Distorted Dreams: A Critique on 'The Great Gatsby'

In the book, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is interpreted very differently than its original meaning. Usually, dreaming is a good thing, and it motivates people to work hard, and achieve success. However, in Fitzgerald’s novel, the characters begin to let their dreams control them. They often suffer throughout the book, instead of enjoying the successful lives they are already living. Characters create their own idea of the dream that they should strive for. The Declaration of Independence gives an idea of what the true American Dream is, when it states “ all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

However, this idea of happiness seems to be quite disordered in the eyes of Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom, among others. The American Dream seems to lose its original meaning. These individuals appear to believe that much money and other people's high opinions of them is what the true American Dream is.
Gatsby works towards his dream, of being with Daisy, and also towards what he thinks Daisy’s interpretation of the American Dream is.

However, the American Dream traditionally means achieving goals through honest hard word. This is not what Gatsby does, as Nick later expresses how he went into a life of crime to earn so much money so quickly. Almost immediately in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is seen as a character yearns for something, or someone, Daisy, that he can’t have. This is shown as Nick describes Gatsby looking at the light. “But I didn't call to him for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock”(Fitzgerald, ). In the beginning of the book, the light stands for Gatsby’s dreams, hopes, and desires to reunite with Daisy and rekindle their relationship from five years before. It seems later in the book that his dreams are coming true. Gatsby and Daisy meet many times, beginning an affair, and talking about Daisy leaving Tom for Gatsby. Symbolically the color of the light, green, could represent rebirth, and the start of Gatsby’s new life with Daisy. The green light could also symbolically represent wealth. Gatsby attempts to gain wealth and fortune to allow Daisy to live a life of true luxury once the estranged couple is reunited. However, in the end, the relationship does not work out, holding true to Nick’s words, “you can’t repeat the past” (Fitzgerald, 110).
Daisy, however, is already living her American Dream with Tom, her husband. With Tom, Daisy is able to live a high class life of materialism. Tom, unlike Daisy and Gatsby, was born with his American Dream already interpreted to him by his parents. He did no work, and yet he had more money than he could ask for. He

was also having an affair with Myrtle, before she was killed by Daisy.
Myrtle also seems to be attempting to get her American Dream. Her affair with a wealthy man suggests that she already thinks of herself in the upper class, at yet Daisy is standing in her way. However, Myrtle is also an example of how her dreams can lead to suffering. She seems to be living her ideal life, when she is with Tom, in their New York City apartment, with their house parties and fancy clothes. Despite how her actions hurt her husband, and how her involvement in Tom’s life may have been what ultimately lead to her death.
During the time period of the book, many people were defining happiness by their wealth. Nick however, seems to have a better idea of the American Dream. He has worked hard for his living and although he does not live in a lavish home like Daisy, Tom, or Gatsby, he seems happy with where he is and what he has done. Nick describes the place he lives very differently, as it is not the most important aspect of his life. Fitzgerald writes, “I lived at West Egg, the—well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. [...] Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans” (Fitzgerald, 5). Although, even Nick could have been happy with his family's fortune and his girlfriend in the west. Much pain came from him meeting Gatsby, and later dealing with his death.
Throughout The Great Gatsby, all characters struggle with their dreams, allowing the true, “American Dream”, to wither away. The death within the book, of Myrtle, Gatsby, and George, illustrates this theme of the death of the American Dream. Nick describes in chapter nine, how they were not fit for the lives they made for themselves, “I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all--Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life” (Fitzgerald, 176). By the end of the novel, it can be seen that not much went well for any of the characters, especially those that worked the hardest to improve their class. Therefore, Nick closes the novel in a somber way, reflecting on the loss of the American Dream, and leaving the reader asking many questions. Fitzgerald wraps up the book quickly it seems, leaving the reader wondering why Gatsby, Myrtle, and George Wilson died. Also, why Daisy felt the need to go back to Tom, and lastly, why no one went to Gatsby’s funeral. By the end of the book, all of Gatsby’s work to achieve a better life seems as if it was for nothing. With that, Fitzgerald’s views on the concept of the American Dream, and how it was changing in a unsatisfactory way, during the 1920’s are apparent.