The American Dream In The Great Gatsby Essay

The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. What is the "American Dream"? The characterization of Gatsby in the Great Gatsby represents and undermines it. Although "The Great Gatsby" is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. 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 and 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.

This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could have a better understanding of what American dream is all about, in those down-to-earth Americans' point of view. The characterization of Gatsby is a representative figure among Americans as he devoted his whole life to achieve his dream. However, pathetically he failed to make it come true at the end, just like most of the Americans, who misunderstood what the real meaning of American Dream is.

Jay Gatsby, the main character of the story, is one character who longs for the past. Oddly enough he devotes most of his life trying to recapture it and, finally, dies in its pursuit. In the past, Jay had a love affair with the affluent Daisy. At a very early age Gatsby vowed to love and to marry Daisy. Know...

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...I had known that Daisy and Tom were ‘rich snobs’ but had presumed it was just their way, and not that their attitudes were contributed to by the society and time in which they lived.

Overall, a great majority can be learned from reading The Great Gatsby as well as reading analyses by literary critics. Being able to comprehend and understand another person’s perspective can only add to a person’s knowledge to draw upon. I can better understand the novel by learning how other people interpret the meaning of it. The idea of the American Dream still holds true in today's time, be it wealth, love, or fame. But one thing never changes about the American Dream; everyone desires something in life, and everyone, somehow, strives to get it. Gatsby is a prime example of pursuing the American Dream, as well as the prime example that money is also the root of all evil.