Colton Chilton Period 3 American Literature Ms.Pearce The Great Gatsby, The Jungle Comparison The Jungle and The Great Gatsby were books envisioning the two sides of the American dream. The Jungle showed the poverty-stricken world created by the initial boom of the industrial revolution and the struggle just to make ends meet in the early 1900s. This poverty seems to be emphasized in the reading of The Great Gatsby detailing the unheard of riches held by some in the 1920s. But these two nearly polar opposites show the struggle and hollowness of truly reaching the American dream. In neither of the books are the primary characters able to reach this dream in the same way that the world has told them that they would be able to. Each character …show more content…
fails to a different life to try to reach the dream. This pursuit is central to the exploration of the truth behind the American dream. The American dream is a promise spread through the world of what the American life was like. This dream was the dream of a better life including a home good work and a higher overall standard of living. Throughout the early 1900s as the American industrial revolution began to blossom the world looked and flocked to the beauty of the life here when they arrived the felt the thorns of the rose. The people that immigrated here soon found that the money did not stretch to where they stories said that it would. jobs were scarce and even those who found one were often treated with barely enough pay to keep them alive. As this time progressed and two decades passed leading into the 1920s the American dream had become a slightly more tangible reality. It came with a wave of people reaching this dream. This was still not an easy task and many Americans could not reach this status through legitimate avenues. To the vast majority of people, the American dream was just that as it is now, a dream. Through The Jungle, the American dream is exposed for being fake throughout the book. It shows the face of a true capitalist society. The book shows the readers not only the struggle of the average worker and the poverty-stricken life they truly live but how the rich are puppeteers pulling the strings. It is said by Jurgis that the city is "owned by an oligarchy of businessmen" (Sinclair 211). These businessmen control the entire industry and the city with the power that they hold. These businessmen are what separates the American dream from reality for millions of people. The society portrayed is one of nearly pure capitalism. In this, the workers were paid so little to keep the dream just in reach but never a reality. They treated the workers like this because "there were always a hundred men for every chance"(Sinclair 168). There is always someone waiting to take your place and what you have and corporations know this, and the creations of oligarchies to minimize wages and keep working conditions poor kept the rich rich and the poor poor. This action represented the exact opposite of the idealistic American dream. Over the next two decades, this would slightly change federal regulations began to keep businesses from some of this and force better working conditions as the roaring twenties began. As the roaring twenties are in full swing and a large boom of people begin to legitimately reach the American dream.
In The Great Gatsby, no one is a larger symbol of the American dream than Gatsby himself. He begins mysteriously at first but as it progresses that how he achieved the American dream was not through legitimate avenues. This is started to be exposed by his associates, such the bootlegger Wolfsheim he is described to nick as a gambler, the dishonesty is exposed with the statement "He's the man who fixed the World's Series back in 1919.", it shows gatsby's associates are not all of high class and honesty. As the book continues, the source of gatsby's true income is proven not all be legitimate. He tells of the was in which he first strived for legitimate reaches for that of the American dream, but found it was out of reach. This forced him to an illegitimate source of income or to continue to live in a struggling class of the average American. The severity of the actions these two have taken is expressed after Gatsby's death when Nick tries to persuade Wolfinsheire to attend Gatsby's funeral. During this encounter nick refers to him as Gatsby's best friend, Wolfinshire responds "I can't get mixed up in it"(183). They had to perform such shady activities to achieve the American dream that he was too scared to attend his best friends funeral. This speaks volumes of that America and modern
America. Through the actions taken by both books, we can see the struggle and the measures taken to try to achieve the American dream the lies of the American dream is exposed. Through the time between the novels, the struggle to reach the dream hasn't changed, but the dream has. The American dream was slowly moved and kept out of reach of the common American because at the end that is what it is a dream. The people of America continue to strive for this dream, but this strive is what destroyed it in the beginning. The ideals of the American dream is wanting what you can not have, and the measures in which people are willing to strive to reach this is what crippled it. As Azar Nafisi said "the negative side of the American dream comes when people pursue success at any cost" he continues to say that it "in turn destroys the vision and the dream". These books don't simply depict the death of the American dream but the destruction and reason for the death of the American dream. Works cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner, 2013. Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Dover Publications, 2001. Nafisi, Azar. Negativity in America
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle both portray drastically different social aspects of the early 1900s in America. Together, they both expose the unfavorable aspects of the new, modern society, that is not often portrayed in history. Although both The Jungle and The Great Gatsby are pieces of fiction, they portray an accurate depiction of the physical and the moral challenges people experienced during the growing industrialization in America. However, The Jungle's plot involved more factual evidence and the environment is a more accurate representation of the time period, whereas The Great Gatsby portrayed a slightly less realistic representation of that era.
