The ethos of the United States is the promise of the American Dream, which many believe is “obtainable” easily. The American Dream is defined as, “ the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work (google).” In our unit we looked at many examples of the American Dream with the definitions all being different, but after looking at the examples closely, the American Dream is nothing but a lie. The American Dream will never be “attainable” to all those who try to achieve it, due to the workforce, our economical standpoint and the high “expectations” for success. “The Dream” everyone expects to achieve is all a myth because of the minimum job pay with the cost of amenities needed and the ability to keep a job in our country at this time is difficult. In the book Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich, who is an acclaimed author, goes undercover and to take on minimum wage jobs to see what it is like to try to…show more content… In her time, she struggles to find a high paying job, with the pay all being the same, but the tasks all being different. During her time spent in Maine, she states in the beginning, “I do, however, and $5 to $6 an hour for what this lady freely admits is heavy labor with a high risk of repetitive-stress injuries seems guaranteed to repel all mathematically able job seekers (Ehrenreich 60).” This shows that not only are jobs hard to come by, but people are replaceable easy, which Ehrenreich learns later on when one of her coworkers, Holly, refuses to stop working when she hurts her ankle because if she did, she wouldn’t be paid. This part of her story showed how no matter how hard you work, you never really see results, and barely get by. Similarly, in the article named Job search and the American Dream, which explains how for years people have been trying to reach success but never truly did.
