摘 要

自1776年美利坚合众国建国以来，美国社会就宣扬平等和自由，相信人人都有通过自己天赋、勤奋和努力去追求幸福和成功的权利。这种追求梦想和实现美好生活的愿望也被称作美国梦。美国梦这种传统的根深蒂固的价值观影响着一代又一代的怀揣梦想的美国人去追逐和实现自己的理想。在现如今的二十一世纪，随着科学技术和社会理念的发展，美国人有了更多的机会去追求和品尝梦想成真的喜悦，同时新时代的美国人也更加积极的参与到这场追梦的行列中。一直以来都有很多著作和评论致力于研究美国社会的价值观特别是关于美国梦的研究，以便大家更好的认识和理解美国社会。而近年兴起的风靡全美的平民选秀节目—《美国偶像》，因其巨大的社会影响力和广泛的社会参与率，已成为美国社会人们追求梦想精神的缩影。在当今社会美国梦的精神是否依旧存在，同时他们在美国社会中又是如何体现的，本文将通过《美国偶像》这一选秀节目来分析它背后折射的美国梦。
因此本文将以《美国偶像》比赛产生的背景、比赛规则、比赛精彩内容等为材料，对比赛过程中选手和评委的态度和言语等进行分析，并注着重于一些经典人物和案例的研究来展现普通美国人是如何去追求和实现自己的心中梦想。研究现如今美国社会及美国人对于梦想和成功的一些价值观同时反映美国梦是如何存在和影响美国社会的。本论文共包括四个方面。首先是对美国社会和《美国偶像》的简单介绍，其次是关于这一论题的前人研究成果，然后是对《美国偶像》节目相关材料的分析，研究以及提炼，总结和概括这些材料折射出来的美国社会价值观，最后是对本论文研究论题的总结以及探讨这一研究意义。
本文关于美国社会价值观美国梦的研究对于人们今后更好的认识和理解美国文化有着重大的意义，同时对于我国社会理念提高也有一定的借鉴意义。

关键词：美国偶像，美国社会，美国梦，价值观，梦想

Abstract

American society promotes the creeds of equality and liberty and believes that everyone is endowed by their creator with certain inalienable right to pursue their happiness and success through their own talent, diligence and effort since their country has been established, which is also called American Dream. All the generations of America who possess their own dreams have been encouraged and stimulated by these ingrained values. In the 21th century, with the development of scientific technology and improvement of social conception, people in this society can get more chances to pursue their dreams and to taste the flavor of success. For a long time, a number of famous books and observations focus on the analysis of the values of American society to help people to know more about American culture. In recent years, the popular television competition American Idol which is designed to select excellent solo singers in America has become an epitome of American society, because of its huge social influence and citizens’ participation.
Therefore, this thesis intends to analyze American Dream behind the program – American Idol, by collecting the material of the competition process and the reactions and comments of ordinary people on this competition, and then analyzing the language and behaviors of both the participants and judges, especially, focusing on the typical characters or cases, to show how Americans pursue their dreams and make their dreams come true. In addition, this thesis contains four parts. First part is brief introductions of American social value and the program American Idol followed by the literature review. The third part is about the American Dream behind American Idol and last part is the conclusion.
The result of this thesis will make some contributions to inter-cultural communication because of the better understanding of American culture and American value.

Key words: American Idol, American society, value, American dream, dream