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F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream has been a staple of the identity of the US for hundreds of years. It is the idea that somebody can come from nothing and work their way to the top. It is associated with obtaining wealth, satisfaction, and the luxury of material objects. From the outside, the American Dream looks like a flawless path to happiness. However, the validity of how attainable the American Dream is has been long debated. It is arguable that the American Dream has become misguided, leading those who seek it down a path that ultimately ends in failure of genuine success. This idea has even made it’s way into multiple works of literature. Authors create protagonists that endure the journey of the American Dream. Conversely, some authors use their characters to express negative feelings towards the concept of the American Dream. One example of an author who does this is F. Scott Fitzgerald. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick witnessing how Gatsby flounders under the riggers of the American Dream leaves him disillusioned, and ultimately pushes him away from pursuing the American Dream.
People pursue the American Dream with an image of what they expect it to be like, this is similar to how Nick imagines Gatsby. Before Nick meets Gatsby, he says of him, ”It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby, it was a mansion inhabited by a gentleman of that name.” By admitting, ‘I didn’t know Mr. Gatsby’ , essentially Nick is saying that all he knows is what he has

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