The American Dream: Jon Krakauer, And Ralph Waldo Emerson

Georgia Moran

Mrs. Hinds

English III Period 1

29 March 2017

Chasing a Fantasy

If the American Dream was to have one single perception amongst people, how would it be conveyed? Today, this ideal would most commonly possess a traditional family plentiful in extra curriculars and evening dinners. However, the topic itself is entirely subjective. The American Dream promises the hope that one will achieve financial success, power, and eternal happiness through hard work and dedication. It is essentially a facade that ignores issues like systematic racism and socioeconomic inequality. Authors such as Frederick Douglas, Dick Gregory, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jon Krakauer, and Ralph Waldo Emerson illustrate and acknowledge the differences in one’s

The pursuit of success oftentimes forces one to compromise one’s morals. Jay Gatsby is a prime example of someone who alters their identity entirely to achieve what they perceive as happiness. Roger Pearson understood the complexity of this era as he states that, “To Fitzgerald, the long prophesied American Dream had its fulfillment in the “orgiastic’ part of the WWI period known as the ‘Roaring Twenties’” (Pearson ##). Fitzgerald created Gatsby as a man who grew up poor, but successfully achieves the American Dream of wealth, status, and power, only to be left with nothing in the end. Gatsby’s change of identity began when he decided to recreate himself to be the “son of God… at the age of seventeen… [when] he witnessed the beginning of his career” (Fitzgerald 188-189). His fascination to live out his alter ego disguises his lonely demise. It is apparent here because, “Fitzgerald’s unique expression of the American Dream lacks the optimism and the sense of fulfillment” that most people would hope to come out of wealth and power. To reach his success, Gatsby had to abandon his past, ultimately destroying his old self. Barbara Will suggests that his, “rejection of family and original name [was] a necessary precondition to his later ‘glory’ as a wealthy, upwardly-mobile adult” (Will ##). Severing ties to family to achieve wealth is a debatable topic since wealth does not always lead to happiness.

Transcendentalist, Christopher McCandless fought for his freedom from society through nonconformity and solidarity. Krakauer’s interpretation of McCandless is similar to Gatsby in they way they both detach themselves from their past lives to strive for the achievement of their dream. Chris believes in the idea that there has to be more to life than what society has presented to him. Emerson embraces a similar idea when he stresses how that which is directly in front of us is not the defining element to being in the world. Chris became weary of simply coexisting amongst his peers and following a routine; so, he took initiative in his beliefs and started a search for the 'truth.' He became a nonconformist paralleling Emerson's beliefs as, "whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist" (Emerson 538). Unlike Gatsby, Chris did not look to other people for answers, but believed he could find it through the world and himself. People generally resort to the norm of things and "remain heirs to that early modern society sense of antagonism between self and society" (Zuckerman ##). The fight against conformity is a path people occasionally choose to take if they seek authenticity and a bigger meaning to life. Though most people simply conform because it appears an easier route to the fulfillment of their perceived dream. At the end of Chris's quest, now lonely and afraid, he realizes