James Truslow Adams 'The American Dream'

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“The American Dream,” a term introduced by historian James Truslow Adams in 1931, refers to “a broad cultural ethos that entails a commitment to the goal of material success, to be pursued by everyone in society, under conditions of open, individual competition” (Messner & Rosenfield 6). Essentially, with this ideal, each American citizen has been led, or rather “socialized” to desire to realize this success, while believing that he can sufficiently achieve it (Cernkovich, Giordano& Rudolph 142), despite any obstacles, because America is a place of equal opportunity, where each person has the ability to pursue his endeavors, and can feasibly attain his dream of material wealth and stability. However, if the pursuit of this dream is so realistic …show more content…
In sum, the American Dream ideal has distorted the values that Americans possess, centralizing on monetary success and thus confusing the pursuit of happiness with the acquisition of materialism. In turn, this has created a culture that prioritizes the material worth of end result over the legitimacy of the methods utilized to reap such success, resulting in an “anomic imbalance” in American society (Adler & Laufer 164).
Essentially, the sociological term of anomie refers to the disintegration of social controls and norms, which is proposed to produce a greater likelihood of deviant behavior and a breakdown of morality in society (Messner & Rosenfield 61). While America has a set of norms, per se, with the specific set of American values which distinguish its culture from any other, those values are what Messner and Rosenfeld claim to be at the foundation of why “Americans are exceptionally resistant to social control, and therefore exceptionally vulnerable to criminal temptations” (Adler & Laufer, 1995 177). As …show more content…
In regards to a strong achievement orientation, American culture calculates one’s social worth by what he has accomplished rather than who that person is holistically; because gaining this success is the ultimate objective, the methods one takes to arrive at that point are clouded, or rather, disregarded due to the sole focus on the end goal (Adler & Laufer 164). Secondly, individualism implies that in pursuing this sense of social worth or success, one must achieve this on his own, creating a society of competitors (Adler & Laufer 165) rather than collaborators, which only further demotivates the use of legitimate means, especially for those who have limited resources. Thirdly, universalism entails that all Americans should attempt to realize this type of success, and that everyone has an equal opportunity to do so (Schoepfer 9). Lastly, materialism represents the lens through which Americans view success; the American “fetishism” (Schoepfer 9) with monetary rewards distinguishes America as a uniquely materialistic people (Adler & Laufer 165).
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