Money Seems to be

Nowadays, money seems to be the only thing that matters in life and in order to enjoy the money you need more money, it becomes a constant need and an ongoing cycle – this turns into greed and will ultimately corrupt a human’s life leaving them unhappy. In excerpts from Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes our Fortunes written by Mark Robert Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, and Kirk A. Foster – who are all social scientists (people that are specifically concerned with society and the relationships among individuals within a society).

Rank, Hirschl, and Foster portray the importance of home ownership and the benefits that come with it: provide stability and ensure safety, pursue inner success/happiness/pride and earn equity.

The authors also closely examine that a person should be financially comfortable in life but not to the point of isolation – where all you end up caring about is money because money cannot buy happiness. According to Rank, Hirschl, and Foster, 6 percent of Americans ranked wealth as part of their first or second definition of the American Dream their lives were marked by unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment…The primary concern for many of these families had become how to preserve and/or increase their wealth, rather than asking what the wealth was for. It had served to imprison rather than liberate (A Cautionary Tale). In other words, this statistic explains that some people in today’s society still effectively work for money rather than happiness. But having a good amount of money is not enough for 6% of Americans. Instead, they have an urge to collect more and more money.

This leads to a miserable life, filled with feelings of unfulfillment and dissatisfaction. These people isolate themselves from everyone and everything else in their life – the people they love most and things they love doing the most. In A Raisin in the Sun, both of Lena’s children openly explain their different ideas and beliefs in their life, including what they feel each of them must do in order to succeed in life and strive towards obtaining the American dream.

As Ruth and Mama talk about Beneatha’s and Walter’s ideas, Mama says there’s something come down between me and them that don’t let us understand each other and I don’t know what it is. One done almost lost his mind thinking bout money all the time and the other done commence to talk about things I can’t seem to understand in no form or fashion. What is it that’s changing, Ruth?’ (52). Lena feels her children breaking away because they start caring about money above their own family. However, Lena is helpless to do anything about it because she observes that many members in her family have gone so deep into their urge to obtain more money. Mama is concerned over the divide growing between her and her children, but she can’t seem to figure out the real issues in their life yet.

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