Value Of American Culture

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The Values of the American Culture
What do Americans value most in today’s society? Individuals have placed a value on things they can measure and classify themselves by. Specifically, Americans value money, education, power, and social class and determine this using the “American Dream”. According to James Truslow Adams, the American Dream is “the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…”; however, over time many Americans have come to place a value on measurable aspects, such as money power and social class instead.
The American Dream is a flawed, unrealistic idea that individuals chase because they want to create a better life for themselves. …show more content…
Ruth tells Asagai about her lifelong dream to become a doctor and provide for herself, just like many other African Americans in their society. He explains that her dream is only able to come true now that her father has died and left them money. While talking to Ruth about their dreams, and how they depend on the money left from their father, he says, “Then there is something wrong in a house- in a world- where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death of a man?” (Hansberry 135). Even though they valued their father and did not wish for him to die, they depend on the money he had left behind for them. Now that he is gone and all they have left of him is ten thousand dollars, their futures and dreams depend upon it, which Asagai thinks is wrong. Their dreams should not depend on the death of their father, rather than the effort they put into making them come true. Walter Younger decides that once he has the money from his father’s death, that he will create a new life for himself and begin to make money to support his family. In the criticism of A Raisin in the Sun by Cristina Nappi, it states, “Walter wants more for himself than to be a paid slave” (Nappi 1). Walter wants to fulfill his American Dream using the money his father has left the family by creating a business to become successful and provide for …show more content…
After his passing, Mama admires how hard Big Walter, their father, had worked to provide for his family despite the challenges he was faced with. While talking to Walter and her family, Mama reminds them that Big Walter, their father, had worked very hard to provide their family with what he had, despite his skin color. “That man worked hisself [himself] to death like he done. Like he was fighting his own war with this here world…” (Hansberry 45) she mentions. Big Walter worked very hard to defy the odds against him and provide for his family. He gave them his all and did what he could to make sure his family had what they needed to survive in the society that they lived in. He worked many jobs and earned all the money he could as a black man living during this time period. Mama, as well as other members of the family, appreciated him and what he had done for their family while he was alive. The American Dream is not always achievable for Americans, specifically minority groups such as African Americans. In the article, Discrimination and the American Dream in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in The Sun it states, “Big Walter’s life was a constant struggle against a personal sorrow and a hostile economic and social world that discriminated against him” (M’Baye 3). While trying to provide for his family, Big Walter encountered many barriers that
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