is the american dream real essay

Is the American Dream Real or Purely Imaginary?

Either way, it's impossible to ignore its enormous impact on people's lives..

Posted June 4, 2019 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

“It’s time to restore the American Dream,” said U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California on May 31 as he joined the 2020 presidential race, the latest in a long line of politicians to use the American Dream to attract voter interest.

But is the American Dream real or, as the latter word suggests, purely imaginary? Either way, it is impossible to ignore the enormous impact the idea of the American Dream has had on Americans and the nation as a whole since it was first conceived by historian James Truslow Adams in 1931. Much like other powerful mythologies such as religion, the American Dream is psychologically entrenched in everyday life. It shapes, not just the view of the world for those who choose to believe in it, but the decisions one makes and the actions one takes.

On the bright side, this absorption of and immersion in the American Dream accounts for the tremendous value it often adds to people’s emotional lives. As a utopian ideal, the American Dream functions as a beacon of hope, something to strive for and keep one’s spirits up when times get tough. As a common denominator, it helps bring Americans together, as it is one of the precious few things we can all relate to in an increasingly multicultural and, too often, divided society. For those new to the country, the American Dream serves as a user-friendly vehicle of assimilation, allowing one to express one’s Americanness while still retaining one’s ethnic identity . Accommodating and tolerant of difference, the American Dream is, I believe, the nation at its best. This is not surprising given that its fundamental tenets were conceived by the Founding Fathers, refined by the likes of Emerson, Whitman, and Thoreau, and, finally, articulated by the most popular historian of his day. The American Dream is, quite simply, a masterpiece, a work of art whose ideological beauty can arguably never be surpassed. That many a politician, including Donald Trump , as well as Madison Avenue have embraced it should be expected, as the thing is an unequivocal “killer app” of salesmanship.

That said, like anything of great value, the America Dream has proven to be a wellspring of trouble for many who have overly invested themselves in it. Rather than view it as just an ideal, some of us have taken it as something of which most of us are entitled, like the opportunity to vote or Social Security benefits. When what these folks mistake as a promise is broken by some economic event—a recession, corporate cutbacks, outsourcing, or another unfortunate but quite normal “correction”—their trust in the system is often crushed.

The sudden disappearance of the American Dream or, should I say, its maddening unreliability and undependability, is thus a source of great frustration for many. Constantly coming and going, the American Dream seems to almost always reside in the past or loom in the future, rarely ever existing in the here and now. Although frequently on the horizon, just around the next corner, it is more often viewed as having once thrived, and that its (and thus our) best days are behind us. A Google search (of more than 1 billion results) reveals that the American Dream is, more often than not, “fading,” “withering,” “shrinking,” “sliding,” “unraveling,” “squeezed,” “threatened,” “broken,” “going backwards,” “in reverse,” or “dying,” if not already “dead.”

A look back at the remarkable cultural history of the American Dream suggests that we should not give up on it even with all the challenges we now face. Despite its typical diagnosis, being in critical condition or having kicked the bucket, the American Dream has always seemed to recover. Our mythology has proved to have more lives than the proverbial cat. The hopefully continual flow of immigrants to this country has and will continue to serve as a breeding ground for the American Dream as their enthusiasm and energy to achieve great things rubs off on the rest of us. New immigrants tend to believe in the mythology most fervently, and politicians at all levels continue to employ the American Dream as the centerpiece of their campaign strategies.

There are other reasons to be bullish on the American Dream despite the challenges the nation faces. The country’s increasing diversity will help fuel the American Dream, as our different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are beneficial for identifying opportunities and bringing them to life. And although a cliché, Yankee ingenuity will still be a principal driver of the American Dream. Our startup business climate proves that our hard-wired urge to build a better mousetrap is as alive as ever. And if that’s not enough, the core values of the nation have not really budged an inch despite the incredible changes in society since 1931. These will continue to serve the interests of the American Dream whether it be boom times or bust.

Lawrence R. Samuel, Ph.D. , is an American cultural historian who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and was a Smithsonian Institution Fellow.

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Is the American Dream Still Alive? Essay

Introduction, the american dream.

• Factors affecting the achievement of the American Dream
• Is the American Dream achievable for all people? Why or why not
• The future of the America Dream

The debate about the American Dream has been common in recent years. Some people have held that the American dream is alive, whereas others have contested this argument asserting that the American Dream remains elusive.

There are various events which have taken place in the United States that have greatly impacted the aspect of the American Dream. Nonetheless, the future of the dream rests with the people and their resilience in pursuing it. This paper will elaborate on the concept of the American Dream in a modern day America.

The American Dream can be defined as a summation of national values entrenched in the culture of the United States. The dream emphasizes on the freedoms and rights of American citizens, and promises the prospect of prosperity and accomplishment. In early 1930s, James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream as something different from the conventional belief.

He argued that the dream should not be defined in terms of material things and good employment opportunities. Instead, the definition should be based on social grounds, whereby every individual has to exploit his or her potential maximally irrespective of his or her background (Davis-Laack,para 4).

In essence, the definition of the American Dream depends on an individual. Some people define it in respect to economic success; others in terms of education; while others define the term in relation to equality in social justice. It is true that as the American society keeps changing, so does the definition of the American Dream.

During times of economic hardship, people define the dream in respect to the economy; in times of civil strive, as the case during the civil rights movement, it was defined in terms of social justice and equality. Everyone coming to the United States holds a unique definition of the American Dream (Davis-Laack,para 5).

Factors affecting the achievement of the “American Dream”

In the pursuit of the American Dream, there are various factors which come in the way of individuals concerned. Race and ethnicity are among the various factors that affect the pursuit of the American Dream.

In this regard, the minority groups in the United States are often on the receiving end when pursuing the American Dream. For instance, when the economic recession hit the U.S., most of those who were affected were Latinos and African Americans. This is because a huge percentage of those who lost their jobs were from these minority groups (Hernandez,para 5).

Another aspect affecting the achievement of the dream is the economic environment. In this case, most individuals hope to land a job opportunity to make a living. In addition, to have achieved the American Dream, individuals struggle to have a home of their own. Therefore, people measure their achievement in respect to having secured a decent job and being able to own a home (Hernandez, para 11; Davis-Laack, para 5).

Apart from the economic and race factors, there is another factor which affects achievement of the American Dream. This includes equal treatment of people irrespective of their nationality, race, ethnicity and financial position. In his famous speech, Martin Luther King Jr. elaborated on the need to treat individuals based on the content of their character as opposed to the color of their skin.

