Part 1 Rita(Yixuan) Lin

A girl who has plainly dressed changes herself in order to reach the top position of the company.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTDSwAxlNhc

The idea of American Dream originates from the Declaration of Independence, which states that all men have certain inalienable rights, including “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It seems like people have the same opportunities to work hard in order to pursue their success and reach the top of their life. 

However, the definition of their success in life is decided by the social expectation, the American Dream sets the ideal vision of people’s life implicitly, which means it makes only one goal related to the worship of wealth and power, material life decided by the brand name, the idea of superficial money worship, and the respect of white people and upper class. This goal is set for all the people who have different personalities, values, living environment and in the different situation. 

The advertisement of the American Dream shows the ideal family, which the family members in it are all white people. Besides, The successful life of people is all indicated by the cars and luxury brand names, it has become materialistic and simplex. People try hard to achieve the American Dream in order to be successful even if the “dream” is not suitable for them at all. Therefore, the American Dream is achieved by the cause by sacrificing people’s unique individuality. They may lose themselves and their own goals, everyone is assimilated and people changed the vulgar, they are selfishly assimilated, force, money, everyday living in illusions.

For example, girls are expected to be in great shape in modern society, which means people like the girls to be skinny. The slender body has become the ideal version of the girls' figure. Every girl tries hard to pursue the skinny body by going on a diet. But the ideal version and unrealistic goal which is set for girls cannot be achieved by everybody. It sets a simple dream, then attracts people to reach it. If I was attracted by this dream, I will start an unhealthy diet, which may do harm to my health. Then I will lose myself and the confidence, becoming upset and self-abased due to the lack of nutrition and fragile emotion, just to pursue the ideal vision decided by the society.

On the other side, the American Dream is not achieved by the cause of losing people's unique individuality, but to encourage people to work hard and reach the goal they set for themselves and it is similar to the essence of the American Dream. Because American Dream is a general goal for the whole society, which is positive for every individual to pursue a better life.

The video shows a young girl who was very simple at the beginning gets a job in a famous fashion magazine company, which is a dream job for every girl. The working environment is full of luxury brands and stylish girl. So she has to change herself into a beautiful and fashion woman who wears luxury clothes every day to compete with people around her, she works hard to win in that “Fashion World” and even needs to destroy the other’s dream. Gradually, there’s a gap between her and her friends, she cannot be understood by her families or friends. She succeeds to be the top assistant in the magazine company, but she has changed a lot in order to pursue the dream in the competitive, efficient, fashionable, and indifferent workplace. Finally, she realized it was unsuitable for her and this is not what she wants. She gives up this job and becomes not stylish again. She wears normal T-shirt and trousers as she used to do and does what she wants. 

This video suggests the reality of the American Dream is that people have to change themselves completely in order to achieve the same goal which is the materialist. It presents the American Dream in a realistic way because it shows the negative effects of the girl posing the unrealistic dream and states the phenomenon that the American Dream is not suitable for every individual in order to expose the essence that the American Dream is a way of deception to assimilate people’s personalities and pursuit.