Fighting for a Dream

The American Dream is expressed as fighting and never ever giving up on said dream. Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights" and Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" both show fighting to obtain the American Dream.
The American Dream shown in both books is obsession. Jay Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy. "I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night"(Fitzgerald 79). Gatsby throws huge extravagant parties hoping to capture Daisy's attention. Gatsby is so obsessed he spends all of his time organizing parties, but Daisy never appears. He hopes and hopes she will suddenly make an appearance at one of the many parties. Gatsby does not exactly want to force Daisy into showing up, but rather entice her to make an appearance. Gatsby vaguely shows his obsession at this part in time. Gatsby's obsession soon turns around to be a smidge stalkerish. "You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock"(Fitzgerald 92). Apparently Gatsby gazes out his window every night to spot the ghastly glow of the green light. His obsession has escalated to a form of stalking. At first it is sweet to know he throws parties to capture Daisy's attention, but now it is plain creepy. Surprisingly Daisy shows no signs of being creeped out by Gatsby's statement. Gatsby's obsession with such a prize may have played a giant part in his downfall. Odessa is obsessed with the Permian Panthers football team. "It became obvious that these kids held the town on their shoulders"(Bissinger xiv). Without football Odessa would just be another worthless dump. The town focuses all of their time worshipping the Panthers. The stress of having to make everyone proud really gets to some of the players. A few of the football players only joined ...

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...tates, they do not even make it past the semi-finals. All of the hard work, effort, and pure love for the game of football does not pay off. According to the boys, their dreams died on that field during senior year. Although the 1988 Permian Panther team did not make it too states, the dream still lives on in each player and past players.
Although, not all dreams come true, giving up is never going to be the correct answer. The whole idea of the American Dream is doing what you love without any consequences. If people allow life to get in the way of their happiness, certain people are constantly going to be upset with the way life turns out. Dreams are not meant to happen overnight or be easy to achieve. Dreams take time, effort, and ambition to achieve. Even then dreams might never come true, but that should not stop anyone from trying their utmost hardest.