This website shows examples of 10 business people in America who are living the supposed 'American Dream'. These people are as follows: Sergey Brin, Ursula Burns, Oprah Winfrey, John Paul Dejoria, Guy Laliberte, Don Thompson, Kirk Kerkorian, Larry Ellison, Sean 'Diddy' Combs and Chris Gardner. Not all of the people listed come from poverty, some having been brought up in quite respectable households. All the people focused upon in this article come from quite different backgrounds, but the main aim of this article is to show people that the American Dream is still very much attainable. However the thing they all have in common is that they are all self-made million and some billionaires.
The beginning of the article states that 59% of Americans 'say it will be "somewhat" or "much" harder for their children' to live the American Dream. Showing that the belief in the American Dream is not nationwide in America. This could be because of the aspect of luck that is involved in self-success. For instance, in Ragged Dick many of the opportunities Dick is given are situations of coincidence and luck, and this luck is what is realistically needed for anyone to feel as though they have achieved the American Dream.
The stories of success from Oprah Winfrey and Ursula Burns in my opinion are the one's that are most relatable to the story of success in Ragged Dick. Both Oprah and Ursula come from difficult backgrounds, of poverty and discrimination, and were both raised by single mothers. Both these women overcame the obstacles that their family situations put them in, and used their education to advance in life. Similar to Ragged Dick, Oprah and Ursula understood the importance of education to better their lives, and through this they were able to complete their school educations, and for Ursula, her degree in mechanical engineering, and both became hugely successful African-American women.
Another aspect of this article that confirms that the American Dream is still very much alive is the number of people stated in this article who, themselves, or their families moved to America, in pursuit of a better life. One key example of this is Sergey Brin, who was born in Soviet Russia, and emigrated to the US with his family due to the Soviet Union being in economic decline at the time. From this, it is evident that there is still a global belief that the USA is the land of opportunities. However, the success of Sergey Brin as the co-founder of Google, can be seen to negate the way in which Alger creates Dick to be successful as Brin dropped out of university to create Google with a friend, and this was a huge risk for him, and it can be seen as mere luck that Google went on to be a global corporation and hugely successful. Though it does affirm the ideology of the American Dream as through hard work and perseverance Sergey Brin has achieved wealth and global success.
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