How Writing Changed the American Dream

Writing has a way of changing the world. It informs, entertains, and persuades. In some cases, it creates new sets of beliefs and ideas that people adopt. Writing is a crucial way of unifying people and getting them to take action. There are several famous pieces that you can look here to see other examples of writings that changed America’s history.

To illustrate the significance of writing, I will list a few examples of writings from America’s history. Then I will explain how it accomplished its purpose of informing, entertaining, or persuading.

The American Dream is a set of beliefs where hard work, risk-taking, and sacrifice play roles for achievement. The set of beliefs emphasize the individual - no matter who they are can move upward in society. If it were not for the writers, there would not be ideals summarizing American dreams.

Throughout the years, the American Dream changed. One thing is for certain: freedom and individuality embody the core American values.  

Many writings helped speed up the development of American values. Examples include Common Sense by Thomas Paine, The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, and Letters of an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur to name a few. Each writing has a purpose for exchanging ideas about the dream. A dream Americans will come to embody and take on. 

To further see this example, we will take a look at a few crucial documents responsible for the emergence of the American Dream.

For instance, the Declaration of Independence offers a glimpse of the values which make America unique. It was written in a protest by Thomas Jefferson and several others. He asserted that America was a land of possibility and change. Then the writers came together, signed the document and the rest was, pun intended, history.

With this famous phrase “all men are created equal” comes different interpretations. People began to develop their own thoughts on what the phrase meant and who it was directed towards. The Declaration was meant to inform Britain that the colonists have as much right to self-govern as everyone else.

Over time, Americans came to understand a different meaning from “all men are created equal.” That is because Jefferson was not talking about individual equality. He meant that American colonists as people have just as rights to self-govern as other people. But as time went on Americans read the statement a different way. They interpret it as a promise of equality for themselves. 

Another use of writing comes with the ability to persuade. An example of this is from Thomas Paine’s work Common Sense. In this piece, Paine discussed how Britain was controlling everyone and Americans needed to not only recognize that, but stick up for themselves. Paine explained how Britain was a powerful country that was just using Americans, who were being lied to and not thinking for themselves. Paine recognized this and asserted that Americans needed to establish their own government. They couldn’t rely on chance and wait for someone capable to take up a leadership role. 

The next writing is Letters of an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur. He visited America and was impressed with the hardworking individuals he met there. His writings idealized America and made it sound like a paradise for freedom. Today, a frequent outlook on America is that it is an ideal place for those who want to work hard to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Crèvecœur’s work was meant to entertain as he described this wonderful land of opportunity. In this example, he entertained Europeans and other Americans with the thought.

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