The American dream is a myth that many people idealize, which at the course of time became reality. It's not something concrete that you can have after doing certain things or a trophy on the shelf to remind you of your glory. It's a motivator that helps you achieve your goals in life. There isn't a single definition for it, since every person makes their own, based on their culture, morals, beliefs and values. Diana Stiuliuc used a quote from James Truslow Adams' book, "The Epic of America," where he defines the American dream as: "that dream of a land in which life should be better and fuller and richer for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. 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" (Adams 1931:404)" (Stiuliuc 364).
In the quote stated previously, Adams defines the American dream as something anyone can achieve. People have their own personal goals, and with that being said, even if everyone achieves it, they won't have the same accomplishments. But not because everyone can live the American dream, means everyone will. But regardless of your birthrights and sex, everyone will have equal rights to reach it. The second quote I chose from the passage was Stiuliuc's reference to political science Jennifer Hochschild's book, "Facing Up to the American Dream," "Hochschild observes that the ideology of the American dream is not equally distributed among ethnic groups in the United States and it represents a sort of Procrustean bed, an "inchoate fantasy" (Hochschild 1995: xiii), whose realization is entwined with racial antagonisms " (Stiuliuc 368).
This quote is saying that not every person in the United States has the same opportunity regarding the American dream.
