American Dream

2 Pages 568 Words

How the American Dream can ruin a relationship in the text “African Passions”

In every ethnic group there is what you may call and American Dream. The American dream some can define as the US ideal according to which equal opportunity permits any American to aspire to high attainment and potential success. In my opinion American dreams are more of a goal to where you would like to end up in the future. Most of the American dreams I have heard of were more like having a house with a white picket fence, wonderful husband with a great job, no fights, arguments and everyone in their family gets along. In reality some American dreams do not end up the way most people always envision them to be.
In the story “African Passions” by Beatriz Rivera she has a different way of showing an American dream. The expectations that people bring to the United States regarding the American dream are very unrealistic to me because for example some ethnic groups think that when they come to the United states that everything will be alright. They also think that they will become wealthy in a short period of time and live higher than their means and that the United States has mountains of gold. The expectations that Armando, one of the main characters in African Passions, has for his life does not include Teresa, the other main character in the story. In some cultures the rank of class takes a very important role in the society. “…And even if his family didn’t quite approve because no matter how successful and intelligent she was they always saw her as lower-class Jersey City, New Jersey, Cuban girl whose family owned a Laundromat, Armando said he didn’t care, he adored her, he couldn’t takes his hands off her.”( Rivera 12) This quote shows how class can dictate how your life can end up. In the case of Armando the class has dictated his life because regardless of his love for Teresa he still wants what is family sees as an Ameri...