Our Better Lives

I think that it is very interresting that, in our society, a "good" parent is defined by their desire to give their child a "better" life. We discussed in class, the other day, the Puritans' motives to move to America as being driven, mainly, by the goal of giving their children a "better life". This made me think of all the times that I have heard of this idea, and the times when I was dissatisfied with my life and I swore to myself that i would give my own future children a better life than what I am living. I am forced to see the inequal comparison between the obviously difficult lifestyle that the Puritans had and the opposite lifestyle that I am living. My life may be seen as "difficult" to myself at times, but one may argue that it is seen by a lot of the world as the stereotypical, "better" life. I can not help but feel ashamed to even admit this. I realized that i have never heard it ever said or seen it written that a person is content with their own life to the extent that they would want to "give their child a life like theirs". It just seems that people are never content with their lives and they need to fix it through the lives of someone else and what other way to do that then by creating another person and controlling their lifestyle. By evaluating the Puritan idea to move to America so that their children can grow up in a life that they see as being "better" just proves to us that maybe it is impossible to achieve the "American Dream" for the sole reason that our version of the "American Dream" is based off of the dreams of our parents and guardians. Some want to go to college but never get the chance to, so they work hard throughout their lives to give their children the chance to go to college, when in the end, their children will want a "better life" for their children because they had to live someone else's dream. Maybe those children do not want to go to college. They will never really know, though, becuase they were never taught to create their own dreams. Our version of the "American Dream" is only a vision that is formed by another person. We are incapable of achieving our true dreams because we do not even know what our true dreams are. We still have to follow these false dreams in order to fit into society. Those children have to go to college so that they will get a good job, earn money, and survive in our society with their life of dissatissfaction. They will not even be aware that they failed to achieve their "American Dream" until it becomes the desire to have children. Then will not send their children to college but perhaps those kids will want to go to college. It is an endless circle. With this, i question what a "Dream" really is.