He outlined social injustices as a major impediment towards the realization of the American Dream among the African Americans. Martin Luther King longed for a society where everyone will be treated equally and social justice upheld among all racial groups (King, Jr., paras 13; 17).

Is the “American Dream” achievable for all people? Why or why not

In the modern American society, it can be observed that the American Dream has remained elusive to many Americans. This is because many people in the United States have found it difficult to realize the dream. The immigrant population in America is the most affected. This is because they have found it difficult to realize the American Dream.

This is despite the fact that it was the main attracting factor that made them leave their home countries. The American society is viewed as one in which democratic tenets are the main pillars. In this case, America is depicted as a society which offers an opportunity to individuals to express themselves and enjoy the necessary freedoms and rights as human beings. America is also seen as a society that is tolerant to differences and one that embraces diversity (lam, para 20).

The immigrants had a hard time coming to the United States in the recent past. Things turned from bad to worse following the September 11 th terrorist attacks. The immigrant population in the United States has been subjected to unfair treatment, all under the guise of national security (lam, para 3).

Essentially, the American society often shifts blame to the immigrant population when things go haywire. Following the economic crisis that rocked the U.S., immigrants were blamed for having been the cause. In addition, in the war against terrorism, the immigrants are often used as a scapegoat and blamed for terrorist activities (lam, para 5).

In most instances, the immigrants are denied their rights and freedoms under the pretense of facilitating national security. The adoption of the U.S.A. Patriot Act has made it official to arrest immigrants without warrants and rubberstamped the subsequent detention of suspects for undesignated period (lam, para 6).

The government security agencies conduct unchecked surveillance over the immigrant population. Immigrants of Arab origin are more likely to bear the brand of the new security measures as they stand the risk of being arrested and deported on trivial grounds.

The advancement in technology has worsened the situation for the immigrant population. They are subjected to surveillance and wiretapping without their knowledge. A new program, Total Information Awareness, that is aimed at identifying terrorists is being developed by Pentagon and might be put to usage in the near future.

The right to privacy of the immigrants has been infringed as the government security agencies are protected by legislation to spy on the immigrants (lam, para 12). The immigrants also risk losing their jobs if they speak out their opinion. All these aspects make the achievement of the American Dream futile to some people.

Apart from the immigrant population, it can be noted that the minority groups in the United States find it difficult to achieve the American Dream. Racial profiling is a common trend among the police. In this regard, people of African American descent and other minority groups are arrested and imprisoned on trivial violations of the law. Essentially, there has been a bias in the manner in which the police conduct their arrests.

The future of the “America Dream”

The American Dream has remained an elusive aspect even though it is the driving engine that puts the United States in a leading position in the world. The American Dream lays emphasis on hard work which guarantees an individual some respect in the society and a good life.

The American Dream has been carried on for generations, and it still lives on. This means that the American Dream will continue to thrive in the future. As much as there are assertions that people have failed to realize the American Dream, it can be argued that this is what has made America to become a great nation.

For the American Dream to stay alive, it is necessary that people should come up with renewed energy to revamp the chase for the dream. Though it may appear as if the American Dream has remained elusive for long, it would continued to attract many people around the world.

The immigrants come to the U.S. with expectations, but they need to reenergize themselves in the pursuit of the American Dream. In order for the American Dream to continue being alive, people should not be afraid of coming to the U.S.; instead, they should come and aspire to realize the dream. This is what has kept America going. The future of the American Dream looks bright as many people from all over the world keep fighting for a chance to advance their lives, and the US is seen as the land of opportunities.

There is no doubt that the American Dream will continue to thrive now and even in the future. What is amazing about the American Dream is the fact that it keeps changing to adapt to the theme of the moment. As many more people immigrate to the United States, they hope to achieve the ever elusive dream. Nonetheless, this is what has kept people to come through challenging times.

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1. IvyPanda . "Is the American Dream Still Alive?" January 5, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-the-american-dream-still-alive/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Is the American Dream Still Alive?" January 5, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/is-the-american-dream-still-alive/.

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The Original Meanings of the “American Dream” and “America First” Were Starkly Different From How We Use Them Today

A new book from historian Sarah Churchwell examines the etymologies of two ubiquitous phrases

Anna Diamond

Stop any American on the street and they’ll have a definition of the “American Dream” for you, and they’ll probably have a strong opinion about the slogan “America First,” too.

But how did Americans develop their understanding of these slogans? What did they mean when coined and how do the meanings today reflect those histories? That’s the subject of Sarah Churchwell’s upcoming book, Behold, America , out October 9. Introduced more than a century ago, the concepts of “American Dream” and “America First” quickly became intertwined with race, capitalism, democracy, and with each other. Through extensive research, Churchwell traces the evolution of the phrases to show how the history has morphed the meaning of the “American Dream” and how different figures and groups appropriated “America First.”

A Chicago native now living in the United Kingdom, Churchwell is a professor of American literature and public understanding of the humanities at the University of London. She spoke with Smithsonian.com about the unfamiliar origins of two familiar phrases.

Behold, America

In "Behold, America," Sarah Churchwell offers a surprising account of twentieth-century Americans' fierce battle for the nation's soul. It follows the stories of two phrases—the "American dream" and "America First"—that once embodied opposing visions for America.

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump used the slogan “America First,” which many people traced to Charles Lindbergh in the 1940s. But you trace its origin even further back.

I found the earliest use of the phrase as a Republican slogan in the 1880s, but it didn’t enter the national discussion until 1915, when Woodrow Wilson used it in a speech arguing for neutrality in World War I. That isn’t the same as isolationism, but the phrase got taken up by isolationists.

Wilson was treading a very fine line, where there were genuine and legitimate conflicting interests. He said he thought America would be first, not in the selfish spirit, but first to be in Europe to help whichever side won. Not to take sides, but to be there to promote justice and to help rebuild after the conflict. That was what he was trying to say in 1915.

“America First” was the campaign slogan not only of Wilson in 1916, but also of his Republican opponent. They both ran on an “America First” platform. Harding [a Republican] ran on an “America First” platform in 1920. When [Republican President Calvin] Coolidge ran, one of his slogans was “America First” in 1924. These were presidential slogans, it was really prominent, and it was everywhere in the political conversation.

How did “America First” become appropriated to have a racist connotation?

