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The american dream impact on society
Wealth in the great Gatsby and Fitzgerald life
The effect of the American dream
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The American Dream is a way of life and ideal that all people have strived for in their lives. Its meaning and hope is in finding well-found success, wealth and power through independence and self-determination. The purchasing of a home, possessing material items, and living a life of leisure has all evolved into the realities of the American dream. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the American dream is shown as a system that is corrupted by the pursuit of wealth, greed and ego, which undermines the good and empowering faith and morals of people and society. This corrupted behavior is shown through the characterizations of the wealthy Tom and Daisy Buchanan, who use people and things and treat them worthlessly and are fated for the Valley of Ashes, a crumbling and gloomy scene where smoke and ashes …show more content…
(27) Both Daisy and Tom were born into great wealth, always living lives of luxury and opulence. They have fully achieved the American dream that all people strive for and live very coveted lives. However, both their characters are so corrupted and selfish, that the good faith and morals that should be led in their privileged lives are hindered. Daisy lives her privileged life with no purpose; she drifts within her life and takes no hold of her priorities. Her own perspective on life is shown as she introduces her daughter. Although she shows affection to her daughter, it is used to boast about her and show her off. (123) Her surroundings have no meaning to her. She uses the people around her to fit into the social scene and boast her wealth and fake happiness, which obstructs her morals and emotions as a human being. Daisy valued life holds no true meaning for her. She treats others horribly without a care in the world. While in the car with
From the outside, Daisy seems like the demure wife of a wealthy ex-football player, Tom Buchannan. The relationship the two share is far from a perfect marriage, but it is functional for upper-class society. Daisy often speaks nonsense, putting off the impression that she lacks intelligence, but there are moments when Daisy shows her true nature. The first moment occurs when Daisy shares
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 cause 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
Tom Buchanan is arguably the character who possesses the most corrupt set of morals. His actions can be described as “some of the most immoral and senseless actions in the entire novel” (“Ranking…). He cheats on Daisy “simply because he can” (“Ranking…”). This shows that he has no care or regard for anyone but himself. He is going to do what he wants no matter how it affects other people. It is this mindset that causes the deaths of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Mr. Wilson. He knows this, but “he runs away from the entire situation… as if he was never part of it in the first place” (“Ranking…”). He and Daisy mess things up and leave. They go back to their normal, careless life of wealth and leave someone else to fix their mess (Fitzgerald 187-188). Together Tom and Daisy are absolutely incorrigible people with no regard for others.
Through the use of symbolism and critique, F. Scott Fitzgerald is able to elucidate the lifestyles and dreams of variously natured people of the 1920s in his novel, The Great Gatsby. He uses specific characters to signify diverse groups of people, each with their own version of the “American Dream.” Mostly all of the poor dream of transforming from “rags to riches”, while some members of the upper class use other people as their motivators. In any case, no matter how obsessed someone may be about their “American Dream”, Fitzgerald reasons that they are all implausible to attain.
Money also influenced Daisy’s husband Tom. Tom has always been wealthy. He was born in to the wealth, and raised in it. Tom’s money was considered to be old money that also said that he was influential. Tom looked at people that did not have money as if they were no ones. Tom had a mistress that did not have money, but he would have never thought of marrying her because she was poor. Tom treats people how ever he wants because he has the money and they do not.
Daisy’s sense of happiness is based on her materialism; resulting in her lack of wisdom or empathy regarding human relationship. She disregards the welfare of other human beings, because she only cares about the things that Tom gives her; the house, money, and jewelry. Furthermore, Daisy's focus on materialism causes her to act out like a selfish human being through her thoughtless lifestyle. Nick states,
Tom and Daisy are "old money", rich and from old established families living on East Egg, which the millionaires inhabit. The East symbolizes fashionable life, sophistication, the "modern society" and the land where anything can happen. This is the world of brutality, corruption, carelessness, materialism and failure of emotion. By moving to the East, the Buchanans lose contact with the deeper values. They are superficial, aimless, irresponsible, empty and lonely. They have no desires, their talks are meaningless and their spiritual values are forgotten or dumped.
While everyone has a different interpretation of the "American Dream," some people use it as an excuse to justify their own greed and selfish desires. Two respected works of modern American literature, The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, give us insight into how the individual interpretation and pursuit of the "American Dream" can produce tragic results. Jay Gatsby, from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, built his "American Dream" upon the belief that wealth would win him acceptance. In pursuit of his dream, Gatsby spent his life trying to gain wealth and the refinement he assumes it entails. Jay Gatsby, lacking true refinement, reflects the adolescent image of the wealthy, and "[springs] from his Platonic conception of himself" (Fitzgerald 104).
