First, read the following definition of the “American Dream” as it was conceived by the individual who coined the term.
Excerpt from James Truslow Adams’s The Epic of America, 1931
“…that 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. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”
It is time to practice cultivating your commentary.
You will respond to the question: Has the American dream become more accessible over time? Demonstrate your ability to converse with sources and cultivate commentary in one well-developed paragraph that uses the following assertion:
While the American dream has not become fully accessible over time, the hope that it will one day be attainable for all does endure.
Using at least three of the sources below, support the assertion and develop your commentary:
Source A: “Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes
Source B: Excerpt from “Civil Rights Address” by John F. Kennedy
Source C: “I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr.
Source D: Excerpt from Senator Marco Rubio’s April 2015 Speech at Miami’s Freedom Tower
Source E: Excerpt from then-Senator Barack Obama’s November 2007 Speech on the “American Dream”
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