When Mussolini took power in November 1922, the word “fascism” entered the American political conversation. People were trying to understand what this new thing “fascism” was. Around the same time, between 1915 and the mid 1920s, the Second Klan was on the rise.

Across the country, people explained the Klan, “America First” and fascism in terms of each other. If they were trying to explain what Mussolini was up to, they would say, “It's basically ‘America First,’ but in Italy.”

The Klan instantly declared “America First” one of its most prominent slogans. They would march with [it on] banners, they would carry it in parades, they ran advertisements saying they were the only “America First” society. They even claimed to hold the copyright. (That wasn’t true.)

By the 1930s, “America First” stopped being a presidential slogan, and it began to be claimed by extremist, far-right groups and who were self-styled American Fascist groups, like the German American Bund and the Klan. When the America First Committee was formed in 1940, it became a magnet that attracted all of these far-right groups that had already affiliated themselves with the idea. The story about Lindbergh and the Committee suggests that the phrase cropped out of nowhere, but that just isn't the case.

You found that the backstory of “the American Dream” is also misunderstood.

“The American Dream” has always been about the prospect of success, but 100 years ago, the phrase meant the opposite of what it does now. The original “American Dream” was not a dream of individual wealth; it was a dream of equality, justice and democracy for the nation. The phrase was repurposed by each generation, until the Cold War, when it became an argument for a consumer capitalist version of democracy. Our ideas about the “American Dream” froze in the 1950s. Today, it doesn’t occur to anybody that it could mean anything else.

How did wealth go from being seen as a threat to the “American Dream” to being an integral part of it?

The “American Dream” really starts off with the Progressive Era. It takes hold as people are talking about reacting to the first Gilded Age when the robber barons are consolidating all this power. You see people saying that a millionaire was a fundamentally un-American concept. It was seen as anti-democratic because it was seen as inherently unequal.

1931 was when it became a national catch phrase. That was thanks to the historian James Truslow Adams who wrote The Epic of America , in which he was trying to diagnose what had gone wrong with America in the depths of the Great Depression. He said that America had gone wrong in becoming too concerned with material well-being and forgetting the higher dreams and the higher aspiration that the country had been founded on.

[The phrase] was redefined in the 1950s, and seen as a strategy for soft power and for [commercializing] the “American Dream” abroad. It was certainly an “American Dream” of democracy, but it was a very specifically consumerist version that said “this is what the ‘American Dream’ will look like.” By contrast with the earlier version, which was focused on the principles of liberal democracy, this was very much a free market version of that.

How do the two phrases fit together?

When I began this research, I didn’t think of them as related. They both started to gain traction in the American political and cultural conversation discernibly around 1915. They then came into direct conflict in the late 1930s and early 1940s in the fight over entering World War II. In that debate, both phrases were prominent enough that they could become shorthand, where basically the “American Dream” was shorthand for liberal democracy and for those values of equality, justice, democracy, and “America First” was shorthand for appeasement, for complicity, and for being either an outright fascist or a Hitler sympathizer.

The echoes between 100 years ago and now are in many ways as powerful, if not more powerful, than the echoes between now and the post-war situation.

Why is the history of political slogans and clichés, like the “American Dream,” so important? What happens when we don't understand the nuances of these phrases?

We find ourselves accepting received wisdoms, and those received wisdoms can be distorting and flat-out inaccurate. At best, they're reductive and oversimplifying. It's like the telephone game, the more it gets transmitted, the more information gets lost along the way and more you get a garbled version of, in this case, important understandings of the historical evolution and the debates surrounding our national value system.

Will these phrases continue to evolve?

“The American Dream” has long belonged to people on the right, but those on the left who are arguing for things like universal health care have a historical claim to the phrase, too. I hope that this history can be liberating to discover that these ideas that you think are so constricting, that they can only ever mean one thing—to realize that 100 years ago it meant the exact opposite.

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Anna Diamond is the former assistant editor for Smithsonian magazine.

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Waking Up from the American Dream

By Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

If you are an undocumented person anywhere in America, some of the things you do to make a dignified life for yourself and your loved ones are illegal. Others require a special set of skills. The elders know some great tricks—crossing deserts in the dead of night, studying the Rio Grande for weeks to find the shallowest bend of river to cross, getting a job on their first day in the country, finding apartments that don’t need a lease, learning English at public libraries, community colleges, or from “Frasier.” I would not have been able to do a single thing that the elders have done. But the elders often have only one hope for survival, which we tend not to mention. I’m talking about children. And no, it’s not an “anchor baby” thing. Our parents have kids for the same reasons as most people, but their sacrifice for us is impossible to articulate, and its weight is felt deep down, in the body. That is the pact between immigrants and their children in America: they give us a better life, and we spend the rest of that life figuring out how much of our flesh will pay off the debt.

I am a first-generation immigrant, undocumented for most of my life, then on DACA , now a permanent resident. But my real identity, the one that follows me around like a migraine, is that I am the daughter of immigrants. As such, I have some skills of my own.

You pick them up young. Something we always hear about, because Americans love this shit, is that immigrant children often translate for their parents. I began doing this as a little girl, because I lost my accent, dumb luck, and because I was adorable in the way that adults like, which is to say I had large, frightened eyes and a flamboyant vocabulary. As soon as doctors or teachers began talking, I felt my parents’ nervous energy, and I’d either answer for them or interpret their response. It was like my little Model U.N. job. I was around seven. My career as a professional daughter of immigrants had begun.

In my teens, I began to specialize. I became a performance artist. I accompanied my parents to places where I knew they would be discriminated against, and where I could insure that their rights would be granted. If a bank teller wasn’t accepting their I.D., I’d stroll in with an oversized Forever 21 blazer, red lipstick, a slicked-back bun, and fresh Stan Smiths. I brought a pleather folder and made sure my handshake broke bones. Sometimes I appealed to decency, sometimes to law, sometimes to God. Sometimes I leaned back in my chair, like a sexy gangster, and said, “So, you tell me how you want my mom to survive in this country without a bank account. You close at four, but I have all the time in the world.” Then I’d wink. It was vaudeville, but it worked.

My parents came to America in their early twenties, naïve about what awaited them. Back in Ecuador, they had encountered images of a wealthy nation—the requisite flashes of Clint Eastwood and the New York City skyline—and heard stories about migrants who had done O.K. for themselves there. But my parents were not starry-eyed people. They were just kids, lost and reckless, running away from the dead ends around them.