Daisy also exhibits her shallowness when she is too restless to wait for her 'love', Gatsby, to return from he war, and she marries Tom. Her most drastic immoral action is committed when she runs over Myrtle and does not even bother to stop and help a person that is 'below' her. Daisy's husband, Tom shows his ridiculous morality in different ways. One way is his search for power, which is shown most through his affair with Myrtle and his possessiveness. He evidently feels further domination and masculinity when he has her, a woman of lower class, as his mistress. Secondly, Tom Buchanan is shallow enough to think that everything and everyone he has in his life are part of his property. This increases his 'power' and makes him feel as if he is truly successful. This couple, Tom and Daisy certainly contain serious corruptness due to their shallowness and self-indulgence.
When the first settlers came to America many years ago, they found freedom and opportunity. With hard work and determination an average man or woman could be prosperous. This concept was not only revolutionary in theory, but has proven to be true for many successful individuals. This idea has come to be known as the American Dream. Its foundation was based on good ethics; however, with the passing of time it has become distorted. The American Dream no longer stands for equal opportunity and hard work; it involves wealth, false happiness, materialistic possessions and high social status. Individuals who have achieved the materialistic American Dream give the appearance of perfection. However, for many, their lives are not as ideal as what they seem. Issues such as sexual abuse, mental illness, alcoholism, adultery, greed and restlessness, affect the lives of even those who appear to live the American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald?s novels, The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night, the characters Daisy Buchanan and Nicole Diver give the appearance of a charmed existence, but it is in fact flawed. Their apparently perfect but actually flawed lives are shown in their childhood, their marriages, their adult lives and their past relationships.
Gatsby tried to repeat his past, while Willy attempted to create a new past. The lack of control over their goals and dreams leads to their downfall in the end. The two novels show the various points of the American dream; either in pursuit of happiness, or in pursuit of material wealth. In the Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, many had pursued the American dream of material wealth and others could not. Tom and Daisy Buchanan are a married couple that seem to have everything they could possibly want and need.
Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich couple, seem to have everything they could possibly want. Though their lives are full of anything you could imagine, they are unhappy and seek to change, Tom drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) just so he has something to talk about. Even though Tom is married to Daisy he has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and has apartment with her in New York.. Daisy is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her relationships with Tom or, Gatsby are seen, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom is having an affair, yet she doesn't leave him even when she hears about Gatsby loving her. Daisy lets Gatsby know that she too is in love with him but cant bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy forever leaves Gatsby for her old life of comfort. Daisy and Tom are perfect examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, and without purpose.
The American Dream is a concept that has been wielded in American Literature since its beginnings. The ‘American Dream’ ideal follows the life of an ordinary man wanting to achieve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The original goal of the American dream was to pursue freedom and a greater good, but throughout time the goals have shifted to accumulating wealth, high social status, etc. As such, deplorable moral and social values have evolved from a materialistic pursuit of happiness. In “Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity”, Roland Marchand describes a man that he believed to be the prime example of a 1920’s man. Marchand writes, “Not only did he flourish in the fast-paced, modern urban milieu of skyscrapers, taxicabs, and pleasure- seeking crowds, but he proclaimed himself an expert on the latest crazes in fashion, contemporary lingo, and popular pastimes.” (Marchand) This description shows material success as the model for the American Dream. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the characterization of his characters through the use of symbols and motifs to emphasize the corruption of the American Dream.
The characters living in the eggs are very prone to corruption because it is all around them. Living lavish lifestyles allows them to bend the rules of society and play the game of life in anyway that they please. Of course, this kind of freedom comes with a high price, often the result of the corruption of these freedoms. Tom is able to get away with the corrupt act of adultery throughout the story, but it comes with a price that doesn’t realize. When Daisy is on the verge of breaking things off with him to go to Gatsby, he says, "And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time." (251-252) This quote reveals that after years of this corruption, he has lost the ability to feel remorse for the wrongdoings that he has committed. The continuous corruption of adultery has created an unsympathetic man of Tom.
When Myrtle tried to escape from the ashes by trying to be with a rich man like Tom, she dies. This embellishes how The American dream is unattainable. When Tom goes and sees George, you can see how the higher classes look down on the lower classes because of their different social positions. The higher-class people such as, Tom, Daisy, and Jordan represent the unstructured bodies of ashes within the valley. They are inconsiderate and conceited people arising from the dead ashes, changing the American