Barbara Ehrenreich: Achieving The American Dream

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Pages: 3
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Mariana Corio
Ms. Knapp
Composition
9/28/17

The American Dream The term “American Dream” was first used in the 1930’s by a man named James Truslow Adams, he used this term to describe a set of ideals that someone would hope to one day achieve. Some of the ideas that people had of the American dream included living a happy and successful life, having freedom and equality, and even living better than their parents did. so, what does it take to achieve the American dream? Some may say hard work and motivation while others may say a good education and a strong resume. Barbara Ehrenreich covers a wide variety of characteristics she thinks is necessary to get into the different working classes such as blue, white and pink collar but I don’t necessarily …show more content…
Achieving the American dream may be more difficult for some people due to economic, cultural and educational matters but a man named Tashitaa Tufaa was not going to let this stop him from achieving the American dream. Tufaa was born and raised in an Ethiopian village with 13 siblings and eventually travelled to attend college in Zimbabwe. He later came back Ethiopia to become a teacher but ultimately decided to leave again due to the unsafe political atmosphere in the 90’s. He ended up in Minneapolis and even though he was staying in low-income housing, he was still so amazed by the tall building and this place called America. At this time in America the economy was not in good shape and could very difficult to find a job and be able to keep it as well. Tufaa claims that his first job was working as a dishwasher for minimum wage because “If you wanted a white collar job, there were not many available.” due to the poor economy. Tufaa still would not let that set him back, he continued to “[wash] dishes for about ten months before moving on to a manufacturing job and a security position before enrolling in graduate school at the University of Minnesota. He continued working security jobs as he went
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