Examples Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Faith Espinoza

The American Dream Jay Gatsby is a prime example that money can’t buy you happiness. The constant turmoil and depression he experienced was from the hurt of a lost loved one. Daisy Buchanan was his first love and they had to split apart because Gatsby had to go away to the war. Daisy not knowing if Gatsby would ever return had no other choice but to move on, later marrying Tom Buchanan. Gatsby threw these over the top grand parties in hope that Daisy would reunite with him. Gatsby tried to fill the void of missing Daisy, but he never could. Gatsby as a young boy had nothing and made a life for himself. He saw the life he wanted and made it possible. Gatsby set his mind to his dream of wealth and success and he achieved it. Gatsby wanted his life to have meaning and purpose, and so it did.

Despite the characters having everything they could of wished for they weren’t truly happy. The things we hoped and dreamed for once achieved may not be enough to bring happiness into your life, but sometimes bring emptiness. Money can’t buy happiness and in the book the characters lose sight of the things that are important to our happiness that money can’t solve. Gatsby’s flashy expensive parties were just a shield of the loneliness Gatsby felt inside. The success the characters achieve is portrayed with sad, lonely and incomplete lives. In the Great Gatsby we see first hand the shallowness of American materialism in the 1920s. The true meaning of the American Dream has been corrupted throughout the novel. People took advantage of hard work and determination, and focused on money and their social