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Importance of dreams
Fitzgerald's view on the American dream
Fitzgerald's view on the American dream
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When people think of their dreams, they often include money, success, and material prosperity. The “Great American Dream” is something that many people are familiar with, but it does not have a clear definition. Everyone has their own definition of a dream. People often include freedom, money, or power in them. Although there may be many different definitions for the “Great American Dream” not all of them are noble, or correct. Misguided dreams lead to pain; in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie characters who follow their misconstrued dreams struggle towards happiness.
Throughout literature, the “Great American Dream” is portrayed as many different things. The reality of it is that the “Great American Dream” should be a person’s ability to follow his/her dreams, no matter what they consist of. While controversial, it only seems fair to let everyone have a shot at whatever it is they want to do. In The Great Gatsby, dreams play a big role in the plot. Gatsby’s dream prevents him from seeing the truth that Daisy is a bad person. This is obvious when Nick tells Gatsby, “You can’t repeat the past,” and Gatsby replies, “Can’t repeat the past? … Why of course you can!” (110). Gatsby is very passionate about his dream. Unfortunately, his dream is completely false. While Gatsby only wants to be with Daisy, he does not realize how utterly mistaken he is. He puts so much devotion into reuniting with Daisy that he becomes oblivious to the fact that Daisy is not who he thinks she is. Gatsby paints an impossible picture of Daisy that she will never be able to live up to. Apart from Gatsby, Amanda, in The Glass Menagerie, also deals with false dreams. Although Amanda’s dream for her children’s h...
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...r lack of a spine leads to her unhappiness.
People who cannot see the difference between a good, noble dream and an immoral dream that leads to nothing worth fighting for are in danger of living sad lives. Likewise, people who fail to strive for anything are in danger of living meaningless lives. Dreams can be both misconstrued and ignored completely. Both actions lead to inevitable misery. When looked at from an unbiased perspective, it seems that there is nearly no chance of winning in the game of life. Even though goals, dreams, and aspirations seem to be important components of success, without the worry of money and power, everything suddenly becomes simple. No one follows false grails and no one falls into misery. In the grand scheme of things, discovering the ultimate root of personal happiness and striving for it immediately solves the complications of life.
The almighty American dream, commonly misconceived as the property of those who reap great materialistic wealth, has been analyzed and sought after through generations. However, this dream, “could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country” (Goldberg), and the numerous success stories of impoverished beings proves this. This subjectiveness stems from the great diversity within human nature and the variation of goals and pleasures. The characters in novels such as The Glass Castle, To Kill a Mockingbird and the play, The Crucible, act to portray several attempts towards achieving this dream. Ultimately, the almighty American Dream manifests itself through the novels as the desire to accomplish stability and content within one’s
The Great Gatsby' is set in the Jazz Age of America, the 1920s which have come to be seen as a bubble of extravagance and affluence which burst with the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Fitzgerald wrote the book in 1925, and in it he explores the fundamental hollowness which characterized the Age as he saw it, and casts doubt upon the very core of American national identity - the American Dream.
Dreams can be powerful and inspiring, yet when taken too far, they can be toxic to one’s happiness and even fatal in Gatsby’s case. Reality, on the other hand, is always trustworthy, and it is wiser to simply accept and adjust to the faults and imperfections of a society rather than to try to fight them like Holden and Gatsby did. Both men were unwilling to relinquish their precious dreams, yet in the end, that no longer mattered because society took them anyway and annihilated them. The downfall of both these characters demonstrates the importance of staying grounded and never veering too far off the path of reality, because dreams alone cannot serve as a sufficient foundation on which to build a prosperous, fruitful life.
For centuries, the American Dream has motivated citizens of the United States to go above and beyond in their efforts through life, yet not everyone is hoping to reach the same outcome. The stereotypical prosperous dream was for the average individual to have a successful job with a supportive and wealthy family. However, for some, their idealized version of the American Dream is different. Although the American Dream came in variations, a commonality within all of them was the pursuit of happiness. In the epilogue of The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams argues his idea that the American Dream cannot be defined by one type of accomplishment or triumph. He claims that the American Dream cannot be defined by one type of achievement or particular success, reiterating the fact that the dream is not about tangible goods creating a sense of artificial happiness, but every individual seeking to fulfill their utmost potential. Adams saw that the American Dream was eroding into a need for material possessions, causing him to combat the shift and attempt to preserve the original idea. This theory is echoed in Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle. Despite being hindered by
A dream is an intangible paradise. In the heavenly world of a dream, all hopes are within reach, and time knows no defined direction. To dream is to believe in the existence of the limitless realm. To dream is to be consumed by the passion and beauty of life, for although a dream may never become a reality, the true substance of a dream is its place in the heart. Jay Gatsby is a dreamer. He believes that the future can return him to his past and to his love, Daisy. Time blocks Gatsby’s dream, for Daisy has made Gatsby a mere memory by marrying Tom Buchanan. Tom and Daisy have minor conflicts with time that parallel Gatsby’s principal struggle with time, yet Gatsby’s dream emerges as the distinguishing factor of his conflict. When challenging the natural course of time, a dream, created by the intricate workings of the mind, and a simple memory of the past cannot be attained with the greatness of their origin. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s destruction and the death of his undying dream are intensified through the magnification of the conflicts found in the characters of Tom and Daisy Buchanan.