The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, deals heavily with the concept of the American Dream as it existed during the Roaring Twenties, and details its many flaws through the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and ambitious entrepreneur who comes to a tragic end after trying to win the love of the moneyed Daisy Buchanan, using him to dispel the fantastic myth of the self-made man and the underlying falsities of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s close association with the American Dream, however, Fitzgerald presents the young capitalist as a genuinely good person despite the flaws that caused his undoing. This portrayal of Gatsby as a victim of the American Dream is made most clear during his funeral, to which less than a handful of people attend. Gatsby makes many mistakes throughout the novel, all of which Fitzgerald uses these blunders as a part of his thematic deconstruction of the American Dream.
The idea and definition of the American dream has been continually changing based on culture and time period. Many people classify it as the big house, with the white picket fence, the kids playing in the yard and a happy spouse. With this perception many believe this dream comes without struggle but in the novel The Great Gatsby, the characters emphasize that the hard ships don’t always make the American dream as dreamlike as others recognize. In a quote said by Craig L. Thomas, he states “You stuff somebody into the American dream and it becomes a prison.” For many characters the lifestyle they lead others to believe was so perfect was actually a nightmare that they could not wake up from.
The American Dream is the concept that anyone, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in his or her life through perseverance and hard work. It is commonly perceived as someone who was born and starts out as poor but ambitious, and works hard enough to achieve wealth, prosperity, happiness, and stability. Clearly, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to personify the destruction of the American Dream Gatsby started out as a poor farming boy, meticulously planning his progression to become a great man. When Gatsby’s father showed Nick the journal where Gatsby wrote his resolution, he says, “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he 's got about improving his mind?” (182). The written resolution demonstrates how ambitious and innocent Gatsby was in pursuing his dreams and how much he wanted to improve himself that his father applauded him, which once characterized the process of pursuing the American Dream. While pursuing Daisy (Gatsby’s American Dream), Gatsby becomes corrupt and destroys himself. He did not achieve his fortune through honest hard work, but through dishonesty and illegal activities. Furthermore, Gatsby has a large, extravagant mansion, drives flashy cars, throws lavish parties filled with music and
Individuals often tend to forget what reality truly is and chase a dream which is not real. In the process, they forget the difference between right and wrong and engage in immoral actions in order to acquire their goal. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, individuals have the desire to chase the American Dream. A dream which revolves around discovery, individualism, and happiness; that a person from any social class can potentially become a wealthy individual. However, the American Dream is not factual and causes individuals to become someone who they are not and it leads to corruption and decay. This is shown when Gatsby lies to others about how he made his fortune, Daisy marries for wealth and
The American dream has been a tangible idea, greatly sought after by many over the course of American history. The dream has eluded many, to strive for success in America’s open markets, and become a self-made man from the sweat of one’s brow. The idea of becoming self-sufficient, and having limitless dreams that take one as far as they are willing to imagine is captured very differently from The Great Gatsby to A Raisin in the Sun. Both novels seem to have the American dream as their subject, but both end up having very different outcomes to how one achieves it, and if the dream is truly in existence, namely with the characters of Jay Gatsby and Walter Younger. The books mainly brush upon the idea of what the American dream truly is, how one achieves the dream, and what the real fulfillment of the dream encompasses.
At the roaring ages of 1920s, the booming economy brings up the notion of American dream. People chase the American dream in pursuit of happiness while some of them believe that wealth will fix everything in life. For the same reason, they are wiling to idolize Gatsby. Chasers are inspired by achievers just like how Nick is fascinated by Gatsby before knowing him .Nick’s fascination turns into idolization after Gatsby invites Nick to his party. Nick describes Gatsby had “one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life(Ch.3).” Such description unifies the appearance of Gatsby with people’s expectation of a man who accomplished the American dream.
