The Role Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The idea of American Dream as presented by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby novel involves rising from poverty or rags to richness and wealthy. The American Dream exemplifies that elements such as race, gender, and ethnicity are valueless as they do not influence the ability of an individual to rise to power and richness. This American Dream makes the assumption that concepts such as xenophobia are non-existent in America a concept that is not true and shows vagueness of the American Dream. In his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the Great Gatsby to demonstrate the overall idea of living the American dream. Gatsby leaves his small village of farmers and manages to work his way up the ladder although some of the money he uses to climb the ladder is associated with crime “He was a son of God and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 6.7). This phrase shows that Gatsby wasn’t meant for a life similar to that of his father but rather destined for greatness. However, his dream his short-lived and he doesn’t make it to the top as Daisy who is a symbol of his wealthy rejects her and a series of events transpire that result in his death before he could live his American Dream alongside everyone else who was working up the ladder to live the American Dream.

Even though Daisy is cheating on Tom for Gatsby, she still has feelings of love with Tom. Daisy

Gatsby believes Daisy has never loved her husband and settled because she didn't want to wait for a life with him. On the other hand, Daisy loves both Tom and Gatsby and is caught in the middle. Gatsby shouts at Tom,“‘She never loved you, did you hear? She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me!’”

The author Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a novel that talks about and covers American issues in the 1920s. He shows in the novel the carelessness and selfishness of everybody at the same time by portraying all of them in the location of west and east egg. Fitzgerald talks about a couple different topics throughout the novel. One of those is," the Attainment of a dream may be less satisfying than the pursuit of it" and the second one is"the American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth". He uses those themes to show how americans lived at a different time.

The term “The American Dream” was coined in 1931 by American writer James Truslow Adams and described America as a place of opportunity based on one’s ability and hard work. Although the term originated in 1931, the fundamental ideas of the American Dream debuted in 1920’s society and contrasted greatly with previous notions of a stagnant class structure. This was due to the booming post-WWI economy, which provided an increase in accessibility to leisure items and activities, allowing luxuries typically reserved for the upper class to be enjoyed by the masses. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, reflects these social and economic changes. The novel follows the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, who achieved prosperity in spite of being born the son of a poor, North Dakota farmer. Though many believed in an emergence of class mobility in the 1920’s, the novel The Great Gatsby demonstrates the ultimate inaccessibility of the American Dream - a holistic realization of social and economic equality.

The American Dream: Is is fact or fiction? In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers set forth the idea of an American Dream by providing us with the recognizable phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. The green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock symbolizes Jay Gatsby’s “Pursuit of Happiness” in the novel, The Great Gatsby, set in the 1920s on Long Island, New York. The American Dream can be defined as “the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, not by chance” (Fontinelle, Amy). At the birth of our country in 1776, our founding fathers introduced the American Dream as a personal desire to pursue happiness; however, the pursuit of happiness was not intended to promote self-indulgence, rather to act as a catalyst to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. As our country has changed, the idea of the American Dream, in some cases, has evolved into the pursuit of one’s own indulgences such as material gain regardless of the consequences.

"I suppose the latest thing is to sit back and let Mr. Nobody from Nowhere make love to your wife. Well, if that's the idea you can count me out”. Why is it fair if Tom has an affair with Myrtle, but when it’s the other way around, it is morally wrong. If they both love each other, no one should be cheating with

As Daisy seems to move further and further away from Gatsby, his ambition and desire for her push him to greater and greater displays of excess, while he sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and crippling depression. Gatsby’s wondrous parties provide a sanctuary for the super-rich to pursue their earthly desires, and yet, his disdain for such activities provide an insight into Fitzgerald’s America – a place of shifting social values, a place of wealth without responsibility, where ‘the ends justify the means’. Gatsby's dreams remain beyond his reach. His ambition has established an empire, a wealthy and powerful empire, but Daisy’s disappearance from East Egg with her husband and Gatsby being shot by Wilson ensure that his dreams will stay beyond his reach forever. Like the green light on Daisy’s clock visible across the water, “the dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it”.

shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds” (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy had married Tom and he was wealthy but when she went to Gatsby’s mansion, she realized the extent of his wealth. Gatsby and Daisy’s main focus in their lives was money. Money was all they really cared about. “Jay Gatsby’s quest, the wealthy Daisy, represents the emptiness of an American society focused on money, a sordid but accurate view of the American Dream” (Adamson 25). The American society is basically empty with a large focus on money rather than the significant things in life.

The American Dream to me is defined as someone starting low on the economic level and working hard to achieve wealth and fame, and happiness. By having money, a nice car, a big house, and a family that symbolizes the American dream in the Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby also represents that people no matter their circumstances can become successful in life by working hard. The novel the Great Gatsby shows what the American Dream meant in the 1920’s, it meant wealth. In order to reach the American Dream people did what ever it takes.

From early on in the novel, Jay Gatsby is portrayed as a mysterious, wealthy and extravagant man; he lives in an ostentatious mansion and showcases his successes at the lavish parties he hosts. However, it is evident that this perplexing character, despite all of his wealth and successes, continues to yearn for even more. At the beginning of The Great Gatsby, Nick observes of Gatsby, “...he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward- and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 26). It is later revealed that Daisy, who Gatsby loves and hopes to reunite with, lives at the house at the end of the dock with the green light. Ultimately, Daisy and the green light are motivations for Gatsby that recur throughout the novel. This single green light that Gatsby reached out to with quivering arms represents the American dream that drove the goals and hopes of Americans during this time.

The American Dream is the pursuit of success as a result of hard work and determination. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway try to achieve The American Dream, Gatsby yearns to rekindle his relationship with Daisy Buchanan and Nick wants to become rich by working in bonds. Gatsby’s dream is represented by a green light at the end of Daisy’s deck which motivates him to pursue his dream. Though Gatsby tried to make his dream a reality, the novel ends with his tragic death. Gatsby’s pursuit highlights that The American Dream is unattainable and demonstrates the flaws that accompany the dream. Gatsby’s unsuccessful pursuit illustrates the illusions and reality should be separated to ensure that

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.

Despite openly indulging in scandalous affairs with other women, the mere thought of Daisy doing the same with another man becomes incredulous in Tom’s perspective. Tom feels outraged at the notion of his wife participating in the very activity he indulges himself in. Moreover, Tom assumes full control over Daisy’s mind and her decisions. When Gatsby proposes that Daisy never loved Tom, Tom insists, “‘But all the rest of that’s a God Damned lie. Daisy loved me when she married me and she loves me now’”

People have been traveling to the United States of America for years on end now. The biggest reason why foreigners leave their home country is because they would like to pursue their personal dreams in a land where anything is possible. Although the american dream seems like a well oiled machine, there are a few kinks that could use some fixing. In the novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, some of those pros and cons of the american dream could be recognized within each character.