Utopian America: Expectation vs. Reality

     There are many examples of literature involving immigrants looking towards the US as "the land of opportunity," and involved with that are their visions and ideas of how perfect things would be living there. From the point of view of the citizen, however, the reality of life in the US is far from perfect, and we might argue that expecting the visions of the "perfect American life" to be real is setting yourself up for failure. There are many things to consider on both sides of the "American Utopia" subject, as citizens and immigrants have vastly different experiences and histories. Here are three expectations and realities of the American Utopia idea.

1. Expectation: "Land of the Free." People have more freedoms in the US than can be found in other countries. People live in a society where they can go about their day in any way they please and are completely free to do so.

Reality: Under the constitution, residents and citizens of the US have basic freedoms included in human rights, such as the freedom of speech, religion, press, peaceful protest, and petition of the government. However, society dictates what is and isn't acceptable to say or do, and there are many arguments between people and political groups about whether certain things are right and wrong. Meanwhile, everyone else is shamed for either doing or not doing something.

2. Expectation: People care about who you are and what you have to say.

Reality: Unless you're famous, you're largely ignored unless it suits someone's purpose. Everyone thinks they are right, even when proven wrong and they seek out approval from those who agree with them.

3. Expectation: Material things and money opportunity is better in America. People get paid generously for the work they do and they have nice things to show for it. They can live comfortably there.

Reality: This is a hard issue to sort through as many things depend on the individual person and their choices regarding their lifestyle. However, Many people are not able to live comfortably on minimum wage because of high prices of food, rent/mortgage, gas, and many will be in debt as well. There is no universal health care, and when people do get sick or have health issues, it is expensive to get the proper medical attention. Some lifestyle choices can be made to improve people's situations, but many people don't want to change.

    In all three instances, there are clear differences between the expectation and reality of what life is like in the US. This is only one side of the story, however. Many immigrants come from places where things are far worse. They don't have the same freedoms we do and may be arrested or even put to death for standing up for what they believe in speech or actions. Their government may view them as nothing more than a number, and another person to control. Their wages in a year are only a fraction of what one person would make in one day. To them, even with all the realities of life, America is still a far better place than where they came from. Many immigrants will say the same thing when asked what they think of the US: "It is wonderful, but the people have little respect for what they have." So, rather than viewing America as a utopia, we see it as a dystopia with the expectation that nothing will ever be perfect, and everything is in a state of chaos. The reality, however, may be that we don't know what true hardship is, and we would be lucky to never know. In the end, we must be grateful for what we have, and continue to improve things to make it a better place.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Desire to Leave

      The short story, "Checking Out," by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, provides the point of view of a disadvantaged minority many people ignore. The main character, Obinze, is an immigrant from Nigeria, in London, struggling to gain citizenship in the UK. The political situation in Nigeria is at a bad point, and Obinze tries to obtain a visa to emigrate to the US, but is denied each time, which causes him to end up in London. His desire to go to the US stems from a commercial on tv called "Andrew Checking Out," where Andrew "checks out" of the country as if was a hotel, and leaves for America. This inspires Obinze to do try to do the same, and he fantasizes about what his life would be like in the US.     Most of Obinze's desire to leave Nigeria comes from his vision of the US. He sees it as a utopian-like society where he is free to do and speak what he wants, and can drink all the Fanta he wants. He imagines the intellectual conversations he would have...
Read more

The Poem to Write About

     Poem number 20, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in his book, A Coney Island of the Mind , is quite a beautiful masterpiece. Ferlinghetti perfectly uses rhyme in the poem to make it flow and connect ideas together in ways that may not have been previously imagined. Besides that, however, he uses the beautiful imagery of a candy store, with its many colors and inviting sights, to depict a childish innocence, and the exact moment it disappeared.      The first few lines of the poem invite the reader into the innocence of a boy who goes to a candy store. The reader is given visions of jellybeans that "glowed in the semi-gloom" as well as licorice sticks, tootsie rolls, and "Oh Boy Gum." It seems like a paradise for a child, when all they ever wanted was something sweet to make them happy.  After that last line about the gum, however, the visions of the candy die away like the dying leaves when the boy sees the girl walk in. The final lines of the poem, "Out...
Read more

Inclusiveness Today

      There was recently a video I watched of a joke about millennials in a job interview. In it, the girl was on her phone, was al little rude, and seemed clearly out of place for the job as her definition of trained in technology was social media and Siri. She expected everything to go her way, even when she was told she wouldn't be hired. While the video does provide a good laugh, there are a few things that can be recognized following the theme of equity and inclusiveness from both sides of the interview.     Starting with the girl, she wasn't being very inclusive towards the interviewer. She automatically expected him understand her point of view and judge solely based on that. She did not do research about what the job qualifications entailed and attacked him using a perceived defense mechanism when he told her she wasn't going to work out. People today tend to follow a pattern similar to this. While the video showed an extreme in this case, many...
Read more