As Matthew J. Bruccoli noted: “An essential aspect of the American-ness and the historicity of The Great Gatsby is that it is about money. The Land of Opportunity promised the chance for financial success.” (p. xi) The Great Gatsby is indeed about money, but it also explores its aftermath of greed. Fitzgerald detailed the corruption, deceit and illegality of life that soon pursued “the dream”. However, Fitzgerald entitles the reader to the freedom to decide whether or not the dream was ever free of corruption.
The Great Gatsby is an American novel of hope and longing, and is one of the very few novels in which “American history finds its figurative form (Churchwell 292).” Gatsby’s “greatness” involves his idealism and optimism for the world, making him a dreamer of sorts. Yet, although the foreground of Fitzgerald’s novel is packed with the sophisticated lives of the rich and the vibrant colors of the Jazz Age, the background consists of the Meyer Wolfsheims, the Rosy Rosenthals, the Al Capones, and others in the vicious hunt for money and the easy life. Both worlds share the universal desire for the right “business gonnegtion,” and where the two worlds meet at the borders, these “gonnegtions” are continually negotiated and followed (James E. Miller). Gatsby was a character meant to fall at the hands of the man meant to be a reality check to the disillusions of the era.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
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. In the novel, Gatsby, a wealthy socialite pursues his dream, Daisy. In the process of pursuing Daisy, Gatsby betrays his morals and destroys himself. Through the eyes of the narrator, Nick, one sees the extent of the corruption Gatsby is willing to undertake in order to achieve his dream. Although Fitzgerald applauds the American Dream he warns against the dangers of living in a world full of illusions and deceit; a trait common during the Roaring 20s. The language and plot devices Fitzgerald uses convey that lies and facades, which were common during the Guided Age, destroys one’s own character and morals. Through Fitzgerald use of symbolism, expectations, and relationships, he explores the American dream, and how it is an illusion that corrupts and destroys lives.
In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald explores the idea of the American Dream as well as the portrayal of social classes. Fitzgerald carefully sets up his novel into distinct social groups but, in the end, each group has its own problems to contend with, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious place the world really is. By creating two distinct social classes ‘old money’ and ‘new money’, Fitzgerald sends strong messages about the elitism underlying and moral corruption society. The idea of the American dream is the ideal that opportunity is available to any American, allowing their highest aspirations and goals to be achieved. In the case of The Great Gatsby it centres on the attainment of wealth and status to reach certain positions in life,
The American dream is an ideal in American literature that has been around for centuries. An idea that your average Joe can go from rags to riches, while finding love and having high social status on the way up the ladder. The American dream can be based off the idea of self-reliance, freedom, and just having a general dream to do something better for your life or for your family’s life. In The Great Gatsby, however, the American dream was more focused on materialistic items such as big houses, nice clothes, and fancy cars. Jay Gatsby started as a poor man in his early life, but ended up being quite wealthy. In his early life, he was very dedicated to his dreams, even writing a daily schedule to better himself. But once he acquired a great deal of wealth, he became blinded by his need for luxurious things, and never truly figured out that money cannot buy love and it cannot buy happiness. That instance is what made the novel tragic. Gatsby thought that having wealth meant he had a chance at getting his old love, Daisy, back.
Gatsby can be characterized as being ignorant. He assumes that wealth and possession equates to happiness and harmony. Gatsby’s American dream can be seen as being corrupted by his surroundings of wealth. Although as wealthy as his surroundings, his money does not necessarily mean he matches well with the East Eggers he is associated with. He spends enormous amounts of money, yet no one really likes him. He entertains large groups of people in hope of attaining something greater.
The American dream was a vision shared by the American people who desired their land to be improved and wealthier for every individual, with the opportunity for everyone in accordance to achievement. The dream is based on every individual working hard to become successful with an abundance of money, a nice house, two children and a high-quality job. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American dream symbolizes being free to come and go with the river, not to have restrictions, and to take pleasure in the wide-open Western edge. The dream’s beauty and liberty is depicted as a requirement for Huck, and for Jim who is a slave. The book shows that the American dream consequently turns out to be a celebration of freedom, for physical organization and rules, and also chauvinism of the Southern society in the slavery period. However, The Great Gatsby, which was written by Fitzgerald, is a figurative meditation on the 1920s breakdown of American dreams, in a period of unparalleled wealth and material surplus. Fitzgerald depicts the 1920s as a period of rotten moral and social value that is shown through America’s sarcasm, gluttony, and empty chase of enjoyment.