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Post by carlsonchris on Feb 1, 2016 3:02:41 GMT
One of the most over the top views of the American Dream is shown through the book Wolf of Wall Street. The book, and subsequent movie, follows the story of Jordan Belfort, a stock trader who hits it big in the early 1990s. Belfort's voice shows throughout the book and through it the reader can tell his view on the American Dream. Belfort in is mind was living the American Dream, he was extremely rich, had an extremely attractive wife, and did a bunch of drugs. Wall Street as a whole in this book shows the good and bad of the American Dream. If you play it right, you can get acquire wealth at an extremely high rate, however if you are on the other side of the equation, you will end up penniless and utterly defeated. Jordan exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that is at the heart of the American Dream. He builds the firm of Stratton Oakmont out of nothing, and turns it into one of the leading stock brokerage firms, through a combination of hard work, charisma, and drugs. Overall book shows the allure of the American Dream while still reminding readers of the downfalls of going for that lifestyle.
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Zachary Lloyd
New Member
Runnin thru the six with my woes
Posts: 26 
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Post by Zachary Lloyd on Feb 1, 2016 13:28:38 GMT
I think you are spot on with the analysis, and I agree completely. The book reads to be very extravagant, and very boastful, in a sense. This sort of ironic take on the ideology of the American Dream shows its hypocrisy, in a way. Those who make the money to be able to live the dream only do so by crushing countless others, only to fall from grace eventually so that in the end, none of the people involved are any better for all the damage done. This is a great peril of those seeking the dream and one that the characters in the book find out the hard way.
I like the movie, if you can get over the near three hour film consisting mainly of drug abuse. I'd say a perfect 5/7. Thanks for listening and next week we take on a classic: "Titanic", by the guy who made Transformers I think. Tune in to see my reactions to the worst best movie ever.
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Post by amandakaliner on Feb 1, 2016 13:29:31 GMT
I find the Wolf of Wall Street to be a bad example of how to achieve the American Dream. While Wolf of Wall Street shows the appeals of the American Dream, it also shows the extremes of it. You can still achieve the American Dream that everyone strives for without being like Jordan Belfort. If you're hardworking, while you might not be as rich as Belfort was, you won't be on the other side of the spectrum penniless. You can still live out the American Dream without taking extreme measures. People can achieve happiness by being middle class and comfortable in their lifestyles. Wolf of Wall Street was a very exaggerated novel and movie when it came to showing the American Dream and how to achieve it.
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Post by joshualiu on Feb 2, 2016 0:12:33 GMT
If the Wolf of Wall Street exemplifies the American Dream, then any crook, hard working or not, can achieve it. Jordan Belfort isn't a genius, it's doubtful that he's even remotely smart. He isn't much of a hard worker, but more of a con. Instead of earning his money and wealth, Belfort just tricks others into spending way too much on his stock, using their loss to his benefit. Although Belfort genuinely believes he earned every bit of his success, in reality, he cheated and stole from his customers. If the American Dream can be obtained through unfair, illegal activity and minimal labor, it's not one that should be highly valued unless attained through honest work.
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Post by carlsonchris on Feb 5, 2016 1:32:22 GMT
Josh, I believe that one of the messages of The Wolf of Wall Street is that "crooks" frequently achieve the American Dream. If only hardworking, honest people lived the American Dream than wouldn't blue collar workers be the ones who most frequently achieved it? Instead the people who move up in the world are the ones who bend the rules. Look at the recession of 2008, millions of hard-working Americans lost massive amounts of money because of bank mismanagement; yet six years later not much has changed. Wall Street keeps printing money and living the good life while normal Americans work hard just to pay the bills. You can even look at things like the gangster lifestyle, where in the city the people with money are the ones in gangs. America is slowly lagging behind in key social mobility statistics, with only crooks seemingly able to move up in the world.
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Post by hannahcherusseril on Feb 6, 2016 22:17:57 GMT
I think the Wolf of Wall Street is a really great example of the loss of moral inhibition on the path to the American dream. Jordan Belfort was not always the drug/sex crazed business maniac of Wall Street. Exposure to stockbroking and the potential fortune it would give him made Belfort really greedy. His ardent desire for success morally blinded him. He was determined to do anything to experience the American dream, not really caring if it was illegal. Before becoming so rich, Jordan Belfort was just a regular man trying to make a living. His ambition, the prospect of a lavish life, and the addiction to his ways turned Belfort into a scrupulous business tycoon. This moral blindness can be seen in the high-class New Yorkers in The Great Gatsby.
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Post by sydniemarkowitz on Feb 7, 2016 13:56:59 GMT
I think the Wolf of Wall Street is a good and bad way of showing the American Dream. While he did achieve success financially, he struggled in other areas. I think this is a case of someone just getting lucky, but necessarily the American Dream. Wall Street owns most of the money in this country, but is such a small population. People who work on Wall Street are extremely wealthy and don't fully show the majority of Americans
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Post by Emily Shea on Feb 7, 2016 21:12:34 GMT
I believe the Wolf of Wall Street is a good interpretation of the wealthy class and their climb to the top. Is it really the classic "American Dream"? Without the excessive drugs and cheating maybe, but this particular piece of literature gives the idea of a more modern aspect of the "American Dream". By displaying the idea of once you get to the top, you can do whatever you want.
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Post by jillian on Feb 8, 2016 2:58:47 GMT
The Wolf of Wall Street has an interesting take on the American dream. First off, the wealth and "success" is all gained through corruption. Second, their version of the American Dream is different than most as it consists around sex, alcohol, drugs, and cruelty towards midgets. In most cases, when normal people refer to the AMerican Dream, they are talking about pursuing success, wealth, and self dependability through honest ways. Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street did not earn anything in an honest way, and his "dream" that he strived for was, in many eyes, corrupt.
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Post by hopekim on Feb 8, 2016 5:19:36 GMT
I really like what everyone has been saying about how whether or not The Wolf of Wall Street is a good representation or a bad representation of the American Dream, and in my opinion, it is a perfect representation but only if you take it further in the fact that it shows that a person must know their limits in order to successfully achieve the American Dream. At one point, Jordan Belfort has the unbelievable opportunity to sell his business for an immense amount of money, but his selfishness, ambition, and inability to settle for a sum of money that would completely be adequate to last him and his family a lifetime leads to his downfall. Mentioned in another thread, this is Jordan's downfall as sort of a tragic hero; his hubris and unwillingness to stop trying to acquire more and more money are essentially his hamartia #SydnieMarkowitzShoutout!!!!!! But in all seriousness, I think that Jordan in The Wolf of Wall Street along with his excessive ambition comment on the American Dream and how the relentless ambition that is involved in the definition of the American Dream, in excess, can do the exact opposite of the goal of the American Dream.
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