gate scandal, or the stock market crashes of 1987
and 2008. Ambition itself is not a “good thing” or
a “bad thing,” but it is a human thing. Ultimately,
it is up to individuals, whether through literature,
politics, or daily life, to determine how they will use
their ambition.
See also Aristophanes: FroGs, the; Drei-
ser, Theodore: aMerican traGedy, an; Hardy,
Thomas: Jude the obscure; Ishiguro, Kazuo:
reMains oF the day, the; James, Henry: por-
trait oF a Lady, the; Marlowe, Christopher:
doctor Faustus; Plath, Sylvia: beLL Jar, the;
Shakespeare, William: JuLius caesar; Shelley,
Percy Bysshe: poems; Steinbeck, John: cannery
row.
FURTHER READING
King James Bible Online. Available online. URL:
http://www.kingjamesbible.org. Accessed January
22, 2010.
Maslow, A. H. “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psy-
chological Review 50, no. 4 (1943): 370–396.
Stephen Fonash
American dream, the
In his 1931 book The Epic of America, James Trus-
low Adams coined the phrase the American dream,
which is “that dream of a land in which life should
be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with
opportunity for each according to ability or achieve-
ment. It is... a dream of social order in which each
man and each woman shall be able to attain to the
fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and
be recognized by others for what they are, regardless
of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”
(415). Within the whole of the American psyche,
there lies an eternal hope that the nation’s citizens
will be afforded the opportunity for both monetary
growth and social advancement. Of course, hard
work and industriousness are embedded within this
concept: In the traditional American mindset, any
man or woman can achieve whatever he or she wants
as long as there is the drive and will to obtain it.
Indeed, although “the American dream” was not
used by Truslow until 1931, the concept has always
been an integral part within the consciousness of
Americans. In the 1776 Declaration of Indepen-
dence, Thomas Jefferson laid out what may be the
most important and well-known reference to the
American dream. The Declaration maintains that
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-
piness.” Along with the other Founding Fathers,
Jefferson believed that the United States could
and should be a nation giving every opportunity to
individual progress and achievement. In contrast
to Great Britain and its strict class structure, the
United States represented to Jefferson the chance
for all Americans, even those with poor economic
backgrounds, to become pillars of their communities.
To much of the world, Benjamin Franklin,
another Founding Father, has come to embody
the American dream. In The autobioGraphy oF
benJaMin FrankLin (1793), Franklin states that
he arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as a near-
penniless youth. He describes walking down the
streets with three bread rolls in his hands—those
being all he could afford for dinner—and looking
about him in order to gauge his opportunities. The
remaining sections of the autobiography chronicle
his emergence as one of the most influential men
in the then-fledgling American nation. Through his
diligence, Franklin transformed himself from a poor
teenager into a successful businessman, inventor, and
ambassador. He established the first library and first
fire station, and he initiated the process of harness-
ing the power of electricity, so it could later be used
for the public good.
However, not all depictions of the American
dream in literature have been quite so favorable. F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby
depicts the lure of the American dream as being a
destructive force rather than a beneficial one. Jay
Gatsby, the novel’s main character, believes that if
he can move up in society by obtaining as much
monetary wealth as possible, then he will be able to
achieve the happiness he has always desired. Unlike
Franklin, Gatsby is accused of having acquired
his money through possibly disreputable means.
He does not appear interested in working hard to
achieve the luxuries of money; he is instead merely
interested in obtaining the end results of actu-8 American dream, the