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Criticism of the American dream
Gatsby success and failure
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Recommended: Criticism of the American dream
The indisputable desire to succeed flows within the veins of many, but is achievable by few. The “American Dream” is a fictitious belief that hard work will lead to freedom, prosperity, happiness, and wealth. American novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald, offers commentary on the American Dream, and its demise, in The Great Gatsby. In this novel, the American Dream is portrayed as nothing more than an unreachable illusion and advises society against living a deceitful life. Fitzgerald exposes the destruction and corruption of the American Dream through a plethora of symbolism and barren characters. People travel miles, seek new beginnings and fantasize of a life filled with fame and fortune, despite their origins. Fitzgerald depicts Jay Gatsby as
In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald elucidates the hollowness of the American Dream, as the unrestrained longing for wealth and freedom exceeding more honorable desires. He illuminates the idea that having or attaining this American Dream will result in unethical behavior or unethical acts.
The American Dream offers opportunity, equality, liberty, and social mobility to those who have lost their place, such as immigrants, African Americans, and white males with little wealth. This national ethos can supposedly be achieved through hard work, and determination with few social barriers. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, illustrates the unreachable American Dream that so many have stopped fighting for. While the American dream may theoretically promise equality for all, social status will either hinder or improve an individual 's chances of success. Through rhetorical strategies such as imagery, symbolism, and diction, Fitzgerald’s interpretation of the American Dream is developed.
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts the degradation of the American dream through the loss of humility and rectitude.
He loses sight of the ultimate goal of his dreams, just as Fitzgerald must have seen in the hopeful eyes of ambitious young Americans. Poor, underprivileged people were developing dreams for better lives for themselves. But, in order to have better lives, they became too fixated on the means of getting there. Their dreams became blinded by money and misguided by the ultimate goal of bettering themselves. Thus, through Gatsby’s tragic nature, Fitzgerald argues that the American Dream becomes ultimately unobtainable by the material means required in pursuit of the ultimate goal of a successful and prosperous life.
The American Dream has long been thought the pinnacle idea of American society. The idea that anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or financial status, could rise from the depths and become anything they wanted to be with no more than hard work and determination has attracted people from all around the world. Two writers from America’s past, however, have a different opinion on the once-great American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck have given the public their beliefs on the modern Dream through the novels they have written, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, respectively. One novel placed during the Great Depression and the other during the Roaring Twenties both illustrate how their author feels about the Dream itself through the use of many literary devices. While both novels have main characters with hopes for something better, all the characters seem to fall into the same plagued pit. Through depravity and decadence, the American Dream seems to have become exactly what its name implies: A dream, not a reality.
The American Dream There is no set definition to be found anywhere of the true meaning of The American Dream. Any hope, dream, or goal pursued by anyone in the history of America is an American Dream. In modern times the accepted dream seems to be 2.5 children, a house with a white picket fence, and a perfect spouse. However, as it is shown throughout literature from the early days of America to contemporary times, the American Dream is not always so simple a concept. America was originally founded on the dream of freedom.
In Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, men fight over a woman. To stay financially secure, they go into illegal business. Dreams are crushed and lives are lost.
The American Dream is a concept that has been wielded in American Literature since its beginnings. The ‘American Dream’ ideal follows the life of an ordinary man wanting to achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The original goal of the American dream was to pursue freedom and a greater good, but throughout time the goals have shifted to accumulating wealth, high social status, etc. As such, deplorable moral and social values have evolved from a materialistic pursuit of happiness. In “Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity”, Roland Marchand describes a man that he believed to be the prime example of a 1920’s man. Marchand writes, “Not only did he flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of skyscrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure- seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pastimes.” (Marchand) This description shows material success as the model for the American Dream. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the characterization of his characters through the use of symbols and motifs to emphasize the corruption of the American Dream.
In the past the American Dream was an inspiration to many, young and old. To live out the American Dream was what once was on the minds of many Americans. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was presented as a corrupted version of what used to be a pure and honest ideal way to live. The idea that the American Dream was about the wealth and the possessions one had been ingrained, somehow, into the minds of Americans during the 1920’s. As a result of the distortion of the American Dream, the characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies.
The Jazz age was a convivial time known for innovation, creativity, and women pushing the limits of their new found freedom, but it was also a time of mourning and loss after the end of World War I. The combination of these emotions is what made the roaring twenties so unique, yet unstable. Before the twenties, the American dream had been to earn a stable income and raise a family in the great country that is America, but during the twenties the American dream became much more diminished as people worked for riches and luxuries that only a few could afford. In The Great Gatsby the main characters are striving for this dream of riches in a turbulent setting, but ironically are blinded by the distractions of the Jazz age and they do not realize until it is too late and that they have been walking away from their own dreams. During the Jazz age people partied, drank, and danced to their heart’s content, but little did they know that they were losing sight of the American dream.
In the novel The Great Gatsby, The major theme is the collapse of the American dream. The American Dream consisted of money, lots of money. The Quote, "Her voice is full of money," is said about Daisy by Gatsby. To me this means that she has been raised rich and will always remain rich, which is the American dream. Gatsby believes that Daisy's voice is full of money and that is very addicting to him. It is the reason he is so attached to her, she is Mr. Gatsby's American dream. Like all people, Gatsby tries to grasp this American dream and to do that he has to convince Daisy that she should be his, if he could accomplish this task, then he could achieve this dream, but what happens if he does accomplish this and is still not happy.
In The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald the American dream becomes corrupted by the pursuit of money. The American Dream is basically a dream to accomplish your goals but too much money and power can corrupt this dream. Gatsby was motivated to acquire his dream. “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way… and distinguished nothing except a single green light”(20). This quote shows how Gatsby was striving for his goal and trying to accomplish it no matter what the obstacles were. Other characters that had to deal with their dream being corrupted were Myrtle and Daisy. Myrtle’s dream was to live a rich and famous life while Daisy’s dream
The Great Gastby by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the corruption of the American dream because even the rich seem constantly dissatisfied. First, Gatsby works hard to achieve the American dream and uses his wealth to deal with the issues of his love life and social life. Nick Carraway lacks drive for the American dream due to his lower-class lifestyle, though he finds comfort in it as he discovers the life of the upper class. Many of the characters are so spoiled that they are no longer appreciative of their ideal American lives after coming from poor backgrounds.
Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, is one of the few novels he wrote in 1925 that expresses the American dream. Jay Gatsby, a character in The Great Gatsby, represents an example of a person who dreamed of becoming a millionaire yet he made it into a reality. In light of the novel the American dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and wealth and fame. Meyer Wolfshiem claims that he “ raised him up out of nothing, right out of the gutter” (Fitzgerald 182). The American Dream can be achieved by all individuals, it requires hard work, determination, and trust in yourself that you can beat it.
The 1920s were a time of profound change for many Americans. The American dream was the quintessential goal of the 1920s because it was, and still is, the ideal perception that an individual can achieve prosperity in life regardless of family, background, or social status. The era, however, was full of greediness, dishonesty, and temporary pursuit of contentment. This lead to the decline of the American dream because people based it all on materialistic possessions and not on the other aspects of the American dream such as honesty and love. Individuals of the upper class in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1920s novel The Great Gatsby, epitomize the decay of the American