Examples Of Hard Work In The Great Gatsby

Hard work, determination, and initiative can earn someone success, right? For almost all people, their life goal is to achieve success for themselves however it may be. People want the best for themselves and accomplish this wherever they are in life, whether they are poor, rich, or anywhere in between. This process, in other words the American dream, has been and still is believed to prevail in all situations. This all seems perfectly fine until it does not work. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald has something to say against this belief as well. In his well known book, The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, Fitzgerald tells a lively story about riches, lavishness, hopes, dreams, and ultimately failure. Throughout his book, the author conveys to

Myrtle was born in and lives in the lower, working class, which is why she is used a direct representation of the lower class by Fitzgerald. Myrtle is a woman who lives in the “valley of ashes” in the book, which is supposed to show her poverty. She always thinks that she is better than the lower class and dreams to escape it. There are two ways she plans on escaping it: through her relationship with Tom or through actual hard work. These both seem to the reader like ways that might possibly be successful for Myrtle to complete her dream. When the character is first introduced as Tom’s mistress, it appears as though this relationship might actually go somewhere serious and this might be her escape route when it says that they would “get a divorce” from their current spouses “and get married to each other right away” if it were not for Tom’s wife who “[doesn’t] believe in divorce” (33). This builds the expectation that Myrtle might actually have a way out of the lower class, which heightens the situational irony at the end of the novel. Another thing that builds hope for Myrtle is her hard work and “vitality that [is] so remarkable in the garage” (30). This makes the reader think that by pumping gas and working hard she might actually make it out of the lower class. Both of these possibilities are destroyed when “her life [was] violently extinguished” when she gets hit by a car, ironically driven by Daisey (137). This is such a tragic turnaround that no one expects it, which is how Fitzgerald uses situational irony to make his readers realize the falsehood of the American dream. Fitzgerald wants his readers to snap out of their own dreams in believing that they can do anything they dream of. Gatsby also comes out of poverty, he also is used to represent the lower