The Great Gatsby Annalysis

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The American Dream is different for everybody. People will go to extreme lengths to obtain their dream. Social Structures have a part in how far someone can go in that dream. In the book, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald we encounter our main characters Nick, Gatsby, and Daisy. Nick and Daisy are cousins, and Gatsby is a newly rich man who loves Daisy. Gatsby’s American Dream was to move up the social ladder and to reignite the love he and Daisy used to have a long time. He couldn’t make Daisy happy because his economical class wasn’t as high as hers. She wouldn’t marry him because he was lower than her. Like Karl Marx said, The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.” This relates back to Gatsby and Daisy because Daisy didn’t help Gatsby go higher in social class. She let him go up by himself and he became obsessed with pleasing her. Now that he is rich he wants to see Daisy once more. He wasn’t the most economically stable when he was young. This pushed Gatsby to become obsessed on becoming rich and having a shot at Daisy once more. Social class has a major impact on Gatsby’s American dream until it corrupts it and becomes the center point of his dream. Where we are in the social circle can be either great or harmful for us. In Gatsby’s case his obsession with being in with the crowd drove his every day activities. We see in one of his journals his every day schedule, “No more smoking or chewing, Bath every other day, read one improving book or magazine per week…”(181-82). His father found his journal where we see how Gatsby studied and practiced how to act like a wealthy person. Everyday his mind revolved on bettering himself which is what his dream is. Another way he is obsessed is through ... ... middle of paper ... ...er and money are so powerful they can control someone. People criticize others who are lower than them but they don’t realize they were once in the bottom also. In the roaring 20’s Fitzgerald shows how the American Dream has deteriorated. The American Dream originally was about bettering yourself, discovery, and finding happiness. This changed for Gatsby instead he wanted money and to be involved in social circles he did not belong in. Gatsby’s dream was ruined by him trying to be in upper social class. One lesson we can learn from Gatsby is to be ourselves. It’s fine to try and have more money so we can be financially stable, but we must always keep our personalities. Gatsby’s lesson should be to not be someone you are not. Never think that money can buy happiness and friends. Nobody of his ‘friends’ bothered to show up, except for Nick. That is a lesson learned.

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