Nickel And Dimed Essay

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a book that goes into various literary genres and presents the concept of the American dream in a unique way. In the nonfiction book Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Enhrenreich describes how she quit her job as a normal author with a doctorate to work as a minimum-wage laborer across the country. The idea that the American Dream is a myth is explored in both Nickel and Dimed and The Great Gatsby. Although they both show it in different ways, they both eventually reach the same idea: although one may think they have achieved the perfect “American Dream,” it doesn’t actually exist according to these books, and it is just an idea. Both The Great Gatsby and Nickel and Dimed explore this through the idea that …show more content…

Both books include this idea of there not being one American dream and that it is mostly a myth for a lot of people. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby has the dream of getting Daisy back by gaining a ton of wealth, which eventually came short of becoming reality. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara comes across a lot of people who do work for other people’s benefit but are stuck where they are and won’t be able to reach what they think is the American dream. There are many ways Nickel and Dimed and The Great Gatsby can prove that the American dream is a myth, and another way is the blurred vision of wealth. The second point that shows the American Dream as a myth is the blurred vision of the idea of wealth. Many people believe that wealth equals happiness and solves all issues, which isn’t true. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has the farfetched idea that if he amassed an immense amount of wealth, he could win over Daisy from Tom even though they are married. “She never loved you, do you hear?” he cried. “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for

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