American Dream is Positive, about inner importance and
being able to follow your own personal motivation of concept
calling. To be able to do what you
want to do is incredible freedom.”
—Maya Lin, architect
12.“The promise of the American Positive, equality, opportunity to
Dream requires that we are all everyone.
provided an equal opportunity to
participate in and contribute to our
nation.”
—Charles B. Rangel, U.S. Congress
13.“To realize the American Dream, Positive, real chance and opportunity if
the most important thing to understand people work hard.
is that it belongs to everybody. It’s a
human dream. If you understand this
and work very hard, it is possible.”
–Cristina Saralegui, journalist
14.“I think the American Dream used Negative, connecting concept only
to be achieving one’s goals in your with material wealth and pursuit of
field of choice – and from that, all money.
other things would follow. Now, I
think the Dream has morphed into the
pursuit of money: Accumulate enough
of it, and the rest will follow.”
—Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
15 Neutral, describing concept as relay ,
“In the end, the American dream is heritage which must be valued.
not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a
relay. Our families don’t always cross
the finish line in the span of one
generation. But each generation passes
on to the next the fruits of their labor.”
—Julian Castro, U.S. Secretary of
Housing & Urban Development
16. Positive, hope and belief to future, real
“I say to you today, my friends, so dream.
even though we face the difficulties of
today and tomorrow, I still have a
dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in
the American dream. I have a dream
that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its
creed: “We hold these truths to be self-
evident: that all men are created
equal.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
17.“The faith that anyone could move Neutral, economic and wealth side of
from rags to riches – with enough guts concept
and gumption, hard work and nose to
the grindstone – was once at the core
of the American Dream.”
–Robert Reich, economist and former
U.S. Secretary of Labor
18.“There are those who will say that Negative, about airiness and not-real
the liberation of humanity, the freedom side of concept
of man and mind is nothing but a
dream. They are right. It is the
American Dream.”
–Archibald Macleish, poet.

19.“Harry had worked his way through Negative, about fakeness and dust in
the American Dream and come to the eyes, exaggeration of concept meaning
conclusion that is was composed of a
good lunch and a deep red wine that
could soar.”
- Colum McCann.
20."The American dream does not Positive, hard work and resistance
come to those who fall asleep." which would be fruitful
-Gerald R. Ford.
21.Only in America can someone start Positive, patriotism through the
with nothing and achieve the concept.
American Dream. That's the
greatness of this country."
-Rafael Cruz.
22.Every human being has a dream. I Positive, reality of dreams and
think what's special about the opportunity.
American Dream is that it implies,
given everything that's happened with
the history of America, that there is the
opportunity to make your dream come
true."
-Audra McDonald.
23."Most people are looking for Positive, Inner valuation of concept
security, a nice, safe, prosperous connecting with good , reliable future.
future. And there's nothing wrong with
that. It's called the American
Dream."
Lee Lalocca
24."The REAL American Dream is Neutral, inner meaning of concept,
not about a garage full of new cars, disconnect with wealth
winning the lottery, or retiring to a life
of ease in Florida. It's about doing
work that has meaning, work that
makes a difference, and doing that
work with people you care about."
-Joe Tye
25."The American Dream, that has Neutral, about history of the concept,
lured tens of millions of all nations to spiritual importance
our shores in the past century has not
been a dream of material plenty,
though that has doubtlessly counted
heavily."
-James Truslow Adams.
26."I have been swamped all my life Negative, concept identifies as an
with the idea of the unlimited potential utopia and fake and injustice for
and resources of the American everyone.
Dream. Not only is this untrue, but it's
an injustice to those people who don't
have access to this utopia."
-Rick Alverson.
27. For many, the American dream Negative, not real importance and
has become a nightmare. problem.
Bernie Sanders
28. The road to success is not easy to Positive, connecting of good skills and
navigate, but with hard work, drive hard-work with achieving your
and passion, it's possible to achieve the dreams.
American dream.
Tommy Hilfiger
29. People are so busy dreaming the Negative, concept identifies as a fake
American Dream, fantasizing about and unnecessary, about people with
what they could be or have a right to “pink glasses”
be, that they're all asleep at the switch.
Consequently we are living in the Age
of Human Error.
Florence King
30. The American Dream has run out Negative, end of hope and prosperity ti
of gas. The car has stopped. It no the future.
longer supplies the world with its
images, its dreams, its fantasies. No
more. It's over. It supplies the world
with its nightmares now: the Kennedy
assassination, Watergate, Vietnam. J.
G. Ballard

Conclusion.
It is taken 30 quotes of different people from various spheres of life. According
to content analysis, 20% meaning of concept in quotes neutral, 30% is negative
and 50% positive. Shift of negative thoughts came after 1990’s, before that
quotes were mostly positive, negative thought s about American dream mostly
said by economists and popular artists, positive mostly said by politicians and
presidents. In positive case meaning more about hope, belief and prosperity to
great future also about hard work and equality for everyone. In negative case
it’s about fakeness and utopia of concept and obsolete value which doesn’t
affect future. In neutral meaning- people say that concept not only about wealth
and money but about inner values.
Ultimately, the American Dream maintains a core set of beliefs: the right to
certain freedoms that enable every individual to pursue a life of success and
happiness. What success and happiness mean to one person is not necessarily
what they mean to another. It is mostly about that it is up to each American to
decide what the Dream looks like to them, with the knowledge that America
affords them the opportunity to pursue it freely.
To summarize, from its inception, the lexeme 'American Dream' has
continuously enlarged its properties, and all five meanings are now extensively
employed. The appeal to the English language's phraseological and aphoristic
foundation leads us to conclude that the meanings incorporated in the concept's
structure are mirrored in a variety of speeches and texts.