Gatsby's Pursuit of the American Dream

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Gatsby's Pursuit of the American Dream

The American Dream means that by persistently working hard, one can achieve success; this is in contrast to other countries where the immigrants came from, in which one was either born into money and privilege or not, and if you weren't, there was no way of achieving this success. The American Dream eliminated the barriers between people that social class had held for centuries in Europe. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows the corruption of the American Dream from what it used to be in the past. Not only does Jay Gatsby achieve his success without hard work, but this success is not a matter of being able to achieve just like every other person. His success is just a result of the 'I want'; materialism of Gatsby's time, the 1920's.
The figures in Fitzgerald's book all represent different outlooks on the American Dream. Nick, who comes from the Midwest, represents the traditional morality that this country used to have in the past. As the narrator, Fitzgerald is making the reader look through the eyes of America's old morality to see what the American Dream has become. Tom and Daisy Buchanan represent those who were born rich and live wealthy; they do not embody the American Dream because they did not have to work to achieve this success. Gatsby symbolizes the corruption of the American Dream because he was striving to be just like those who had money just so that he could buy happiness.
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