Stephen Cruz's American Dream

I believe that Stephen Cruz defines the American Dream as wanting to be higher up in an organization and to have power and control and to not lose. Cruz states, “The American Dream, I see now, is governed not by education, opportunity, and hard work, but by power and fear. The higher up in the organization you go, the more you have to lose. The dream is not losing”. This is the notion pervading American today: don’t lose”.

I totally agree with his definition of the American Dream. Yes, everyone wants to have the higher status and to be the one in control of things. Everyone one wants to have the higher status of having a lot of money and power and with the way our society is, the more money you have, the more power. Cruz also talks about the minorities in his piece. My interpretation of what he is saying is that it is harder for the minorities to “get by”. Get by meaning to succeed. To me, it seems like the minorities, being a black person myself, have to work harder to succeed. Also, my definition of succeed is to have a lot of money, a good job, nice things, such as a car and house. This is just my opinion, however. The world just seems like that to me. He talks about how the black secretary was verboten and that she was fired while he was away on vacation. Sadly, it seems to me that minorities, like the black secretary, can have this type of “good” businesslike personality and present themselves in a well manner, but just because of the stereotype of black people or minorities not being good, she’s isn’t easily well accepted.

But in a sense, there is also something about Cruz’s opinion about the dream being not to lose that bothers me. I don’t think that any in life should have to live their life worrying about what if I do this, what are people going to think of me or if I say this, what kind of person are they going to think I am. All people should aim for the positive things of course, but worry about too much that you do, or worrying about to not lose makes life so careful. I don’t think that a person should have to live their life so careful that they might not be able to succeed because they are worried about making a mistake in their path to success. Of course no one wants to be the bad guy.
[I am really struggling about putting my opinion about the “not to lose” into words, as you can see.]