The American Dream in The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise

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Frances Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896 in St. Paul Minnesota and died of a heart attack in an apartment in Hollywood on December 21st, 1940. Throughout his career, Fitzgerald wrote many works, traveled the world, and served in the United States Army. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote mostly short stories but became famous because of his novel This Side of Paradise and became even more famous because of The Great Gatsby which was released in 1925. The time period in which Fitzgerald lived played an extensive role in his work. Fitzgerald is one of the all time greatest American authors solely of the fact that his works displayed “The American Dream.”

This brings up an excellent question: What was or what is “The American Dream”? The American Dream is to achieve - To achieve greatness, higher social ranking, wealth, a family, happiness in first class. The idea of it is supposed to be that when you work hard, your hard work will then pay off in the end. But more importantly, The American dream is a personal feeling. It is when you feel like you’re at the point of success. Do you have to have wealth and a high social ranking to have achieved the American Dream? No, not necessarily. It’s a dream, it is what you have dreamt and dream to have one day. Everyone has a different perspective when it comes to “The American Dream”. For example, a professional athlete such as a baseball player would dream of playing in the world series or his favorite baseball team or both who knows it’s up to them, an actor would want to win a Grammy and star in the movie of their dreams, a singer would want that big recording contract and become the number one singer of their time who knows. Whether or not someone can make that dream come true or...

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Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New york: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.

Fitzgerald, Frances. This Side of Paradise. New York: Scribner, 1920

“Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). “Biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

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"Palen, Autum DPCHOOSEASUBJECT." Autumn Palen's Digital Portfolio • Novel

Analysis. Web. 12 Mar. 2014

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