What Is Today's American Dream

They may not have called it the American Dream, but for centuries people have gone to America in search of freer, happier, and richer lives. But is today's American Dream a mythical concept or still a reality?

Isabel Belarsky's tiny Brooklyn apartment fills with the sound of her father's voice. Sidor Belarsky sings an Aria in Russian and 90-year-old Isabel, her lips painted an elegant red, sways gently to the song coming from her stereo.

Isabel speaks with pride about her father's talent and his success as an opera singer: Albert Einstein was such a fan she says that he invited Sidor to accompany him on his speaking engagements and would ask him to sing to the audience.

How the Belarskys came to be in America is an extraordinary tale that Isabel loves to tell. It was the offer of a six-month job by a Mormon college president, who had seen Sidor singing in Leningrad, that enabled the Belarskys to escape from Stalin's Russia in 1930. "Our dream was being in America," Isabel says. "They loved it. My mother could never think of Russia, it was her enemy and my father, he made such a wonderful career here."

Like generations of immigrants before them, the Belarskys came to America in search of freedom--to them the American Dream meant liberty. But Isabel says it promised even more. "The dream is to work, to have a home and to get ahead. You can start as a janitor and become the owner of the building."

The American Dream is not written into the constitution but it is so ingrained in the national psyche that it might as well be. Many point to the second sentence in the Declaration of Independence--the "certain unalienable rights" that include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as the "official" version of the phrase. But it was actually in 1931 that the term was popularized, when historian James Truslow Adams wrote in The Epic of America that the Dream means "a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank".

The concept of the American Dream has not stayed static. For European immigrants, like Isabel, fleeing persecution in the first half of the last century, the Dream was about a life without persecution.

But somewhere in the middle of the last century the dream changed. As America's post war economy boomed, the new arrivals wanted more than freedom--they wanted a share of the prosperity as well.

In the 1950s, TV commercials featured housewives proudly showing off kitchens filled with gleaming appliances. The quest for liberation became a quest for Coca Cola. As the century wore on, the materialistic slant of the dream overtook the political side. Dallas and Dynasty suggested this was a country where it was possible to become not just rich, but filthily rich.

Cheyanne Smith was shocked at the deprivation that greeted her in America. She arrived in New York from the Caribbean seven years ago. Having watched endless American TV shows as a child, she thought she knew what to expect when her family moved to Brooklyn. Instead, the deprivation of one of New York's poorest neighbourhoods shocked her.

"I thought this is not America because this is not what I see on television," she says. Like Cheyanne, 18-year-old Franscisco Curiel is also ambitious. He came from Mexico City three years ago to go to college here but he's worried that Brooklyn's schools aren't going to give him a good enough education. "The system is broken; we can't get the superior education that they supposedly want to give us," he says.

Through the centuries America's immigrants have endured terrible hardship and sacrifice so that they and their children can get ahead. Perhaps it's not surprising to hear the members of the Bushwick youth group lament the multiple, low paid jobs that their parents must do simply to get the rent paid and put food on the table. What is startling is that these bright, ambitious youngsters just don't believe that talent and hard work are enough to ensure they will ever have a shot at that mythical American Dream. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. What kind of special skill did Isabel's father have?
2. Who offered him a job?
3. Who saw him performing in Leningrad?
4. Did he ask him to work for him?
5. For how long?
6. Where?
7. Where was he from?
8. What are they looking for in America?
9. Where is Cheyanne Smith from?
10. Where did she move to?
11. What part of New York?
12. Is that a rich neighborhood?
13. Was she surprised?
14. What surprised her?
15. Did she see a lot of deprivation?
16. What did she expect America to be like?
17. What did TV imply you could become in America?
18. Are immigrants finding that to be accurate?
19. Why are parents working low wage jobs?
20. Do the kids think they can achieve the American Dream?
Answer: 1. he was an opera singer
2. Albert Einstein
3. a Mormon college president
4. Yes
5. six months
6. in America
7. Russia
8. freedom
9. Caribbean
10. New York
11. Brooklyn
12. No
13. Yes
14. this is not what I see on television," she says.
15. Yes
16. American TV shows
17. not just rich, but filthily rich.
18. No
19. to get the rent paid and put food on the table.
20. No

Did you watch the magic shows played by Liu Qian from Taiwan in the 2009 CCTV Spring Festival Gala ? They attracted great attention and wide interests of the audience . During the gala, Liu mangaged to drop a coin into a glass which was placed upside down and _ a finger ring into an egg. The two magic shows were so successful that everyone is now mad about him and all want to know how to play magic tricks. "I saw the surprise on everyone's face. It was cool, "Liu said. However, you may not believe that Liu didn't go to any magic school. He just learned by himself. When Liu was seven, he saw a coin trick in a big store. At that moment Liu decided to learn magic. He worked hard at it. He practiced hard to improve his skills. Then one day he was able to put on a show for his class. After years of hard work, now Liu is a great magician. But he isn't satisfied with what he has got and keeps on trying every day. He may spend three years working out a new show. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. what type of show was this?
2. do people like him?
3. what was his name?
4. what insipred him?
5. how old was he then?
6. is he happy with his skills now?
7. does he do anything to improve?
8. does it take a while to work out a new show?
9. how long?
10. where has he played?
11. this year?
12. which one?
13. what did he drop into the glass?
14. was the glass upright?
15. did he do 5 shows there?
16. how many?
17. how did Liu feel about it?
18. why?
19. Did he have a lot of formal training?
20. any?
Answer:
1. magic
2. yes
3. Liu Qian
4. a coin trick in a big store
5. seven
6. not yet - still improving
7. keeps on trying every day
8. yes
9. three years
10. CCTV Spring Festival Gala
11. no
12. 2009
13. coin
14. no
15. no
16. two
17. cool
18. surprise on everyone's face
19. no
20. none - by himself