Is the American Dream a Delusion? The idea of the American Dream is rooted deep in every Americans heart. The American dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and the idea that life should be fuller, richer and better for everyone regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. But this view on the American dream is challenged by gender studies and college teacher Courtney E. Martin in her article ”Is the American Dream a Delusion?”, in which she questions the value of the American Dream. Courtney E. Martin is a gender studies professor at Hunter College which is one of the most ethnically diverse schools. This gives her a sense of credibility; that she knows what she is talking about. In this article she is addressing teachers and professional educators like herself, because of the complex and formal language used by E. Martin, for example “I want to give my students an intellectual tool that can serve as an emotional cushion”. This is not only an example of the complexity of the language, but also an example of the many metaphors E. Martin uses in the article. Metaphors are mostly used to emphasise a point or so there is a sense of clarity. Another example of a metaphor could be “I don't want to be the pinprick that lets the air out of the swollen balloon of hope”. By using this metaphor, E. Martin clarifies that she is not trying to beat the immigrants down or take their hope away. Later on the in the text it is clarified that while she does not want that, she still wants the students to be realistic and down to earth. Another great example of E. Martin's use of metaphors is the sentence “many of the students' parents (…) have sacrificed their lives on the altar of the American Dream”. By this E. Martin expresses that the American Dream is somewhat of a religion to some of the immigrants, since 'altar' connotes religion. There are also quite a lot of contrasts in the text; and that appeals to both youngsters and older people as well. The sentence “weirded out” is a phrase that appeal to younger people, while there more complex sentences will appeal to the older and more mature generation. The diversity of the language means the article reaches a broad audience.
In the article, E. Martin talks about how discussing the American Dream with her students makes her uncomfortable, because she doesn't believe it herself.
She makes it very clear in the article, that she knows how important the American Dream is to her students. Because she knows you need hope, and she does not want to be the reason of their balloon of hope deflating. But she thinks that the American Dream is success stories “dangled in front a struggling public so they won't get angry enough to revolt against an unfair system”. By this and other arguments such as “oppression can so easily be mistaken for personal failure” and “many employers won't even look at their resumes of they don't see an Ivy League college at the top” she argues that while the American dream is a lovely fantasy – a delusion – it is not reality. If you are not the best, you won't make it to the top.
E. Martins intention with this article is to inform and entertain, but also to argue for her own point of views. She is not trying to convince the readers that she is the correct one, but merely informing of how she sees it. She is trying to put some perspective on the whole American Dream scenario, and maybe tell people, especially immigrants that real life is not a dance on roses. She clearly states that immigrants and young people need to be prepared for the real life and not just told that if they work hard enough their dreams will come true, because while a nice thought, it's just not how society works in E. Martins opinion. In her opinion she thinks that society needs to prepare the young minds. She thinks society so easily let young people down, and that the youth blame themselves when they fail. According to E. Martin the youth thinks too big. They want the whole world but crashes down when they can't get it. She mentions a student of hers, who says that the American Dream for him is to see the Mets whenever he wants, and not to be a hot-shot or a big, important politician. E. martin thinks this is good thinking, because he has revisioned the scope of the American Dream, and therefore it's not as damaging. In the article E. Martin takes advantage of more than one appeal forms; ethos and logos, and maybe just a bit of pathos. Ethos is the sense of credibility and is expressed through the argument “as a gender studies professor at Hunter College”. By this she shows that she has some experience behind her opinions and that she also knows what she is talking. It gives the reassurance that behind every argument lies the sense of credibility. Logos is expressed by talking to the sense of logic. E. Martin uses this appeal form in the argument “as long as they are distracted by their own dedication, they won't stop to question why the richest people in this country pay far less in taxes (...)”. She is basically saying “if the youth is distracted by someone else, they won't notice what is going on”.
Since the article was released the 27th of March 2012 it is resent and therefor still of current interest. The arguments used are valid, but is still bleed over by personal opinion, thus a biased text. This is not necessary a bad thing, since the point of the article is for E. Martin to speak of her own personal opinions. Had this been an article that was to describe what the American Dream is the arguments of the text had been invalid, too personal and unprofessional. Since that is not the case, the article is both interesting and entertaining but also worth some thinking to create own opinions on the matter. Because the question “is the American Dream a delusion?” can have multiple answers. If you think the American Dream is a product of an unfair system that glorifies the rich, then yes, it is. But if the American Dream is your reason to get up in the morning, your motivation and your dreams, then no. Then the American Dream is very much real.