"The American Experience: A Never-Ending Race"
Although the American Experience has been defined differently by almost every person who as attempted to do so, there is one major concept that most definitions have in common: the American Experience is to always look to the future. It is the pursuit of one's dreams, not the obtaining of them that makes this experience uniquely and wholly "American."
Moving from the past and looking on to the future is essentially what makes America individualistic and unique—specifically, the idea of being able to control one's future and form it into something completely new and separate from the constraints of the past. In The Proud People of a Proud Country, James Carey claims that America, "makes no boast of noble ancestry" (1), claiming that whatever an American's past was, they will still be able to "successfully start life anew" (1). In other words, forget the failures of the past and look only to the dreams of a new life that the future will bring. As Emerson stated in his essay Nature, in America, "there are new lands, new men, new thoughts" (2). America is a land of opportunity and chance, and every individual is able to control their own future there. "Each man shall feel the world is his" (4), as Emerson said in The American Scholar. In fact, according to President Obama in his State of the Union Address, "we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny" (1). This idea is not only uniquely American, but it is what America was in fact built to be. "America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream" (2), meaning that this turning from the past and heading for the future is America's story. In other words, it is what America is about.
The part of this idea that is inherently American, however, is that the dream is always being chased and never quite achieved. It is the ideals of freedom, opportunity, and renewal that make up America, not necessarily success. As President Obama said, "we believe in the same dream that says this is a country where anything is possible" (2), and it is true—that belief is the American Experience, not the achievement of those possibilities. For example, at the end of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes that even if the dream is eluded today, "to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther" (180). Although a person may not arrive at their goal, America represents the hope and ability to someday be able to reach it.
If the American Experience involves the endless pursuit of an idealistic dream for a better future, this begs the question of what happens when that dream is finally reached. The answer is that the experience ends. Once there is no future to look forward to, no restless ideal to chase, the American Experience is over. As Fitzgerald said in The Great Gatsby, once Gatsby achieved his "dream"—in this case, represented by Daisy—"the colossal significance of that [dream] had now vanished forever"(93). The achievement of the dream is not nearly as fulfilling as the chase, and is far less profound to the dreamer. It is noted in The Great Gatsby that although Gatsby seems to have finally gotten what he dreamed of in life, he was rather bewildered and upset, because, "there must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion" (95). Reality will not live up to one's expectations, and it is because of this that the American Experience is the continuous pursuit of a dream, and once the finish line is crossed, a fifth-place finish would have to be accepted, and it can no long be believed that there is still a chance to overtake all of the other competitors and win the gold.
Of course, this does not mean that dreams cannot be achieved within the realm of the American Experience. They can; the point is simply that one must always have another dream after that to immediately cling to. As a part of the American Experience, one can never be satisfied with what they have achieved, and must instead always focus on the future—that is how the "continuous pursuit" is to be achieved: there must always be a new ideal to chase.
Moving from the past and looking on to the future is essentially what makes America individualistic and unique—specifically, the idea of being able to control one's future and form it into something completely new and separate from the constraints of the past. In The Proud People of a Proud Country, James Carey claims that America, "makes no boast of noble ancestry" (1), claiming that whatever an American's past was, they will still be able to "successfully start life anew" (1). In other words, forget the failures of the past and look only to the dreams of a new life that the future will bring. As Emerson stated in his essay Nature, in America, "there are new lands, new men, new thoughts" (2). America is a land of opportunity and chance, and every individual is able to control their own future there. "Each man shall feel the world is his" (4), as Emerson said in The American Scholar. In fact, according to President Obama in his State of the Union Address, "we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny" (1). This idea is not only uniquely American, but it is what America was in fact built to be. "America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream" (2), meaning that this turning from the past and heading for the future is America's story. In other words, it is what America is about.
The part of this idea that is inherently American, however, is that the dream is always being chased and never quite achieved. It is the ideals of freedom, opportunity, and renewal that make up America, not necessarily success. As President Obama said, "we believe in the same dream that says this is a country where anything is possible" (2), and it is true—that belief is the American Experience, not the achievement of those possibilities. For example, at the end of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes that even if the dream is eluded today, "to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther" (180). Although a person may not arrive at their goal, America represents the hope and ability to someday be able to reach it.
If the American Experience involves the endless pursuit of an idealistic dream for a better future, this begs the question of what happens when that dream is finally reached. The answer is that the experience ends. Once there is no future to look forward to, no restless ideal to chase, the American Experience is over. As Fitzgerald said in The Great Gatsby, once Gatsby achieved his "dream"—in this case, represented by Daisy—"the colossal significance of that [dream] had now vanished forever"(93). The achievement of the dream is not nearly as fulfilling as the chase, and is far less profound to the dreamer. It is noted in The Great Gatsby that although Gatsby seems to have finally gotten what he dreamed of in life, he was rather bewildered and upset, because, "there must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion" (95). Reality will not live up to one's expectations, and it is because of this that the American Experience is the continuous pursuit of a dream, and once the finish line is crossed, a fifth-place finish would have to be accepted, and it can no long be believed that there is still a chance to overtake all of the other competitors and win the gold.
Of course, this does not mean that dreams cannot be achieved within the realm of the American Experience. They can; the point is simply that one must always have another dream after that to immediately cling to. As a part of the American Experience, one can never be satisfied with what they have achieved, and must instead always focus on the future—that is how the "continuous pursuit" is to be achieved: there must always be a new ideal to chase.