De Crevecoeur and The American Dream

"Every industrious European who transports himself here may be compared to a sprout growing at the foot of a great tree; it enjoys and draws but a little portion of sap; wrench it from the parent roots, transplant it, and it will become a tree bearing fruit also."

De Crevecevoeur here conveys to his reader the importance of those seeking the American dream and their contribution to society. Their workload may be of little significance but the fact that America is a country founded on immigration means that all who come at the stage the letters are being written means that they can now class themselves as Americans as they are "bearing fruit" away from the "parent roots." At this stage in America people were only just discovering the benefits of moving away from Europe which at this stage was over crowded and ridden with disease and famine. America was a place where those seeking refuge could start afresh and benefit from the large open spaces that lay before them. Today there is still a belief that an individual can travel to this far away land and find a better state of living although now figures show that it is in fact this premise that has allowed America to be come so overcrowded.

"The easiest way of becoming acquainted with the modes of thinking, the rules of conduct, and the prevailing manners of any people, is to examine what sort of education they give their children; how they treat them at home, and what they are taught in their places of public worship."

The ideals of these "Americans" were on the most part diverse though they were all united within the fact that they mostly promoted sobriety, hard work and honesty believing that starting a new life meant a better one than that offered by Europe for their children. Thus those combined ethics of the population meant America was to become one of the most appealing new beginnings for those coming over with the premise of both wealth and prosperity. Nowadays this still seems to be the norm due to the above beliefs being drilled into the minds of American society from an early age. Yet this is not the case as we are currently in a world recession and both jobs and money seem to be a lot more scarce but still statistics show that immigration in America remains higher than that of many countries.

"I do not mean that every one who comes will grow rich in a little time; no, but he may procure an easy, decent maintenance, by his industry. Instead of starving he will be fed, instead of being idle he will have employment; and these are riches enough for such men as come over here."

Crevecoeur in his depiction of America meant that this "American" will have food on his plate and be content with living, he will work but whether he is a rich man will depend entirely upon circumstance, but he goes on to say that living in America beats any kind of wealth. Though to a modern American the idea of wealth or being wealthy is exactly how they saw the American dream due to the fact that it was once like I previously stated a very prosperous country in various fields of industry. Although it's ideals seem to have changed somewhat when we look over who decided to go where in the beginning as the Spanish ideology seemed to be that of seeking riches and the English and French were more inclined to settle and De Crevecoeur was living in the British settlements therefore what he was seeking was different from say that of Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo.

The problem is as time has gone on people still adopt the belief that America is the land of hope and dreams, De Crevecoeur knew as he had witnessed it and been part of the foundations of hard work that made America the nation it is to this day. Though it seems due to these beliefs we have now been left with a country which is overpopulated in it's smallest most industrial areas which leaves little chance for those with a mindset like De Crevecoeur to prosper in the slightest as America due to these beliefs has in fact become the opposite of what De Crevecoeur believes it to be.