Although America had a tough past it still stands for some of the same things.
America was always a new beginning for people from all around the world. This is why people came to America in the first place for a new beginning where they could start their life over. America has some great things about it but it isn’t all just about new opportunities. Not everyone who lives in this country has the same opportunities as everyone else. Inequality was one of the largest flaws in American history and we still struggle with trying to end it once and for all. America is truly the land of opportunity and inequality.
There are countless stories of people coming to America with nothing and
working hard everyday to raise their social class. One example of that would even be my father, he was the first of his family to come to America for college he didn’t have anything at first. He worked hard everyday and studied hard in college and now he has a family and we live in a nice neighborhood. In the Great Gatsby the whole book is about an underdog who came from nothing and worked for it all. Fitzgerald does a great job of showcasing that anything can happen if you work for it, “Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge,’ I thought; ‘anything at all. . . .’ Even Gatsby could happen, without any particular wonder” (86). This is the definition of the American Dream where you can come from anywhere and do anything if you work and try hard enough. Here Nick is saying that once they cross the bridge almost anything can happen even Gatsby who is a strange person. Nick is implying that becoming wealthy without any connections to the upper class is only possible in America, which I do partially agree with.
Many people think that everyone starts on an equal playing field of life. This is
clearly not true at all. Usually poverty runs in the family because the parents don’t have enough money to send their children to school to further their education. The wealthy have the most money to send their kids to school so their kids receive the best education and get better jobs and then the process repeats making the family wealthier and wealthier each generation. Fitzgerald does a wonderful job of explaining that not everyone has the same opportunities, “In my younger . . . years my father gave me some advice . . . Whenever you feel like criticizing any one . . . just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (63). This is one of my favorite lines in the book, it breaks down America in one sentence. Most people who are rich haven’t done anything to get their most of the time; it's their parents who have gotten them to wherever they are in life. Ta-Nehisi Coates also does a great job of showing inequality in America, in his book Between the World and Me. A lot of the inequality is for the different racial groups such as African Americans, “you have been cast into a race which the wind is always at your face... the difference is that you do not have the privilege of living in ignorance of this essential fact.” (107). Coates compares life to a race and how African Americans always have a disadvantage which he compares to the wind in your face. He also says that his son doesn’t have the luxury of living in ignorance like most of the white children. Earlier in the book Coates basically says that even if an African American child does everything right they can still face inequality and discrimination. “On the outside black people controlled nothing, least of all the fate of their bodies, which could be commandeered by the police; which could be erased by guns which were so profligate which could be raped, beaten, jailed. (62)
Here Coates describes a lot of America’s past and present, police brutality is a real thing which happens to innocent African Americans all over America. It is still a problem today. Recently there was a video released of a young African American named George Floyd who was strangled to death by police officers. The police officer was kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than 12 minutes, even after he passed out the police officer kept kneeling on his neck. The officers haven’t been charged with murder yet which is unfair to George and his family.
America is a great country and has many great things about like opportunity, but
that is just the face of the U.S. If you dive deeper you will see countless examples of inequality and discrimination everywhere. America has always been known as the land of opportunity but there has also always been inequality. Something needs to be done to end this inequality once and for all and give everyone the same great opportunities.
