Chasing A Dream In The Great Gatsby Analysis

Chasing a Dream James Truslow Adams, an American writer and historian, defined in his book The Epic of America, published in 1931, the American dream. He described it as “… that dream of a land in which life should be better and fuller and richer for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement…It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” The American Dream became the engine that drove millions to work hard every day, with faith that one day everything

He works very hard to improve himself; he even managed to get into a small Lutheran college. Nevertheless, Gatsby only stayed there two weeks “…dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor’s work with which he had to pay his way through.” (Fitzgerald 99) When Gatsby falls in love with Daisy, she became his motivation and his dream. Fitzgerald uses the character of Daisy as a symbol; she represents the unreachable American dream. Gatsby describes Daisy as a “nice” girl, but he makes emphasis in what she owned “…he had never been in such a beautiful house before… a hint of bedrooms up-stairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms… and redolent of this year’s shining motor-cars…” (Fitzgerald 148) Furthermore, Gatsby is attracted to the fact that “…many men had already loved Daisy — it increased her value in his eyes.” (Fitzgerald 149) Ultimately, Gatsby ends up acquiring his wealth through illegal businesses involving the sale of alcohol in a period where it was penalized by the law; he also builds associations with various gangsters such as Meyer Wolfsheim. There is a distortion of the American dream;

Money is the driving force behind our society, and the severe materialism that we are experiencing is taking a toll in our persona, relationships and quality of life. People work extremely hard to have bigger houses, the newest car models, and the latest technologies. At the end, none of these things make individuals happy because they barely have time left to enjoy them. However, society keeps reminding us that we are what we own, and if we don’t have much, we are nobody. The author Carolyn Gregoire explains that “…there is no direct correlation between income and happiness. Once our basic needs are met, wealth makes very little difference to one 's overall well-being and happiness. And in fact, extremely wealthy people actually suffer from higher rates of depression.” Another interesting point relates to relationships; according to a study published in the Journal Of Couple & Marriage Therapy, materialism is actually correlated with unhappiness in marriages. Finally, materialism and consumerism affect deeply the attitude of the individual toward others. The individual becomes more self- absorbed, exhibit narcissistic traits, and is more likely to behave unethically. The article Wealthy Selfies by Maia Szalavitz argues that “…in five different experiments involving several hundred undergraduates and 100 adults recruited from online communities, the researchers found higher levels of both narcissism and