Gatsby American Dream

The American Dream

“When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me freedom just a waving flag” (K’naan). Being wealthy, having freedom, being able to control your own destiny, some say material possessions, and others say having power are the real values of the American Dream. For many people, especially Americans, their American Dream is based basically upon reaching a higher standard of living. James Truslow Adams gives us useful information about the American Dream. He states in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931, that "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” His idea or information still stands out today. Everyone is looking for a better life, a better future for his/her kids. They want life to be richer, fuller, and better.

James Henry Gatz in the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was one of those Americans who established his whole life on how much money he earned and the wealth he had. He felt that with money came many other advantages to life. Gatsby’s main reason to change his life and become rich was to get his old love Daisy back. When James Gatz first met Daisy he was poor and he was not good enough because he was a lower class than her. He always knew that as long as he’s poor he should forget about her, because there was no chance of them being together. He says “I was poor”, he had no money and he knew that Daisy won’t wait for him for too long, as he states “She never loved you, do you hear?” “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except ...

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...d with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, in a brief 1971 visit. "My father had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact," he then said "They couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed.” (Barack Obama).

Barack Hussein Obama also struggled and suffered a lot during his life, but he ended up as the 44th President of The United States of American. He achieved his American Dream, and in his situation it was slightly impossible. Barack Hussein Obama comes from a Muslim family, and he is also black, and his dad is from Kenya, considering the racism in the world today, and the fact that he’s not fully American, achieving what he achieved was almost impossible. Obama showed how America is free and anyone can achieve their American Dream there.