Contemporary Example of the 'American Dream'

The contemporary source is an article called '10 people living the American Dream' from the online magazine 'The Street': http://www.thestreet.com/story/11173382/1/10-people-living-the-american-dream.html

The idea behind the article, is that it give examples of celebrities and wealthy people "whose poor, mundane or troubled pasta didn't hold them back from becoming American success stories". It is trying to show that anyone, who has a dream and the drive to get it, can achieve anything and that the right attitude is key to success, as promoted in Ragged Dick.

The 10 people the article look at is John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Oprah Winfrey, Ursula Burns, John Paul Dejoria, Jay-Z, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Oher, Chris Gardner and Tyler Perry. As you can see they range from film stars to sports stars, so the article is trying to give an overall view of all different pathways to fame, fortune and a better life.

A central theme running through the cases studies written in the article, is that a main part of these peoples success, as well as the right attitude, is the opportunities that they were either given or earned to get to where they are today. This is similar to Ragged Dick as Alger promotes the idea of taking every opportunity that is given to you which could make you go further in life. However, it seems that these opportunities are ones that may happen once in a lifetime, meaning that their success can said to be that of luck. Again, this relates to Ragged Dick as it seems like the events and opportunities that he was exposed to during his adventures are those of coincidences and luck. This could suggest that even if you do work hard for your dreams, it seems like having a 'lucky break' is what sets apart the every day to the super rich and famous.

Another theme in the article is that of these celebrities coming from a poor or dysfunctional background and childhood. It focuses on the fact that they were at a disadvantage as a child, but fought through their hardships to come out on top. This was either through having a talent or having the right genius idea, but then went forward and used that to their advantage to move up in life. This message is put forward by Alger also as he shows Ragged Dick coming from the worst background imaginable; being orphaned from 7, having to live on the streets and having to shine shoes to earn money, but then using the opportunities that present themselves to him and the perseverance to pursue an education which then lead him to bigger and better things. As the book ends on him getting a job that pays $10 a week, it is hard to say whether his life leads him to even better things, but it is assumed that he does as he already has the right attitude to get him there.