My father is the only son of a callous mother and an absent father. My mother, the result of her mother’s rape, grew up cared for by an aunt and uncle. When she married my father, it was for the reasons a lot of women marry: for love, and to escape. The day I was born, she once told me, was the happiest day of her life.

Soon after that, my parents, owners of a small auto-body business, found themselves in debt. When I was eighteen months old, they left me with family and settled in Brooklyn, hoping to work for a year and move back once they’d saved up some money. I haven’t asked them much about this time—I’ve never felt the urge—but I know that one year became three. I also know that they began to be lured by the prospect of better opportunities for their daughter. Teachers had remarked that I was talented. My mother, especially, felt that Ecuador was not the place for me. She knew how the country would limit the woman she imagined I would become—Hillary Clinton, perhaps, or Princess Di.

My parents sent loving letters to Ecuador. They said that they were facing a range of hardships so that I could have a better life. They said that we would reunite soon, though the date was unspecified. They said that I had to behave, not walk into traffic—I seem to have developed a habit of doing this—and work hard, so they could send me little gifts and chocolates. I was a toddler, but I understood. My parents left to give me things, and I had to do other things in order to repay them. It was simple math.

They sent for me when I was just shy of five years old. I arrived at J.F.K. airport. My father, who seemed like a total stranger, ran to me and picked me up and kissed me, and my mother looked on and wept. I recall thinking she was pretty, and being embarrassed by the attention. They had brought roses, Teddy bears, and Tweety Bird balloons.

Getting to know one another was easy enough. My father liked to read and lecture, and had a bad temper. My mother was soft-spoken around him but funny and mean—like a drag queen—with me. She liked Vogue . I was enrolled in a Catholic school and quickly learned English—through immersion, but also through “Reading Rainbow” and a Franklin talking dictionary that my father bought me. It gave me a colorful vocabulary and weirdly over-enunciated diction. If I typed the right terms, it even gave me erotica.

Meanwhile, I had confirmed that my parents were not tony expats. At home, meals could be rice and a fried egg. We sometimes hid from our landlord by crouching next to my bed and drawing the blinds. My father had started out driving a cab, but after 9/11, when the governor revoked the driver’s licenses of undocumented immigrants, he began working as a deliveryman, carrying meals to Wall Street executives, the plastic bags slicing into his fingers. Some of those executives forced him to ride on freight elevators. Others tipped him in spare change.

My mother worked in a factory. For seven days a week, sometimes in twelve-hour shifts, she sewed in a heat that caught in your throat like lint, while her bosses, also immigrants, hurled racist slurs at her. Some days I sat on the factory floor, making dolls with swatches of fabric, cosplaying childhood. I didn’t put a lot of effort into making the dolls—I sort of just screwed around, with an eye on my mom at her sewing station, stiffening whenever her supervisor came by to see how fast she was working. What could I do to protect her? Well, murder, I guess.

Our problem appeared to be poverty, which even then, before I’d seen “Rent,” seemed glamorous, or at least normal. All the protagonists in the books I read were poor. Ramona Quimby on Klickitat Street, the kids in “Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.” Every fictional child was hungry, an orphan, or tubercular. But there was something else setting us apart. At school, I looked at my nonwhite classmates and wondered how their parents could be nurses, or own houses, or leave the country on vacation. It was none of my business—everyone in New York had secrets—but I cautiously gathered intel, toothpick in mouth. I finally cracked the case when I tried to apply to an essay contest and asked my parents for my Social Security number. My father was probably reading a newspaper, and I doubt he even looked up to say, “We don’t have papers, so we don’t have a Social.”

It was not traumatic. I turned on our computer, waited for the dial-up, and searched what it meant not to have a Social Security number. “Undocumented immigrant” had not yet entered the discourse. Back then, the politically correct term, the term I saw online, was “illegal immigrant,” which grated—it was hurtful in a clinical way, like having your teeth drilled. Various angry comments sections offered another option: illegal alien . I knew it was form language, legalese meant to wound me, but it didn’t. It was punk as hell. We were hated , and maybe not entirely of this world. I had just discovered Kurt Cobain.

Obviously, I learned that my parents and I could be deported at any time. Was that scary? Sure. But a deportation still seemed like spy-movie stuff. And, luckily, I had an ally. My brother was born when I was ten years old. He was our family’s first citizen, and he was named after a captain of the New York Yankees. Before he was old enough to appreciate art, I took him to the Met. I introduced him to “S.N.L.” and “Letterman” and “Fun Home” and “Persepolis”—all the things I felt an upper-middle-class parent would do—so that he could thrive at school, get a great job, and make money. We would need to armor our parents with our success.

We moved to Queens, and I entered high school. One day, my dad heard about a new bill in Congress on Spanish radio. It was called the DREAM Act, and it proposed a path to legalization for undocumented kids who had gone to school here or served in the military. My dad guaranteed that it’d pass by the time I graduated. I never react to good news—stoicism is part of the brand—but I was optimistic. The bill was bipartisan. John McCain supported it, and I knew he had been a P.O.W., and that made me feel connected to a real American hero. Each time I saw an “R” next to a sponsor’s name my heart fluttered with joy. People who were supposed to hate me had now decided to love me.

But the bill was rejected and reintroduced, again and again, for years. It never passed. And, in a distinctly American twist, its gauzy rhetoric was all that survived. Now there was a new term on the block: “Dreamers.” Politicians began to use it to refer to the “good” children of immigrants, the ones who did well in school and stayed off the mean streets—the innocents. There are about a million undocumented children in America. The non-innocents, one presumes, are the ones in cages, covered in foil blankets, or lost, disappeared by the government.

I never called myself a Dreamer. The word was saccharine and dumb, and it yoked basic human rights to getting an A on a report card. Dreamers couldn’t flunk out of high school, or have D.U.I.s, or work at McDonald’s. Those kids lived with the pressure of needing a literal miracle in order to save their families, but the miracle didn’t happen, because the odds were against them, because the odds were against all of us. And so America decided that they didn’t deserve an I.D.

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The Dream, it turned out, needed to demonize others in order to help the chosen few. Our parents, too, would be sacrificed. The price of our innocence was the guilt of our loved ones. Jeff Sessions, while he was Attorney General, suggested that we had been trafficked against our will. People actually pitied me because my parents brought me to America. Without even consulting me.

