Death of the "American Dream"

This is a piece I wrote for a class that attempts to mimic the style of David Foster Wallaces, "9/11: The View From the Midwest".

The Death of the “American Dream:”

Hard work and perseverance doesn't cut it anymore.

“Don’t be me, son; be better than me.”

Throughout my childhood, on what now feels like a daily basis, my father preached these words to me, chiseling their wisdom into the recesses of my mind.

“That’s all I ask �" just be better than me, and that doesn’t take much. Go to school, and learn to use your brain instead of your body. Do you really want to end up like me? My back’s shot, my joints are all fucked up. Here, look at my hands…”

My father spent seventeen years as an autoworker, working on the assembly line at the Daimler-Chrysler plant in Fenton, MO, until its closure in the summer of 2011, and the trucks produced there were redistributed to other, less costly plants, where less stringent regulations and government assistance programs remove costly burdens to the company (safe working environments, fair/reasonable wages, et cetera). Following in the footsteps of his father, a retiree of the same plant, he tirelessly pursued the “American Dream” �" the name given to the ideology that one can, through hard work and determination, rise above the station of his or her forefathers, and procure a richer, more fulfilling life. He awoke each morning, still in agony from the previous day’s labors, cleaned up, packed his lunch, and left for his shift (as much as 11-12 hours a day, depending on production demand). When he returned home, bruised and broken, he would greet his family, grab a beer, and pull me aside for my lecture.

“Don’t be me, son. Look at what that hellhole has done to me.”

He would show me the numerous callouses that covered his hands; the surgical scars left behind after he developed carpal tunnel in both wrists; and the scar left behind after he injured his back and doctors had to fuse several discs in his spine together to keep him upright and mobile (a gruesome sight to witness, let alone suffer through).

Regardless of content, his lectures always ended the same: “Just be better than me. Go to college, get an education, and do something you enjoy doing. Live the dream, son.”

And I aspired to do just that: live the dream.

Flash-forward to present day: I am currently working towards graduating from the University of Missouri (Mizzou), with degrees in both English, and Communication; I struggle (and often fail) to keep myself above the poverty line, share an apartment with three other guys in similar positions, and have all but zero lucrative post-graduation career prospects. If this is living the dream, someone please wake me up.

My roommates and I are not alone in our struggles: across the country, hundreds of thousands of recent�"within the last ten years or so�"college graduates cannot find a job in their area of study, and those that are lucky enough to find any job at all are often overqualified for their position. For those who value numerical data, roughly 8.5% of graduates, aged 21-24, were unemployed in 2014, and almost 17% were considered “underemployed” �" jobless and looking, working part-time in a position that doesn’t require a degree, or were looking for a time but have since given up �" according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. Speaking as someone whose graduation date is fast approaching, these statistic are terrifying; however, the statistics are not nearly as panic inducing as the stories shared by recent graduates.

A close friend of mine graduated from Mizzou this past fall (Dec. 2014), with degrees in Marketing, Economics, and Communication. She is one of the most diligent, competitive individuals I have met; to label her as an overachiever would be a monstrous understatement. Towards the beginning of December, I asked her if she had finalized her post-graduation plans.

“Yeah, I’m moving to Atlanta,” she told me.

I was bewildered for a moment; her answer caught me off guard. I assumed she would move back to St. Louis as that had been her plan in the months leading to this moment. When I inquired why she’d chosen Atlanta, she informed me that the only decent job offer she had received was from a company based in Atlanta. A company in St. Louis had also offered her a position, but with a salary that was laughable (somewhere between 15 and 20K, but that’s a guess as I do not remember the exact figure). Even with the company in Atlanta, she would make far less than what would be expected for someone with her qualifications.

What is truly terrifying is that her story is not unique. Many of my recently graduated friends and peers have relayed similar stories: taking a menial position in order to pay the bills, working so far outside their area of study that they question the rationale behind spending thousands of dollars for a fancy piece of wall-art with their name on it daily, et cetera.

The age when hard work and perseverance were enough to get ahead has ended; the “American Dream” is dead, and the age of panic, fear, and uncertainty has arisen to take its place.

Author's Note

This is a rough draft; as such, I appreciate any and all constructive criticism.

Reviews

[samanthaashley_]

I like the transition from the words of your father to the words of your friend.. starting at the emotional side and ending with statistics. if this is what you were trying to accomplish, you did it very well. I think the beginning was good at capturing my attention, and the content continued to hold my attention throughout the piece. (trust me, it is a challenge for a piece of writing to hold my attention for more than a minute.) It is sad that the "American dream" we had back in the early days of this country is not the same as the "American dream" we have today. the opportunity to work on an assembly line and take care of your family WAS a part of that dream.. doing something that is not slave labor or working for a few dollars a week. but now, school is a necessity for the typical dream. and since the 1960s or so, high school has not even been enough. every year we need to accomplish more to match our new expectations for whatever the "American dream" becomes in that moment. if you need any more length in your piece (not sure what you are looking to do with it), maybe think about expanding on some of those points. overall, I think the one thing that you could expand on more is WHAT the "American dream" was, and what it means now.