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The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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The Dream is Not Enough
The American Dream is the assumption that working hard will allow one to flourish economically and socially. However, to truly achieve the American Dream, one has to have both wealth and support from one’s family. In The Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter’s dream of owning his own liquor store stirs up problems with his family. Similarly, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby’s infatuation with Daisy leads him on a lonely and perilous journey. Walter and Gatsby each fail to achieve the American Dream because neither of them have both wealth and a loving family: Walter has a supporting family, but lacks wealth, while Gatsby is at the pinnacle of prosperity but is neither able to marry the love of his life nor build a loving home.
Gatsby’s American Dream was to become wealthy and marry the love of his life, Daisy. After meeting her as a dirt-poor farm boy, he changes his ambitions and aspirations to fit her expectations. Through years of illegal bootlegging, Gatsby finally accumulated enough money to buy the big mansion across the bay from Daisy. He told Jordan that, “He half expected [Daisy] to wander into one of his parties” (63). Gatsby expects that because he has all this money, he can get anything he desires, including the love of Daisy. Gatsby’s only reason for holding these sumptuous parties is in hope that Daisy would accidentally stumble into one of his parties; however, years of parties never brought Daisy to give a second thought about Gatsby. The blatant unrequited love between Gatsby and Daisy left Gatsby to be forever an outcast, with only half of his dream achieved. The reason that Gatsby did not fully achieve his American Dream was because he distanced himself from the support of his family. Gatsby tried to distance himself by changing his name and identity, “James Gatz - that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment witnessed the beginning of his career--when he saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior” (98). Gatsby despised his parents because they were poor farmers. He separated himself from his family in order to pursue what he thought

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