The irony, of course, is that the Dream was our inheritance. We were Dreamers because our parents had dreams.

It’s painful to think about this. My mother, an aspiring interior designer, has gone twenty-eight years without a sick day. My dad, who loves problem-solving, has spent his life wanting a restaurant. He’s a talented cook and a brilliant manager, and he often did the work of his actual managers for them. But, without papers, he could advance only so far in a job. He needed to be paid in cash; he could never receive benefits.

He often used a soccer metaphor to describe our journey in America. Our family was a team, but I scored the goals. Everything my family did was, in some sense, a pass to me. Then the American Dream could be mine, and then we could start passing to my brother. That’s how my dad explained his limp every night, his feet blistered from speed-running deliveries. It’s why we sometimes didn’t have money for electricity or shampoo. Those were fouls. Sometimes my parents did tricky things to survive that you’ll never know about. Those were nutmegs. In 2015, when the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup, my dad went to the parade and sent me a selfie. “Girl power!” the text read.

My father is a passionate, diatribe-loving feminist, though his feminism often seems to exclude my mother. When I was in elementary school, he would take me to the local branch of the Queens Public Library and check out the memoir of Rosalía Arteaga Serrano, the only female President in Ecuador’s history. Serrano was ousted from office, seemingly because she was a woman. My father would read aloud from the book for hours, pausing to tell me that I’d need to toughen up. He would read from dictators’ speeches—not for the politics, but for the power of persuasive oratory. We went to the library nearly every weekend for thirteen years.

My mother left her factory job to give me, the anointed one, full-time academic support. She pulled all-nighters to help me make extravagant posters. She grilled me with vocabulary flash cards, struggling to pronounce the words but laughing and slapping me with pillows if I got something wrong. I aced the language portions of my PSATs and SATs, partly because of luck, and partly because of my parents’ locally controversial refusal to let me do household chores, ever, because they wanted me to be reading, always reading, instead.

If this all seems strategic, it should. The American Dream doesn’t just happen to cheery Pollyannas. It happens to iconoclasts with a plan and a certain amount of cunning. The first time I encountered the idea of the Dream, it was in English class, discussing “The Great Gatsby.” My classmates all thought that Gatsby seemed sort of sad, a pathetic figure. I adored him. He created his own persona, made a fortune in an informal economy, and lived a quiet, paranoid, reclusive life. Most of all, he longed. He stood at the edge of Long Island Sound, longing for Daisy, and I took the train uptown to Columbia University and looked out at the campus, hoping it could one day be mine. At the time, it was functionally impossible for undocumented students to enroll at Columbia. The same held for many schools. Keep dreaming, my parents said.

I did. I was valedictorian of my class, miraculously got into Harvard, and was tapped to join a secret society that once included T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens. I was the only Latina inducted, I think, and I was very chill when an English-Spanish dictionary appeared in our club bathroom after I started going to teas. When I graduated, in 2011, our country was deporting people at record rates. I knew that I needed to add even more of a golden flicker to my illegality, so that if I was deported, or if my parents were deported, we would not go in the middle of the night, in silence, anonymously, as Americans next door watched another episode of “The Bachelor.” So I began writing, with the explicit aim of entering the canon. I wrote a book about undocumented immigrants, approaching them not as shadowy victims or gilded heroes but as people, flawed and complex. It was reviewed well, nominated for things. A President commended it.

But it’s hard to feel anything. My parents remain poor and undocumented. I cannot protect them with prizes or grades. My father sobbed when I handed him my diploma, but it was not the piece of paper that would make it all better, no matter how heavy the stock.

By the time I was in grad school, my parents’ thirty-year marriage was over. They had spent most of those years in America, with their heads down and their bodies broken; it was hard not to see the split as inevitable. My mom called me to say she’d had enough. My brother supported her decision. I talked to each parent, and helped them mutually agree on a date. On a Tuesday night, my father moved out, leaving his old parenting books behind, while my mom and brother were at church. I asked my father to text my brother that he loved him. I think he texted him exactly that. Then I collapsed onto the floor beneath an open drawer of knives, texted my partner to come help me, and convulsed in sobs.

After that, my mom became depressed. I did hours of research and found her a highly qualified, trauma-informed psychiatrist, a Spanish speaker who charged on a sliding scale I could afford. My mom got on Lexapro, which helped. She also started a job that makes her very happy. In order to find her that job, I took a Klonopin and browsed Craigslist for hours each day, e-mailing dozens of people, being vague about legal status in a clever but truthful way. I impersonated her in phone interviews, hanging off my couch, the blood rushing to my head, struggling not to do an offensive accent.

You know how, when you get a migraine, you regret how stupid you were for taking those sweet, painless days for granted? Although my days are hard, I understand that I’m living in an era of painlessness, and that a time will come when I look back and wonder why I was such a stupid, whining fool. My mom’s job involves hard manual labor, sometimes in the snow or the rain. I got her a real winter coat, her first, from Eddie Bauer. I got her a pair of Hunter boots. These were things she needed, things I had seen on women her age on the subway, their hands bearing bags from Whole Foods. My mom’s hands are arthritic. She sends me pictures of them covered in bandages.

My brother and I now have a pact: neither of us can die, because then the other would be stuck with our parents. My brother is twenty-two, still in college, and living with my mom. He, too, has some skills. He is gentle, kind, and excellent at deëscalating conflict. He mediated my parents’ arguments for years. He has also never tried to change them, which I have, through a regimen of therapy, books, and cheesy Instagram quotes. So we’ve decided that, in the long term, since his goal is to get a job, get married, have kids, and stay in Queens, he’ll invite Mom to move in with him, to help take care of the grandkids. He’ll handle the emotional labor, since it doesn’t traumatize him. And I’ll handle the financial support, since it doesn’t traumatize me.

I love my parents. I know I love them. But what I feel for them daily is a mixture of terror, panic, obligation, sorrow, anger, pity, and a shame so hot that I need to lie face down, in my underwear, on very cold sheets. Many Americans have vulnerable parents, and strive to succeed in order to save them. I hold those people in the highest regard. But the undocumented face a unique burden, due to scorn and a lack of support from the government. Because our parents made a choice—the choice to migrate—few people pity them, or wonder whether restitution should be made for decades of exploitation. That choice, the original sin, is why our parents were thrown out of paradise. They were tempted by curiosity and hunger, by fleshly desires.

