Celebrity Culture and the American Dream

Celebrity Culture and the American Dream

The American Dream is an idea that predates the independence and sovereignty, since it was conveyed by Pilgrims departing Europe in search of better living conditions in the “new world.” Even though the interpretation of the American Dream has evolved over time, it is now commonly acknowledged to refer to financial stability and residential contentment; a “deeply entrenched trio of the landscapes of the United States with economic progress, a perception that insures a fresh start, a new phase, and a promising future (Aronson).” The American Dream could be regarded a distinguishing aspect of the nation’s nationalism, given its long existence and influence on several Americans’ daily lives. Because of its enduring significance in American society, it has become a popular motif over time. From literature to television shows like The Sopranos and Hollywood films, The Dream has been depicted in practically every aspects of media. Because of the United States’ years of supremacy in the worldwide media scene, the primary concepts of it have spread so far past the nation’s popular culture, and the quest is identifiable to global consumers. Celebrity and popular culture has had a toll in the contemporary American dream like in the application of the 2011 film, The Descendants.

Today, nonetheless, the American Dream is regarded with a growing amount of cynicism. Since the 1970s, economic circumstances that have lowered the standard of living for lower and the middle class Americans have made realizing the American Dream more difficult, while huge numbers of Americans have just recently began to seriously question it. The United States’ image is deteriorating both domestically and internationally, owing to a severe economic downturn, waning political clout following the highly contentious invasion of Iraq, and internal social and political strife. As a result, those pursuing the American Dream must contend with unpleasant realities, the most significant of which is international and national economic uncertainty. Regardless, the “American Dream narrative” is still the most considered topic in popular culture.

However, how has popular culture, particularly film, handled the notion of the American Dream and its present situation in particular? Several scholars argue that, instead of evaluating or commenting on the idea, Hollywood films have aided in its development by depicting realistic illusions and “great” movie stars (Dittmer and Bos). Recently released films, on the other hand, have gone deeper into the American Dream, its successes, disappointments, and ideals. According to some, modern Hollywood films have moralized success, incompetence, and materialism. Popular films support this assertion by portraying upward mobility for hard working people and ethical citizens, a personal taste for moral achievement over dishonest economic success, and cross-class interconnection that remuneration troubled topmost characters with personal wellbeing while impoverished lower-class characters are compensated with material possessions. As a result, contemporary Hollywood films play an important role in maintaining the American Dream’s supremacy and converting its political-economic systemic limits to the level of personal inadequacies associated with individuals.

The Descendants describes the tale of Matt King (George Clooney), a man who appears to be meeting the American Dream: since he is a proficient lawyer who gets paid well and tends to make sufficient money to avoid having to use his family trust; he owns a single family home having a pool; he is a married man with two daughters; and he resides in what others perceive to be paradise. A closer examination of the film and a select scenes from it indicate that this is not the truth, but rather a delusion that even King has succumbed to (Carpio). After his wife is discovered in a coma following a waterskiing tragedy, it is discovered that she has been committing adultery. The elder daughter was sent to a private and boarding institution after her dependency on drugs, and the younger sister has problems with her schoolmates, always attacking them since she can’t cope with her mother’s injury. King is clearly estranged from his family; he even refers to himself as the “back-up dad,” revealing to audiences that without the presence of the wife, he is clueless what to do with his children. He also discovers that the supposed infidelity stemmed from his wife’s loneliness and a sense that something was lacking in their relationship.