Kevin Maggiacomo
Awakening the American Dream
“Society stagnates. And what happens in a stagnant society, is that the economy falters and innovation and opportunity are diminished. ” (Maggiacomo).
Kevin Maggiacomo is the president and the Chief Executive Officer of the Sperry Van Ness (SVN) International Corporation. He has been the main factor in the drastic success of the company. Since 2001, Maggiacomo has assisted in increasing the number of SVN offices from 7 to over 180 today. In Maggiacomo's speech, he discusses that in recent generations, the American Dream has been lost and needs to be reclaimed. He believes that it can only be reclaimed by American Citizens who are willing to preserve the Human Dream, and provides personal anecdotes about his family to back up these claims. These ideas highly contend with the claims made in The Death of a Salesman, where Arthur Miller says that the American Dream is but a myth. He claims that success is only based on extraneous factors such as race and physical abilities. Miller believes that the American Dream is a concept in our fantasy that fails to exist in reality. For example, no matter how hard the main character, Willy Loman, tried to provide for his family, he could never prosper and achieve many things in his career, despite his intelligence and mental abilities. The company he worked for preferred young and attractive men rather than old, yet hardworking ones. As this case is common in the real world, Miller's points about difficulties in finding opportunities are understandable. |
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