Essay On The Illusion Of The American Dream

Alice Huang

English 11H: Period 6

Mr. Nguyen

March 9, 2014

The Illusion of the American Dream

People do not fall in love with what is right in front of them. They want the dream–what they cannot have; the more unreachable, the more attractive. Because the dream is so unrealistic and disillusioned, the pursuit of it eventually ends in ruin. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel representing the corruption of the social setting during the Jazz Age. The novel explores the shallowness of the upper class and the fruitless pursuit of the American dream that eventually ends in vain. Through Jay Gatsby’s attempt to live his own dream, Fitzgerald presents his view of a disillusioned society, fraught with the hollowness of the rich and the pursuit of the unachievable American Dream, that eventually spiral into desperation and disappointment.

During this time period, one’s success is often equated to one’s wealth–the richer a person is, the higher up he is on the social ladder, and therefore the more successful he is. However, success does not always guarantee happiness. When Nick, the narrator, first goes to Tom’s house, he encounters Daisy and Jordan, who are both extremely wealthy women, lying on a couch. The windows are open as the breeze blows through room, with the curtains flying like pale flags. Nick describes, “The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon” (8). The use of imagery here creates a sense of relaxation and laziness as the two women are ”buoyed up”, suggesting that there is nothing solid underneath them, that they are unfilled and hollow, both literally and metaphorically. Since they are “buoyed up...

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...the dream goes into the unreachable darkness. The life that he envisions with Daisy is nothing but disillusionment; a life would only be possible in the past.

Through Jay Gatsby’s idle attempt to achieve his own dream, Fitzgerald presents his view of a disillusioned society, fraught with the hollowness of the rich and the pursuit of the unachievable American Dream, that eventually spiral into desperation and disappointment. Gatsby’s search for his American Dream turns out to be a futile attempt, that even though he becomes an extremely wealthy man and is regarded as “successful” from the eyes of others, he is, however, unsatisfied with his meaningless life. With his wealth, Gatsby is capable of buying anything, with the exception of Daisy and happiness, which are what he truly wants. The American Dream, in the end, is just exactly what it sounds like: a dream.