And so we return to the debt. However my parents suffer in their final years will be related to their migration—to their toil in this country, to their lack of health care and housing support, to psychic fatigue. They were able, because of that sacrifice, to give me their version of the Dream: an education, a New York accent, a life that can better itself. But that life does not fully belong to me. My version of the American Dream is seeing them age with dignity, being able to help them retire, and keeping them from being pushed onto train tracks in a random hate crime. For us, gratitude and guilt feel almost identical. Love is difficult to separate from self-erasure. All we can give one another is ourselves.

Scholars often write about the harm that’s done when children become caretakers, but they’re reluctant to do so when it comes to immigrants. For us, they say, this situation is cultural . Because we grow up in tight-knit families. Because we respect our elders. In fact, it’s just the means of living that’s available to us. It’s a survival mechanism, a mutual-aid society at the family level. There is culture, and then there is adaptation to precarity and surveillance. If we are lost in the promised land, perhaps it’s because the ground has never quite seemed solid beneath our feet.

When I was a kid, my mother found a crystal heart in my father’s taxi. The light that came through it was pretty, shimmering, like a gasoline spill on the road. She put it in her jewelry box, and sometimes we’d take out the box, spill the contents onto my pink twin bed, and admire what we both thought was a heart-shaped diamond. I grew up, I went to college. I often heard of kids who had inherited their grandmother’s heirlooms, and I sincerely believed that there were jewels in my family, too. Then, a few years ago, my partner and I visited my mom, and she spilled out her box. She gave me a few items I cherish: a nameplate bracelet in white, yellow, and rose gold, and the thick gold hoop earrings that she wore when she first moved to Brooklyn. Everything else was costume jewelry. I couldn’t find the heart.

I realized that, when my mother found the crystal, she was around the same age I am now. She had probably never held a diamond, and she probably wanted to believe that she had found one in America, a dream come true. She wanted me to believe it, and then, as we both grew up, alone, together, she stopped believing, stopped wanting to believe, and stopped me from wanting to believe. And she probably threw that shit out. I didn’t ask. Some things are none of our business. ♦

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The Real American Dream

A meditation on hope.

• Andrew Delbanco
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• Language: English
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Copyright year: 1999
• Audience: Professional and scholarly;
• Main content: 160
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Home — Essay Samples — Economics — American Dream

Argumentative Essays on American Dream

Hook examples for essays about american dream, rags to riches hook.

Explore the timeless appeal of the American Dream by examining stories of individuals who started with nothing and achieved remarkable success. From Andrew Carnegie to Oprah Winfrey, these stories inspire and symbolize the dream's possibility.

The Immigrant's Dream Hook

Take a closer look at the American Dream through the lens of immigration. Analyze the experiences of immigrants who came to America in pursuit of a better life and the challenges they faced while chasing their dreams.

The Illusion of the Dream Hook

Discuss the idea that the American Dream may sometimes be more of an illusion than a reality. Explore how societal barriers, economic inequalities, and systemic challenges can obstruct the path to achieving one's dreams.

Generational Perspectives Hook

Examine how the concept of the American Dream has evolved over generations. Compare the dreams and aspirations of different eras, from the post-World War II boom to the challenges faced by millennials and Gen Z today.

The Dream in Literature and Film Hook

Explore the portrayal of the American Dream in literature and cinema. Analyze iconic works like "The Great Gatsby" and "Death of a Salesman" to uncover the themes of ambition, success, and disillusionment.

Financial Prosperity Hook

Delve into the financial aspects of the American Dream. Discuss the pursuit of homeownership, financial stability, and economic success as core components of this dream, and how they have evolved over time.

Freedom and Independence Hook

Consider the role of freedom and independence in the American Dream. Explore how the dream encompasses not only financial success but also the pursuit of personal liberty, self-expression, and self-reliance.

The Dream Deferred Hook

Reflect on Langston Hughes' question, "What happens to a dream deferred?" Analyze the consequences of unfulfilled dreams and how they impact individuals and communities, shedding light on the complexities of the American Dream.

The Dream and Social Justice Hook

Examine the relationship between the American Dream and social justice. Discuss how unequal access to opportunities and systemic discrimination have influenced who can pursue and achieve the dream.

Gatsby American Dream Quotes

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The Possibility to Achieve The American Dream

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Equal Opportunity and The American Dream: a Critical Appraisal

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The concept of the American Dream centers around the notion that individuals, irrespective of their place of birth or social status, have the potential to achieve their personal definition of success within a society that offers upward mobility opportunities for all its members.

In 1931, James Truslow Adams introduced the phrase "American Dream" in his book, emphasizing the belief that every individual, irrespective of their social class or background, should have the opportunity to lead a fulfilling and prosperous life. Adams articulated that the American Dream entails the pursuit of a better, more abundant existence, where individuals can thrive based on their abilities and accomplishments.

The origin of the American Dream can be traced back to the founding principles of the United States of America. It emerged as a belief system that reflected the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity that were integral to the nation's formation. The concept gained prominence during the early years of the country's history, as immigrants sought a better life and economic prosperity in the New World. The term "American Dream" was popularized in the 20th century, particularly during the post-World War II era when the United States experienced significant economic growth and social mobility. It became synonymous with the idea that hard work, determination, and meritocracy could lead to upward social and economic mobility, allowing individuals to achieve their goals and aspirations. Over time, the American Dream has evolved and been interpreted differently by various generations and cultural groups. It continues to serve as a symbol of hope and opportunity, representing the aspirations and dreams of individuals striving for success and a better future in the United States.

Public opinion on the American Dream is varied and complex. While the concept has traditionally been revered as a symbol of hope and opportunity, there are differing perspectives on its attainability and relevance in contemporary society. Some individuals view the American Dream as a fundamental pillar of the nation's identity, representing the ideals of hard work, meritocracy, and upward mobility. They believe that with determination and perseverance, anyone can overcome obstacles and achieve success, regardless of their background or circumstances. This optimistic view holds the American Dream as a source of motivation and inspiration. However, there are those who critique the American Dream, arguing that systemic barriers and inequalities hinder equal access to opportunities. They highlight issues such as income inequality, limited social mobility, and structural disadvantages that make it challenging for individuals, particularly those from marginalized communities, to achieve their aspirations. The public opinion on the American Dream also reflects generational and cultural differences. Younger generations, in particular, express skepticism and question the viability of the traditional American Dream, seeking a more inclusive and equitable vision of success.

