How is the American Dream Portrayed in Iron Man and Man of Steel

Superhero movies usually represent the ideal life of Americans. Superheroes have suddenly become an example of how Americans see their lives. Comic books, superheroes and their movies are the new age American Dream.

Iron Man

Iron Man represents the new American Dream with his intellect, wealth and morals. Wealth is by far the most craved for goal by the Americans, Iron Man represents to us this idea very well as he is a multi-billionaire weapons manufacture. A lot of people are inspired by him and have the Iron Man logo on their merchandise. Another factor that comes with his popularity is his intelligence, school children spend their schools years in pursuit of academic excellence and they would feel attracted to someone they wish to imitate, and in this case it would be Iron Man. The last factor are his morals, He’s a man who always wants to do the right thing but struggles at times. However he is dedicated to justice. He risks his life to protect people who cannot defend themselves.

With his influence Marvel has used Iron Man to establish morals to younger fans. He represents the American Dream that everyone hopes to achieve. Everyone wants to be wealthy, intelligent with a good sense of humour.

The red colour of his suit resembles the red which is in the flag of the United States of America.

Man of Steel

Man of Steel represents Christianity, Hope & Justice. In the movie we saw a symbol of hope which was on Kal-El’s (Superman) chest and also on Jor-El’s (Superman’s father) chest. Both of them desired hope. (“Hope cherishes the soul of him who lives in justice and holiness, and is the nurse of his age and the companion of his journey/hope which is mightiest to sway the restless soul of man”- Stolen words).

In the movie the people from Metropolis (Superman’s home planet) place their hope in Kal-El (who lives by justice), they have hope in being saved. Their hope comes with faith and trust in the person who can save them. There is a scene where Clark visits the priest, here we see that he doesn’t trust mankind and believes that only God can help him. Superman also has Christian values and he fights the villains to defeat them only and not to kill them. He broke this in the movie and that is why he cried at the end of the movie after defeating and killing General Zod. He focuses on his family and unity amongst him and his family members. He thinks of other people and always puts them first, he chose planet to protect earth over his own.