The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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Gatsby tries to do anything he can to be with his one true love. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, depicts a man, James Gatz or Jay Gatsby, acquiring wealth all to impress the woman of his dreams. He does everything he possibly can to try and get her attention; he buys a mansion, throws elaborate parties, buys fancy cars and clothes but fails to live a long life with her. Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the readers through text that the American Dream is not attainable. Jay Gatsby thought his purpose in life was to gain wealth to be able to be with Daisy. For him, this is the American Dream. The book introduces Gatsby as, “James Gatz- that was really, or at least legally, his name. He had changed it at the age of seventeen and at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career” (Fitzgerald 98). Jay’s friend, Dan Cody, helped Jay start off his career so he could become wealthy, which the epitome of the American Dream. After Gatsby was rich, his friends walked towards the back of the house and, “The gardener saw Wilson’s body a little way off in …show more content…

As characters walk into the valley of ashes they see, “But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg” (Fitzgerald 23). The Eyes is Doctor T.J. Eckleburg represents God watching over Gatsby. God is depicted as looking down on Gatsby, so he kept throwing obstacles in his way. “At eleven o'clock a man in a raincoat, dragging a lawn-mower, tapped at my front door and said that Mr. Gatsby had sent him over to cut my grass” (Fitzgerald 83). Gatsby had invited Daisy over to his home for one of his parties. He thought that everything had to be perfect so Daisy will except him, even going as far as having his neighbors lawn cut. Everything in the book can correlate to Gatsby’s unattainable

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