The representation of the American Dream in media and literature has been a recurring theme, capturing the aspirations, challenges, and complexities of American society. One notable example is F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby," which delves into the pursuit of the American Dream during the Roaring Twenties. The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, embodies the relentless pursuit of wealth and social status as he tries to win back his lost love. The novel critiques the shallow and elusive nature of the American Dream, exposing the dark underbelly of materialism and the illusion of happiness. Another representation can be found in Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman." The character of Willy Loman personifies the American Dream as he strives for success in the sales industry. However, the play highlights the disillusionment and personal tragedy that can accompany the pursuit of this ideal, shedding light on the sacrifices and compromises made in the name of success. In contemporary media, films like "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "American Beauty" tackle the American Dream in different ways. "The Pursuit of Happyness" portrays the struggles of a man determined to provide a better life for his son, emphasizing the resilience and determination required to overcome adversity. "American Beauty" explores the hollowness and superficiality of the American Dream through a satirical lens, challenging societal norms and materialistic values.

“When we make college more affordable, we make the American Dream more achievable.” — William J. Clinton “I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country.” — Whoopi Goldberg, “The American Dream is a phrase we’ll have to wrestle with all our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we’re redefining it now.” – Rita Dove

The topic of the American Dream is of great significance when it comes to understanding the ideals, values, and aspirations deeply ingrained in American society. Writing an essay on the American Dream allows for a critical examination of its historical origins, cultural impact, and evolving interpretations over time. It provides a platform to explore the promises and challenges associated with this concept, shedding light on its complexities and contradictions. Examining the American Dream allows us to delve into issues of social mobility, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. It prompts discussions on the role of opportunity, hard work, and meritocracy in achieving success, while also addressing systemic barriers and inequalities that hinder progress. Moreover, analyzing the American Dream invites reflection on the changing dynamics of the nation, the influence of consumerism, and the impact of globalization on individual and collective aspirations.

1. Adams, J. T. (1931). The Epic of America. Little, Brown, and Company. 2. Bellah, R. N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S. M. (2008). Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. University of California Press. 3. Fitzgerald, F. S. (1925). The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons. 4. Hochschild, J. L. (1995). Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation. Princeton University Press. 5. Jackson, K. T. (1985). Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. Oxford University Press. 6. Levine, L. W. (2005). Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America. Harvard University Press. 7. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster. 8. Riesman, D., Glazer, N., & Denney, R. (1950). The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character. Yale University Press. 9. Turner, F. J. (1893). The Significance of the Frontier in American History. American Historical Association. 10. Wilson, W. J. (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. University of Chicago Press.

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The American Dream has evolved, but a place to call home is still part of it

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Once upon a time, in the bustling streets of colonial America, real estate sales were a far cry from the glossy brochures and virtual tours we’re accustomed to today.

The American dream was often purchased with a handshake. The saying, “buyer beware” was very true; sometimes buyers didn’t know exactly what they bought or if they were sold property even owned by the seller.

The need for experts in buying and selling brought into existence the first real estate brokerages, establishing themselves in Chicago and Northern California in the late 1800s. The National Association of REALTORS was originally founded as the National Association of Real Estate Exchange in 1908 and adopted a Code of Ethics to create a standard for the industry.

As the nation expanded and cities grew, so too did the demand for housing. Suddenly, square footage became a hot commodity. In the 1800s, the average American home was a modest one or two rooms, averaging 400 square feet.

Families made do with what they had — no indoor plumbing, heat from a fireplace and often multi-generational living or large families shared the space. Glass windows were a luxury.

As the Industrial Revolution swept across the land, so too did the desire for bigger and better homes.

In the 20th century, the American dream took on new dimensions. Suburban sprawl and the rise of the middle class led to a housing boom like never before. Levittowns sprung up like mushrooms, offering cookie-cutter homes with 750 square feet to accommodate the burgeoning families of post-war America.

Today, square footage continues to be a defining factor in the real estate market. Typical new homes now are a bit over 2,400 square feet while lot sizes have decreased. Whether a buyer is looking for a tiny house or McMansion, they are constantly seeking the perfect balance between space and affordability.

And while the methods may have evolved, the essence of real estate remains the same: finding a place to call home, no matter how many square feet it may be.

For the most up to date information on selling and buying in Ramona, go to RREA.org and find your local expert.

Karen Domnitz is vice president of the Ramona Real Estate Association and a Realtor, DRE #00897503, with CENTURY 21 Affiliated

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Hoovervilles: Shantytowns in the Shadow of the American Dream

This essay delves into the phenomenon of Hoovervilles, makeshift shantytowns that arose during the Great Depression, named sardonically after President Herbert Hoover. It paints a vivid picture of the harsh living conditions in these settlements, while also spotlighting the resilience and communal spirit of the American people during this period of economic despair. Hoovervilles are portrayed not merely as physical entities but as profound symbols of the era’s economic failures and societal inequalities. The essay emphasizes the role of these communities in shaping government policies, contributing to the New Deal reforms under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It reflects on the legacy of Hoovervilles, highlighting their relevance in current discussions about economic disparity and the role of government in social welfare, serving as a poignant reminder of the past and a cautionary tale for the future.

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In the tumultuous years following the stock market crash of 1929, the United States was plunged into the deepest and most widespread economic downturn in its history, known as the Great Depression. During this bleak period, a phenomenon emerged on the fringes of American cities, a stark manifestation of the nation’s suffering. They were called Hoovervilles, shantytowns named sardonically after President Herbert Hoover, whom many blamed for the economic despair.

Hoovervilles sprang up across the nation, from the apple orchards of the Pacific Northwest to the once bustling industrial hubs of the Northeast.

These makeshift communities were cobbled together from the detritus of a society in turmoil—scraps of metal, cardboard, and whatever materials the destitute could salvage. The residents of these shantytowns were a cross-section of American society: laid-off workers, families who had lost their homes to foreclosure, and individuals who had once belonged to the now shattered middle class.

Life in Hoovervilles was a daily struggle against the elements and the insecurities of destitution. Despite this, the human spirit’s resilience shone through. Communities formed governing structures; soup kitchens were established to feed the hungry, and shanty schools were created to educate the children. This communal spirit was a testament to the resolve of the American people, a resolve that would be crucial in overcoming the challenges of the era.