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 term “American Dream” is defined as an idea which believes that all people have the possibility of prosperity and success. The idea first came from James Adams, a noted American writer and historian. He claimed, “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement.” Therefore, the core concepts of the American Dream were closely linked to hard work and opportunity.
Wealth, material possessions, and power are the core principles of The American Dream. Pursuit of a better life led countless numbers of foreign immigrants to America desiring their chance at the vast opportunity. Reaching the American Dream is not always reaching true happiness. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby achieves the American Dream, but his unrealistic faiths in money and life’s possibilities twist his dreams and life into useless life based on lies.
Gatsby's belief of achieving his American Dream through Daisy lead to his failure. While the American Dream suggests that everyone can achieve the status and wealth they desire through hard work, Gatsby's newly earned wealth and lifestyle are looked down upon, due to which he desires to be married with Daisy, which can lead to him attaining his dream. The American Dream during the nineteen twenties is portrayed by the author as a dream merely restricted to the attainment of wealth and social class which had consumed many people including Jay Gatsby.
People from all around the world have dreamed of coming to America and building a successful life for themselves. The "American Dream" is the idea that, through hard work and perseverance, the sky is the limit in terms of financial success and a reliable future. 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.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of a man of meager wealth who chases after his dreams, only to find them crumble before him once he finally reaches them. Young James Gatz had always had dreams of being upper class, he didn't only want to have wealth, but he wanted to live the way the wealthy lived. At a young age he ran away from home; on the way he met Dan Cody, a rich sailor who taught him much of what he would later use to give the world an impression that he was wealthy. After becoming a soldier, Gatsby met an upper class girl named Daisy - the two fell in love. When he came back from the war Daisy had grown impatient of waiting for him and married a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby now has two coinciding dreams to chase after - wealth and love. Symbols in the story, such as the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, the contrast between the East Egg and West Egg, and the death of Myrtle, Gatsby, and Wilson work together to expose a larger theme in the story. Gatsby develops this idea that wealth can bring anything - status, love, and even the past; but what Gatsby doesn't realize is that wealth can only bring so much, and it’s this fatal mistake that leads to the death of his dreams.
The Great Gatsby is a novel based off of the American dream, which is something that everyone strives for. The author of the book F. Scott Fitzgerald has his own American dream to become a well known writer, and to have the girl of his dreams, and throughout the novel this dream reflected in The Great Gatsby within in the characters Gatsby and Daisy. Fitzgerald had developed the character Gatsby by incorporating some of his own dreams. For example Gatsby has a forbidden love for Daisy, but he cannot have her because she does not want to leave her husband, Gatsby also wants to do everything he can for Daisy but since she will not leave her husband Gatsby is doing all of this for no reason, and in the end nothing goes his way and he just ends up unhappy and alone. Another character in this novel that has an american dream is Daisy. Daisy’s dream is to be Gatsby’s lover, and she wants to live a happy life, but not with Gatsby. By doing this to Gatsby, Daisy will just end up stuck with her husband who does nothing special for her and she will not be as happy as she could be. The American Dream is an idea that many people have and want to achieve, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby each have a dream, but as time goes on these dreams slowly begin to escape their grasp which eventually leads them to misery and despair.
In the United States there is an idea many pursue called the American dream, which differs from person to person. The American dream according to americanradioworks.publicradio.org is “a revolutionary notion: each person has the right to pursue happiness, and the freedom to strive for a better life through hard work and fair ambition”. Yet it has been said there is no real definition of American dream, instead it merely proves that it has an unconscious influence in American mentality (Ştiuliuc 1). The American dream is different for each person because everyone yearns for things that will they hope will in return make them happy. Whatever that may be, each person goes through different struggles to obtain what they want. According to Frederic Carpenter, the American dream “has never been defined exactly, and probably never can be. It is both too various and too vague” (3). The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse depicts the different interpretations on what the American dream actually is through the opinions and actions of Hector Esperanza, Efren Mendoza and Mrs. Calhoun.
In the book , The Great Gatsby, the character Jay Gatsby is developed. The story is set in the 1920’s in the New York area. Gatsby grew up as a poor boy, but aspired to be more. He met a wealthy girl named Daisy. She pushed him to go after his dream more intensely. He worked for a man named Wilshiem as a bootlegger and became very wealthy. Unfortunately, while Gatsby was away, Daisy married Tom. Daisy’s approval of his new, wealthy life was Gatsby’s ultimate dream. Fitzgerald’s presentation of the hero Jay Gatsby illustrates that Gatsby’s dreams should be admired because through his perseverance he achieves the lifestyle he wants.
With America actually being seen as the land of assurance, the American dream is usually associated with the freedom and opportunity of gaining prosperity, recognition, power, triumph, and contentment. On the surface, this dream appears virtually delighted, offering individuals the exceptional hope of accomplishing success despite of one’s race, religion, or family history. The American Dream is accurately what it seems to be the chance of perfect lying nearby the corner. However, the actual nature of this dream prohibit the pleasure of the victory one has earned, as the desire is always demanding one to work a slight harder and gain a slightly more.