“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” three common goals that immigrants came to America hoping to prosper and succeed. However, during the Gilded Age, it seemed that these goals were only accessible to a select few, while others left the land they knew to spend their lives working hard in pursuit of American dream, with many never understanding how unattainable it truly was. While the Gilded Age was a time of industrial boom and growing economy, those who worked hard to make the success of that era possible did not actually capture that wealth, but the rather put into the pockets of the rich. The Gilded Age compromised the American dream by limiting the opportunities of the immigrant working class and thereby creating a cycle of missed opportunities that prevented immigrants from progressing much further than when they arrived in America. Immigrants from this period came to America. seeking wealth for the family they had brought with them, or to send back to their families in their homeland. Whatever the case, immigrants spent the majority of their time working in factories in hopes of a better life than the one they had left behind when they came to America. However, upon arrival, the immigrants quickly realized that the house they had left behind was not so different from the new one. Immigrants came looking for the type of jobs that would give them freedom and independence, leaving them to find themselves as just another employee in a large factory dependent on machines, rather than their own skills. Because wages at that time were almost zero, immigrants were forced to spend hours and hours to earn enough money to donate the little paper needed to benefit or use the library. And without these workers compromising their education, Carnegie could not have achieved its success without skilled, low-wage workers working long hours. The Gilded Age, known for economic boom and a time of great industrialization, along with the promises of America brought immigrants from all over in search of life, liberty and happiness through the many great opportunities that she had to offer. However, the opportunities that America had to offer were undermined by the corruption of this era, which was seen in the cities during this time. Once entering the cycle that so many immigrant workers were stuck in, it was difficult to achieve independence and truly live the American dream, which brought these immigrants to America in the first place..