Reflective Essay Example on The American Dream

Upon the first view, it seems like many more bourgeois people still believe that the American Dream is possible. An analysis shown by National Public Radio stated, “As cynical as this may seem, the numbers suggest that the people most likely to believe in the American Dream today are those who've already attained it” (American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality Shapiro). When thinking about this quote it quite makes sense- more poor people, who have also worked hard, can see from their first-hand experience how the grind isn’t what makes you wealthy. However, in “The Great Gatsby,” characters like Tom represent the rich entitlement and show how many of them are actually perfectly aware that the American Dream isn’t simply achievable by following the rules. When discussing Gatsby, Tom commented, “A lot of these newly rich people are just big bootleggers, you know” (Fitzgerald 107). Most of the higher class people either inherited most of their wealth, or at least have a safety net to fall back on if their business experiments fail. Like Tom, they know how low the class mobility is, and that most people can’t legally “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

In “The Great Gatsby,” the way Tom and Daisy behave and react to others can be generalized to the vast majority of those that are wealthy. Nick describes them as, “...careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money...” (Fitzgerald 179). One can blame their selfish personality, which does play into it, although that’s not the main reason. They do it because they can: whatever rich people do has barely any consequences. As we put so much value and base everything around money, it gives unnecessary control to those that have tons of it. Money isn’t evenly distributed at all. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, in 2019 76% of wealth was controlled by only the top 10% of all families living in the United States (How U.S. Wealth Was Concentrated in 2019). Almost all of these rich people could stop going to work for a day and, even if people would be confused, nothing would actually happen as they aren’t doing anything practical. However, when the working class would decide to have a general strike and stop showing up together, all industries would have to shut down and it would be complete chaos. Schools would be closed as there would be no one to teach; people would be stuck in their homes as they couldn’t get gas anymore nor use public transportation; many would struggle to get food as there would be no open grocery stores. While the rich are currently in control of everything, their jobs are not half as necessary.

I’d like to think that I’m completely not impacted by the American Dream; however, even without actively believing in it, the societal expectations based around similar concepts are still everywhere around me. I have ADHD that correlates with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, which both lead to me preferring not completing assignments over doing them randomly. When I don’t have too much going on, it isn’t too horrible, as it helps me hyperfocus on specific topics and do them well. However, during exam weeks in Estonia, it made learning quite difficult, as besides reviewing all the materials, I also had to constantly fight the mental urge to completely shut down. The current system is in no way designed for neurodivergent people. As much as I may dislike it, by myself I unfortunately can’t change that much. I don’t believe that hard work makes you rich. Sure, some people get there; however, I don’t think there’s any ethical way to be a millionaire. While I’m not fooled by that, I’m still, perhaps naively, trusting that hard work can get you into amazing programs/colleges. There are applicants that have advantages over me there too; although, getting into FLEX (the year I got in Estonia had a 2.6% acceptance rate) proves that it’s always worth a try; however unlikely I may think it is to happen.