It’s important to recognize that Hoovervilles were more than just physical spaces; they were a profound symbol of the failure of the American economic system at that time. The name itself, Hooverville, was not just a jab at President Hoover but also a biting commentary on the perceived inefficacy of the federal government’s response to the crisis. These shantytowns laid bare the stark inequalities and the fragility of the American Dream.

However, the story of Hoovervilles is not just one of despair. It’s also a narrative about the strength of community and the human capacity to adapt and survive. The residents of these shantytowns organized themselves, demonstrating incredible ingenuity and resilience. They created something out of nothing, transforming scraps into shelters, and forming communities that, though born out of necessity, often became tight-knit and supportive.

The legacy of Hoovervilles extends beyond their physical existence. They forced a reckoning in American society and politics. The visibility of such extreme poverty and the public’s reaction to it contributed to the shift in government policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which aimed to address the economic disparities and systemic failures that had led to the Depression. Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration not only provided employment but also dignity and a sense of hope to millions.

In retrospect, Hoovervilles symbolize a critical moment in American history—a moment that tested the resilience of the American spirit and sparked a transformation in the relationship between the government and its citizens. They remind us of the perils of economic disparity and the importance of a responsive and empathetic government. But perhaps most importantly, they stand as a testament to the indomitable spirit of individuals who, even in the face of overwhelming adversity, managed to forge communities and maintain their humanity.

Today, the echoes of Hoovervilles can still be heard in discussions about economic inequality, housing crises, and the role of government in providing social safety nets. They serve as a poignant reminder of where we’ve been and a cautionary tale of what could happen again if the lessons of the past are not heeded. In the story of Hoovervilles, we find not just the struggle and sorrow of a bygone era, but also the enduring resilience and solidarity that define the human spirit.

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Guest Essay

There’s No Such Thing as an American Bible

By Esau McCaulley

Contributing Opinion Writer

The presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States, who weeks ago started selling shoes , is now peddling Bibles. During Holy Week.

What’s special about this Bible? So many things. For example, according to a promotional website, it’s the only Bible endorsed by Donald Trump. It’s also the only one endorsed by the country singer Lee Greenwood. Admittedly, the translation isn’t distinctive — it’s your standard King James Version — but the features are unique. This Bible includes the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and part of the lyrics of Mr. Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA.” Perhaps most striking, the cover of the Bible does not include a cross or any symbol of the Christian tradition; instead, it is emblazoned with the American flag.

While part of me wants to laugh at the absurdity of it — and marvel at the sheer audacity — I find the messaging unsettling and deeply wrong. This God Bless the USA Bible, as it’s officially named, focuses on God’s blessing of one particular people. That is both its danger and, no doubt for some, its appeal.

Whether this Bible is an example of Christian nationalism I will leave to others. It is at least an example of Christian syncretism, a linking of certain myths about American exceptionalism and the Christian faith. This is the American church’s consistent folly: thinking that we are the protagonists in a story that began long before us and whose main character is in fact the Almighty.

Holy Week is the most sacred portion of the Christian calendar, a time when the church recounts the central events of our faith’s narrative, climaxing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. That story, unlike the parochial God Bless the USA Bible, does not belong to any culture.

Holy Week is celebrated on every continent and in too many languages to number. Some of the immigrants Mr. Trump declared were “ poisoning the blood” of America will probably shout “Christ is risen!” this Easter. Many of them come from the largely Christian regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. They may have entered the country with Bibles in their native tongues nestled securely among their other belongings.

One of the beauties of the Christian faith is that it leaps over the lines dividing countries, leading the faithful to call fellow believers from very different cultures brothers and sisters. Most of the members of this international community consist of the poor living in Africa, Asia and Latin America. There are more Spanish-speaking Christians than English- speaking ones .

If there are central messages that emerge from the variety of services that take place during Holy Week, for many Christians they are the setting aside of power to serve, the supremacy of love, the offer of divine forgiveness and the vulnerability of a crucified God.

This is not the stuff of moneymaking schemes or American presidential campaigns.

It was Pontius Pilate , standing in as the representative of the Roman Empire, who sentenced Jesus to death. The Easter story reminds believers that empires are more than willing to sacrifice the innocent if it allows rulers to stay in power. The church sees Christ’s resurrection as liberating the believer from the power of sin. The story challenges imperial modes of thinking, supplanting the endless pursuit of power with the primacy of love and service.

Easter, using the language of St. Augustine, represents the victory of the City of God over the City of Man. It declares the limits of the moral reasoning of nation-states and has fortified Christians who’ve resisted evil regimes such as fascists in South America, Nazis in Germany, apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States.

For any politician to suppose that a nation’s founding documents and a country music song can stand side by side with biblical texts fails at a theological and a moral level. I can’t imagine people in other countries going for anything like it. It is hard to picture a modern “God Bless England” Bible with elements of British common law appended to Christianity’s most sacred texts.

I am glad for the freedoms that we share as Americans. But the idea of a Bible explicitly made for one nation displays a misunderstanding of the story the Bible attempts to tell. The Christian narrative culminates in the creation of the Kingdom (and family) of God, a transnational community united by faith and mutual love.

Roman Catholics , Anglicans and Orthodox Christians, who together claim around 1.5 billion members, describe the Bible as a final authority in matters of faith. Evangelicals, who have overwhelmingly supported Mr. Trump over the course of three election cycles, are known for their focus on Scripture, too. None of these traditions cite or refer to any American political documents in their doctrinal statements — and for good reason.

This Bible may be unique in its form, but the agenda it pursues has recurred throughout history. Christianity is often either co-opted or suppressed; it is rarely given the space to be itself. African American Christians have long struggled to disentangle biblical texts from their misuse in the United States. There is a reason that the abolitionist Frederick Douglass said that between the Christianity of this land (America) and the Christianity of Christ, he recognized the “widest possible difference.”

And while Christianity was used to give theological cover to North American race-based chattel slavery, it was violently attacked in places like El Salvador and Uganda, when leaders including the archbishops Oscar Romero and Janani Luwum spoke out against political corruption.

The work of the church is to remain constantly vigilant to maintain its independence and the credibility of its witness. In the case of this particular Bible, discerning what is happening is not difficult. Christians are being played. Rather than being an appropriate time to debut a patriotic Bible, Easter season is an opportune moment for the church to recover the testimony of the supremacy of the cross over any flag, especially one on the cover of a Bible.

Esau McCaulley ( @esaumccaulley ) is a contributing Opinion writer, the author of “ How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South ” and an associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.

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