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America and the American dream
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What is the American Dream? Is it fame or fortune? Franklin Roosevelt explained the American Dream as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The American Dream is the idea of becoming successful through work, although, this is not always achievable because people in America are not always treated equally, and not everybody has an equal opportunity to reach the American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, he has many references relating to the American Dream, such as, “She only married you because I was poor and she was waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except me.” (Fitzgerald 130) This quote is related to the American Dream because Gatsby was once poor before he was wealthy, and he wanted to achieve the American Dream, so ideally, he became wealthy. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy is tied in with being rich, since that is The American Dream for her. For Gatsby, then again, did not accomplish the American Dream through work, but rather by being a Bootlegger, and that is the reason the American …show more content…
The American Dream is the ideal of getting to be well off through work. In the event that everybody is to be dealt with similarly, at that point for what reason does America have 45 million Americans in poverty today? America has many openings for work, however not every person has a chance to get one of the higher paying job, and this is the reason not every person has an opportunity to accomplish the American Dream, on the grounds that to wind up noticeably well off, individuals need to work for
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.
Scott Fitzgerald creates a complexity of the American Dream. On page 150, Fitzgerald writes, “They had never been closer in their month of love, nor communicated more profoundly one with another, than when she brushed silent lips against his coat’s shoulder or when he touched the end of her fingers, as though she were asleep.” This flashback illustrates the great love Daisy and Gatsby shared as a young couple. Their love was pure and whole. They needed nothing but each other. Their feelings of pure affection did not relate to money or wealth or success. They achieved an once in a lifetime love not because of a pursuit for material things but rather through a want for each other. Money didn’t matter to Daisy and Gatsby. An American success would be considered to include financial success along with love and a family. Daisy and Gatsby had gained love but didn’t need money to be
"The American dream is the idea held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity." Wikipedia: So basically the American Dream is to have money, and a family. Gatsby got his money, but what he really wanted was Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby spent his whole life striving for one thing.
What is the American Dream? According to Webster the American Dream is the ideal according to which equality of opportunity permits any American to aspire to high attainment and material success.
The American dream is defined as “the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative”, yet many people in this day of age believe that this is no longer a plausible aspiration. Neverless, this demeanor is at the heart of the classic American tales of the highest and lowest points of the American spirit, making one question whether or not this fundamental dream is still worth pursuit. Though it is a path containing hardships and challenges, actively seeking to achieve what you desire is one of the most prominent life lessons throughout American literature, as evidenced through the Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Great Gatsby.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, is one of the few novels he wrote in 1925. The novel takes place during the 1920’s following the 1st World War. It is written about a young man named Nick, from the east he moved to the west to learn about the bond business. He ends up moving next to a mysterious man named Gatsby who ends up giving him the lesion of his life.
The American Dream is an idea where a perfect freedom is given to all people, no matter social group or race. Many people have a definition of what is an American Dream. Americans are viewed as a person who can do the unlimited things. People's freedoms and discoveries have been recorded over time in the form of a poem or story.
The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its impossible goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is used in many novels. This dream is different for different people; but, in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream; and, in order to do this, he must have wealth and power.
The freedom in self endowment has always been the fuel to the average American citizen and his drive toward success. In other words, Americans always strive to achieve the ever so revered American Dream. What is the American Dream? David Kamp describes the American Dream as "the idea rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."(Kamp). The dream lies deeply rooted in American society and the very mention of it lights a passionate fire in the hearts of American citizens everywhere. The idea behind the dream is that if an individual has sufficient willpower, he or she has a fair chance of achieving wealth as well as the freedom and happiness that come packaged with it. Essentially, it offers the opportunity of achieving spiritual and material fulfillment. It promises success at the cost of hard work and perseverance. Over time however, this idea of attaining success through hard work and perseverance has been skewed into one which exploits greed and carelessness and The Great Gatsby is an excellent affirmation of this. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald derides the gradual corruption of hard work and perseverance in the American Dream by utilizing the motif of driving and incorporating it with the the ideas of greed and carelessness.
Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald criticizes the American dream very elaborately and shows the idea of the American dream to be connected with the goal of achieving wealth. Fitzgerald does not praise wealth in the Great Gatsby but condemns it by drawing attention to the dreadful fall made by Gatsby. Fitzgerald finds the desire of wealth to be a corrupting impact on people. Throughout the novel, the characters with money contradict the idea of the American dream. They are portrayed to be very snobbish and unhappy people. The American dream in the novel is shown to be unachievable. For some time, the American dream has been focused upon material things that will gain people success.
The American dream is the idea held by many in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity.
However, a minimal amount of people was able to reach the American Dream, similar to the green light that is constantly there, but constantly out of reach. In The Great Gatsby, “The Land of Opportunity promised the chance for financial success” (Preface), where Gatsby believes that he can buy anything with money, which he later learns as he is unable to buy Daisy with his money. When Gatsby’s “heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own” (Fitzgerald, 110), it is fair to assume that Gatsby’s ultimate goal is Daisy, where eventually Daisy would not be able to meet Gatsby’s plans with her by staying with Tom who already had a stable economic status unlike Gatsby’s new money. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, himself, would be the best representative of the ability to reach the American Dream, where he initially grew up as a son of farmers and would sequentially achieve a large wealth, which we would sooner learn that he acquired that wealth through mysterious criminal activities that we can assume as a bootlegger during the time of national prohibition (Preface). Fitzgerald, similarly to Gatsby, was given birth by a failed manufacturer and as he fell in love with Zelda,
"The American Dream" is that dream of a nation in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with options for each according to capacity or accomplishments. It is a dream of social stability in which each man and each woman shall be able to achieve to the fullest distinction of which they are essentially competent, and be distinguish by others for what they are, despite of the incidental conditions of birth or stance. The American Dream is often something that humanity wonders about. What is the American dream? Many people discover success in a range of things. There are many different definitions of the American Dream. However, the American Dream embraces prosperity, personal safety, and personal liberty. The American dream is a continually fluctuating set of ideals, reflecting the ideas of an era.
There have been many people whose success stories reflect the American Dream. Among these people is Richard DeVos who got his start by selling soap and distributing food products. Through hard work and good marketing, his business grew and turned into his own company called Amway. Through all his hard work, DeVos gained a great deal of money and became quite wealthy. A similar, but fictional story, is that of Jay Gatsby, whose central mission, to win Daisy, is the embodiment of the American Dream, the belief that anyone can achieve a solid career, have freedom to pursue their own dreams, and fundamentally in the values of optimism and hope.