"Breathing dreams like air..."

I would describe the American dream as sitting next to your Olympic-sized swimming pool on a warm, sunny day, no cloud to be seen. Your soulmate is on the chair next to you, reading the newspaper. There's a cold Shirley temple in your left hand, and your butler brings more California rolls to the table. You scroll through Vogue’s Instagram to see that you’re their featured celebrity, again. The American dream is absolutely everything that society portrays as perfect. The American dream is renting out all of Disney World for a party because having millions to throw away is what we think is perfect. However, everyone has a different perception of what the American dream is. For example, my dad believes that the American dream is living in the 50s, no strings attached. Even in fiction, the American dream is different. In The Hunger Games, the American dream is living a day without hunger or fear. Pretty simple, when you compare it to my vision of the American dream. However, in literature, sometimes it stays the same as it does in The Great Gatsby.

Most Americans view a perfect reality as having more money than you know what to do with, which is what Gatsby has. My definition of wealth is probably the same as everyone else’s; it’s having noticeably more money than your peers. Just like Harry Potter’s vault of his parents' fortunes, you are not genuinely wealthy unless the others around you start being jealous. Even though it wasn’t said in the books, I’m sure that Ron Weasley was a little bit jealous of Harry’s fortunes when he opened his vault in Gringotts Bank. Now that we’re talking about perspective let’s talk about views on wealth and poverty in America. It’s all about the system we’re in. When we see people at the top of the pyramid, we become envious and say that they found out a way to manipulate the system. But, when we see those impoverished people at the bottom, we assume that the system put them there, that they were forced into such a low standard of living against their will. However, I disagree entirely. I believe that the choices people make determine where they are in life, and that society doesn’t want people to succeed without cheating, or fall without being forced to fail.