What is an American?
This blog post explores what it means to be American and how the American Dream is perceived by immigrants. It discusses the ideals of freedom, economic opportunity, and equality while highlighting the challenges foreigners face when adjusting to American culture. Through examples such as Anzia Yezierska’s America and I, the post shows how personal experiences can reshape the vision of the American Dream and reveals that while opportunity exists, achieving it requires effort, adaptation, and perseverance.
Jalia Blocker
9/23/20242 min read
What is an American?
Being American can be defined in many different ways. The American Dream is the same dream shared by foreigners who enter the country. Believing in freedom, economic decisions, and unity within one’s country. Though having the same ideals as America, many can face different realities. Adjusting to the American culture and regulations can be the most challenging for the majority who immigrate to the country. America still provides access to the American dream; however, it can be difficult to achieve the ideal vision that foreigners enter the country with.
Defining an American can be anyone who understands that to achieve the best in life requires action, exertion, and effort. Being able to make your own financial decisions and freedom of speech are the two main factors of being an American. Having the opportunity to acquire a job of liking and the ability to take it further into a career is one of the benefits foreigners travel to America for. The country has a constitution to abide by, which protects its citizens and reassures them that they have the right to speak up for themselves. This is a safety measure that many countries do not have to check and balance their government and the people. Thus, foreigners choose to live in America with hopes of an easier life.
The American dream is the ideal of having equality and freedom in the country. Many who think of the American dream are foreigners who were in countries with limited opportunities that interfered with their daily lives. They look in America for what they aren’t capable of attaining in their home country. Like Anzia Yezierska in America and I, she was hopeful to move to America, viewing it as ” A land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire”. Later in that text, she finds her own American dream. People’s vision of the country can be changed by their personal experience in actual America. This can alter the way they believe in the American dream overall.
Access to the American dream can be different depending on the person's route in the country. In cases like foreigners, Anzia Yezierska did not have access to the opportunities of labor immediately, as she thought she would. Learning the language and social norms in America can be one of the largest obstacles newcomers run into. The American dream can be easily deceived as something easygoing. To achieve the opportunities to become “American,” you have to work from the bottom up. Unfortunately, access to economic freedom is not given to foreigners who need it most. The majority of newcomers come into the country with nothing but hope and dreams of achieving a better life than before. What they’re not aware of is that to access the true social and economic freedom, you have to adjust to the American environment and find your own way up. In the midst of newcomers adjusting to the country, the more access they have gradually.
Concluding, to be an American is to be self-motivated in achieving your goals in the United States. The general freedom of choice is shared amongst all citizens in America. Different people can face different obstacles, but can access the resources they need to prosper in the country gradually. Though the American dream is generally viewed by newcomers, every citizen is living their American dream differently. Socially, America can be divided but united as one. Divided by different ethnicities and cultures, united by the ability to achieve what they want in America. To be American is to have the courage to build a life of your own, facing any hardship given.