BLOG 6

“The American Dreams”

The California version of the American Dream is a strengthen version of the American Dream in terms of materialism and good life. The gold rush brought people to the “Golden State” in search of fortune, comfort and easy life above all; “The California gold rush is the purest expression of the Dream of the Coast in American history”[1]

Gambling came to be something inherent to California culture as it was spread out all over America. “America itself-in the broadest sense of that term-is a world built on gambling” “Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, Sir Francis Drake: these men were nothing if not gamblers” “Those who fret about government-sponsored gambling may be surprised to learn that lotteries were among the most important financial instruments in building colonial North America-not only in raising funds for initial settlement but also for homes, schools, and other community institutions”[2] “The gambling houses of San Francisco, with their sense of often garish splendor and (relative) permanence , furnished the model for early Las Vegas casinos” [3]“From the seventeenth century through the twentieth, gambling and westering thrived on high expectations, opportunism, and movement, and both activities helped to shape a distinctive culture” [4]

The American Dreams of the founding fathers Franklin and Lincoln were supported on character, now they had changed and were supported on personality. Fame was something superficial, not nourished by talent, but desirable. “One of the strangest paradoxes of subsequent American history would be the histories of other Americans, among them Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, who emerged from highly particular cultural communities possessing enormous talent and yet who trivialized, even discarded, their gifts in a desperate desire to live the Dream of the Coast” [5]

Automobile impacted the American culture greatly and in different aspects. Its influence went beyond race, gender and social status. It could be able to speak by itself, to give you information about the owner in terms for example of social status and economic stability being revealed by the style and price; made possible for woman to gain freedom and autonomy; for blacks, automobile represented an important arm employed in their struggle for their deserved rights. Automobile was far beyond a means of transportation, it became a significant part of the America's identity.

“The Automobile and its related infrastructure transformed everyday life as well as our basic values. From top to bottom in American society, it created wealth and jobs. It played a crucial role in transforming Americans from producers of a limited number of goods to mass production manufacturers and consumers living in a Machine Age” [6]

 

American culture is rich of events and facts that have shaped it. From the very beginning, it is shaped by dreams, (American Dreams) that have underwent transformations throughout the time; those dreams involve upward mobility, independence, individualism, arduous fight for what Americans feel is right, home and car ownership, fame among others. This country is the land of opportunities, the “Promised Land”, this is the right place to pursue your dreams, a land that offer a chance to succeed and become, (with effort) something if you determine to do it, it is a safe place to raise your kids and have a happy family, it’s the land where Democracy touch everyone, democracy so scarce all over the world. The American culture is a symbol of resolution and fortitude.

 

[1]Cullen, Jim, American Dream, The (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 170.

[2] Cullen, 161.

[3] Cullen, 167.

[4] Cullen, 163.

[5] Cullen, 177.

 [6] Heitmann, John, The Automobile and American Life (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2009), 1.