Socialization and Identity in East and West Comparison Essay by Master Researcher

This paper discusses the social mythology of the West surrounding the "American dream" and how it is predicated upon consumption and individual achievement. Under this model, Americans consider that they can find fulfillment and happiness by the attaining of a number of "concrete" manifestations of social and economic status: cars, a suburban house, a nuclear family. The paper then compares Western structures of socialization with the structure of socialization in the East and explains that, while the Western world - in this case, the United States - is defined by individualism directed towards self-fulfillment, the Asian world is defined by a harmonious balance of the East and the West.