Development of self-made man myth in American consciousness

The idea of the self-made man is inextricably tied up with that of the American dream. The American dream is a sort of national idea which embodies democratic ideals of freedom and equality of opportunity. The gist of the American dream is to give to the citizens of every rank independent of their social status a feeling that they can achieve a higher level of living. This dream appears to offer individuals the exceptional hope of accomplishing success despite of one’s race, religion, or family history. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The set phrase “from rags to riches” expresses the magic formula of success, which could be achieved by an individual who possesses the willpower to work hard and get ahead. The image of America as of a country of unlimited opportunities radically changed the situation which prevailed throughout the European world before the industrial revolution, where social status was based explicit on heredity and not on personal accomplishment. Now the merit of an individual’s achievement could potentially allow strivers to transcend the station to which they were born.

The self-made man is the one who comes from unpromising circumstances, who is not born into privilege and wealth, and yet by his own efforts, by pulling himself up by the bootstraps manages to become a great success in life. Furthermore one can define a self-made man as anyone who attains far greater success than his original circumstances would have ever allowed to. As we can see with the help of numerous examples throughout history, the self-made man often has to overcome great obstacles to achieve his goals. Such people attain their success through education, hard work and sheer willpower. As a rule there is no external help or special relationships that make the crucial difference in the self-made man’s rise, he achieves his goals independent using his talents and skills. Actually the story of the self-made man embodies the goal of every man: to become the captain of his own destiny.

We can see that the phenomenon of self-made man relies on the ideas of individualism in its basic principles and brightest features. The individually created life styles, appreciation of personal achievement, a habit to make the best of given opportunities could be seen as results of living out the idea of individualism in America today.

Depending on economic and cultural shifts in the structure of American society self-made men as well as the individualistic views were honoured and promoted or abandoned and discriminated.

(Benjamin Franklin is often called the first self-made man of USA. His life gives the biographical pattern from which all other self-made men stories have been cut. The hard work, ambition, self-discipline and thrift were the bricks of a philosophy he preached and the rhetoric of his life. His everyday life from the adolescence was organised in a way to maximize productivity and to approximate success step by step.)