In Search of the American Dream: Early Conceptions Anonymous College

Reasons for seeking out the relative comfort of the United States of America are many; some do so in order to utilize its economic advantages, others yearn to flee oppressive governmental regimes, and so on. However, one overarching motivation encompasses any individuals quest to call America home: The American dream. Just as reasons to establish oneself as a citizen of the United States prove various, concepts of the American dream have been equivalently unique to any individual or group. When the Mayflower, featuring a vigorous William Bradford, set sail in 1620 the large group of Puritans on the ship founded what is commonly thought of as the initial American Dream inspired by freedom from religious persecution. Later, as the colonies shed their British overlord to the tune of musket shots and began to truly materialize as the United States, Benjamin Franklin wrote of an American Dream that propelled the evolution of a sovereign nation and sought to teach its youth in order to ensure that what he had helped to create was left in adept hands. Bradford, throughout his work Of Plymouth Plantation, and Franklin, within his Autobiography, bore critical differences in their respective depictions of the American dream, such as its...