How Did Jay Gatsby Chase For The American Dream

Jay Gatsby’s Chase for The American Dream

To fulfill the American Dream is the ultimate ambition of every American. The American dream is to rise from the lowest socioeconomic class and rise to great wealth and life of leisure. The American Dream achieved by many, but also still sought after by many more. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald uses the geography of New York to display the economic inequalities present in the 1920’s, and Jay Gatsby’s chase for the American Dream and the eventual downfall it led too.

The American dream has been a defining characteristic of the American cultural identity.

Americans have trusted that working hard can achieve wealth, position, and power. Fitzgerald expresses that even though Americans

have achieved the American Dream they continue to be restless and unsatisfied. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are the epitome of the prosperity that can be achieved by the American Dream. Tom and Daisy possess all of the luxuries possible in the 1920’s, but Tom still participates in affairs and is unsatisfied even with all of the wealth and power that he has accumulated. The Buchanans “had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together,”(6). Fitzgerald describes how the Buchanans moved in search of happiness that they never achieved, just like Fitzgerald in his own life. The Buchanans represent how the accomplished Americans are still not satisfied and representative of Fitzgerald and the people of the Jazz Age.
The American Dream has two forces that affect the mindset of every American. The American Dream can be an empowering force, but it also can be a destructive force. Jay Gatsby defines the destructive force of the American Dream and what it can lead to. Jay Gatsby believed that he could still get Daisy and fulfill his goal in the past, even with five years that had past and all of the changes that happened since then. Gatsby lived in the past because he thought he could get the “golden girl” (120), with gold representing wealth and greatness, which Gatsby believed was Daisy. Gatsby believed that rising to the top and attaining great wealth would solve the problems of his past and would make him happy and get his love. This did not come true for Gatsby as he tried to get Daisy, a married woman, to leave Tom. His pursuit was ill-fated as Mr. Wilson killed him for his involvement in the hit and run death of Myrtle. Gatsby would not have died and if he did not chase something unattainable and pursue the lost dream, he would have continued to live a successful life. The greed and desire for more after achieving the American Dream blinded Gatsby from the realities of life around him. The destructive force of the American dream is displayed when making Gatsby believe he can relive and win the past with his newfound wealth.
The American Dream is not only a destructive force to Americans but also an empowering one to America’s cultural identity.

The American Dream pushes millions of Americans to believe in a better future and work hard to achieve this dream. The destructive force of the American Dream tainted Gatsby after he achieved it, but Gatsby still worked from nothing to build great wealth and represent that the American Dream could still be achieved. The American dream pushed Gatsby to try and become successful and wealthy to achieve his goal of marrying Daisy, but at the end it failed. “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serf, have always been obstinate about being peasantry,” (88) displays the strong will of Americans to rise socioeconomic classes and not accept their current situation. “It was James Gatz who had been loafing along the beach…but it was already Jay Gatsby who borrowed a rowboat,” (98) Gatsby had redefined himself at the first opportunity to become a new person and start life anew with first changing his name. Gatsby had grown up poor in North Dakota and he took it into his own hands to become successful by leaving his home and looking for opportunities out East. The American Dream is a powerful force instilled in every American to work hard and to improve every facet of their life to reach higher socioeconomic classes. It allows the poor to dream of the opportunity to rise out of poverty and it also allows the hardworking middle-class to rise to the level of

their superiors.
Fitzgerald incorporated the use of New York as a setting to display the effects of East Egg, West Egg, and Valley of Ashes to describe the American Dream in different contexts.

The East has always been representative in American identity as the founding location of the country and where everything originated. Fitzgerald also uses the preconceived identity of the East to represent East Egg with similar characteristics. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are the examples of the people typically found in East Egg; they have great wealth and representative of the old money that exists in East Egg. The people located in the East Egg are considered as sophisticated people, with great wealth and material possessions. The Buchanans and other East Eggers represent the people who have accomplished the American Dream, some from their own means, but the majority of the East Eggers acquired their wealth through their families and possess old money. They project themselves above everyone else and use their power to dominate over the less fortunate like Mr. Wilson in the Valley of Ashes, because of their perceived wealth and status from their accomplishment of the American

Dream.
“But over the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it,” (23) lay all the people who have been pushed down and considered insignificant by the wealthy East and West Eggers. The Valley of Ashes comprises of hard-working people who are actively pursuing and working toward achieving the American Dream and one day rise to great wealth. The Valley of Ashes represents the dreams of the people, but they are all stuck in the lowest class of society pushed down by all the others who have achieved and accomplished more of the American Dream. The Valley of Ashes is devoid of any color, just like the lack of wealth and happiness. The Valley of Ashes is considered the waste grounds for industry and the waste product of capitalism. The environment is bleak and polluted and is unsafe, with ashes symbolically representing the death of generations of American Dreams and imprisoning them over generations. The Valley of Ashes represents the failed American dream of many, but in West Egg where people were able to accomplish the dream and remove themselves from the ashes, was Jay Gatsby.
West Egg is also another representation of the geography and the cultural identity of America as a whole. Fitzgerald uses the meaning of West as a place of new discovery and redefines oneself. The West Egg is comprised of people like Jay Gatsby that recently acquired their wealth and had worked hard to accomplish the American Dream. The contrast between the East and West Egg are also cultural differences, in East Egg the people are more sophisticated while the people of West Egg are considered lacking in refinement and class. The inequalities present between East and West Egg cause dislike between the different societies and display the attitudes felt on the basis of achieving their wealth and accomplishment of the American Dream.
Fitzgerald uses the powerful empowering and destructive forces of the American Dream to show the impact it can have on one person, like Jay Gatsby. The settings of New York show the strict attitudes that divide the East and West Egg from their respected acquisition of wealth and Gatsby’s reason for residing in West Egg. They also push aside the people residing in the Valley of Ashes and they stay stuck for generations trying to chase the American Dream. Jay Gatsby had worked hard and ultimately accomplished the American Dream of rising to the top of the socioeconomic class and had everything, but Gatsby had been blinded by his idea that money can make him happy and in his failed chase after Daisy. Jay Gatsby’s ultimate dream had crumbled and the differences in the three different societies show the impacts of the powerful and pervasive American Dream in America’s cultural identity.