The phrase the American dream is contradictory to it’s meaning. The American dream was for most people just that, a dream. However, these very people had their hopes dashed and were forever lost. One could argue that a much more fitting and appropriate name for the American dream might as well be the American nightmare. In the 1920’s and early 30’s, the American dream was a beacon of hope as well as prosperity for anyone unfortunate enough to fall under it’s alluring curse, with an exception of a handful of people. What was given instead of this promise of wealth and dreams, what was given was the deterioration of dreams, and usually lives. Sadly, Lennie Small, from Of Mice and Men as well as Jay Gatsby, from The Great Gatsby was not the exceptions.
To better understand Lennie Small, a poor mentally challenged farm hand’s dream, it would be a good idea to learn a few important characteristics about Lennie Small. Owens Louis states how Lennie is constantly compared to an animal or described as childlike (147), this shows that Lennie’s mind was not like most people’s mind, he was mentally ill. Lennie’s psyche results in Lennie acting as a ten-year-old child in a grown man’s body. Despite Lennie’s childlike nature he was still incredibly dangerous. Owens also states that Lennie is monstrously powerful and that he has a problem with killing things (148). What can be observed here is that Lennie is a force to be reckon with. Now that there is a better understanding of who Lennie is, it will make understanding his dream all the easier.
Lennie had one dream and one dream only, that was to own his very own farm with his best, and only friend, George Milton. Joseph Frotenrose supports this by saying that George, Lennie, as well as a few ...
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...at the Daisy that he once loved is no longer the woman he sees now, says Leone Bruno (99). The sad, but undeniable truth is that Lennie as well as Gatsby’s dreams were both inevitably unachievable from the start, as is usually the American dream.
The dreams of people are the most important things to anyone. Mainly due to the fact that dreams make up whom a person is at heart. An infinite number of people have had and will continue to have their lives destroyed because they chased a dream, and unfortunately they didn’t run fast enough. Among these people are Lennie Small and Jay Gatsby. These two gentlemen had the displeasure of chasing a dream that was unachievable even from the very beginning. This eventually led to the death of these two young people. In the end, a more precise name for the American dream just keeps coming to mind. That is The American Nightmare.
A friendship is not all they have together, Lennie and George have dreams. Lennie and George have worked up the idea of owning their own piece of land together. Lennie wants to tend the rabbits (Steinbeck 11) and George just wants to be his own boss (Steinbeck 14). The only problem with their dream is that it is unrealistic. They cannot buy land to tend and just go days without tending it because they do not want to. Like many traveling farm hands during the 1930s, George and Lennie think they could work up enough money to buy their own place and not give a “hoot” about anyone but their selves. Although their dream is unattaina...
The American Dream is starting with nothing and through hard work and determination one can achieve millions of dollars and all the happiness one can handle. This may not be true, if that person tries to buy the past to regain the happiness he will never succeed and mostly likely end up very unhappy. A good example of this in fiction is F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald criticizes the American dream in his novel, The Great Gatsby, by showing Jay Gatsby's tragic flaw, his belief that money can buy happiness and his love for Daisy.
The American Dream as portrayed in the 1920s is money, fame, and love. Everyone wants to have money and be known and loved. It’s not always easy to have all and in some stories it’s not possible to have it all. Therefore it’s called the “American Dream,” with the word dream because it can mean what people hope for. In the stories The Great Gatsby and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” the characters strive for the American Dream.
This dream is mostly expressed through Lennie but George is the one who supports Lennie. Lennie is the most dedicated to the dream. This dedication is shown when he said “An’ live off the fatta the lan. ”(Steinbeck,14) This proven by critics like Kevin Attell who said ”This is the kind of life that George and Lennie dream of living.
...aterial success blind him, and give a false vision of him being so close to the attainment of his goal. While in reality his dream could have never come true as toward the end of the novel, Daisy moves far away from New York with Tom. This leaves Gatsby alone with his wealth an no one to share it with.
Another is simply the hope of survival, as shown in the book Lord of the Flies. Whatever the dream, the most interesting thing that can be read or written about it is the drive of people to attain it. This is best shown in The Great Gatsby. The Pursuit of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby The Great Gatsby,a novel by F,Scott Fitzgerald,is about the American Dream,and the downfall of the people who try to reach it. The American Dream means something different to different people,but in The Great Gatsby,for Jay Gatsby,the subject of the book,the dream is that through acquiring wealth and power,one can also gain happiness.
The American Dream started off as propaganda in order to make the American people of the early twentieth century work harder to build a successful economy. The idea of the American Dream is that every American citizen has an equal opportunity of making money along with owning a large house, some land, and having a family with kids. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates that the American Dream, no matter how simple is impossible to achieve. As everyone has their own interpretation of the American Dream, Steinbeck uses George and Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s Wife to demonstrate how the American Dream is impossible to achieve and how important the dream was for people so they could carry on with their lives.
The Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture defined the American Dream as “the idea that the US is a place where everyone has the chance of becoming rich and successful.”But those principles have changed. It has become something that is further out of reach for most people without facing misfortune. It has been tainted by greed, power, anger, and jealously. J. G. Ballard said “the American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. [It is] no more. It 's over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.” The American Dream has causes destruction. The American Dream is disillusionment.
F. Scott Fitzgerald penned The Great Gatsby in the midst of the Roarin’ Twenties. It was a period of cultural explosion, rags-to-riches histories, and a significant shift in the ideals of the American Dream. Fitzgerald’s characters all aspired to fill an American Dream of sorts, though their dreams weren’t the conventional ones. In the novel, the American Dream did a sort of one-eighty. Instead of looking west, people went east to New York in hopes of achieving wealth. The original principals of the Dream faded away, in their place, amorality and corruption. The fulfillment of one’s own American Dream is often marked by corruption, dishonesty, and hope.
First, what is the American dream? According to David Wallechinsky, “the traditional American Dream is based on the belief that hardworking citizens can improve their lives, pay their monthly bills without worry, give their children a start to an even better life, and still save enough to live comfortably after they retire” (1). “The American Dream” states, “It has always represented the possibility for individuals to succeed and live a life of wealth and comfort, made possible by both the political and economic attitudes in the USA and the individual’s own hard work” (1). Daniella Nicole adds that “in years past, chasing the American Dream meant the sky was the limit. . .” (1).
The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its impossible goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is used in many novels. This dream is different for different people; but, in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream; and, in order to do this, he must have wealth and power.
The American dream is something that has been epically built up in the media and in each individual Americans thoughts. To some the American dream is the pursuit of happiness, to others the shallowness of wealth. In the Novel the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and movie Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, which is based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Characters fall short of their own views of the American dream.
“The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. The American Dream, a long-standing ideal, embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal.
The American dream never died, but did it ever exist in the first place? In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the American dream is important to a man named Jay Gatsby. As a young boy Gatsby grew up having large dreams and goals. He left his home and his family to do whatever he needed to achieve his dreams. As a young adult, he still strived for the success even if it meant ending something in a tragedy. Gatsby is a great man that is ambitious, wealthy and, generous.
When the term ‘American Dream’ was first mentioned in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, he described it as “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.” (Clark). When Adams mentioned the term, it had much more of an idealistic meaning, rather than the materialistic meaning it has in modern society. At the time of it’s mention, the dream meant that prosperity was available to everyone. In the beginning, the American Dream simply promised a country in which people had the chance to work their way up through their own labor and hard work (Kiger). Throughout history, the basis of the dream has always been the same for each individual person. It