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Analysis of American Dream (150 words)
Analysis of American Dream (150 words)
Analysis of American Dream (150 words)
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People are entitled to happiness and have the ability to pursue it. Many people don’t get to achieve true happiness because they are blinded by the thought that true happiness comes from materialistic wants. The American dream is bended and deformed by society's point of view. Everyone has a different point of view. For some the American dream consists of living a lavishing life filled with money, materials, and power. Other they view the American dream as being able to have inner peace, love, and friendship. In the Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, each protagonist desired to achieve true happiness. For example in the eyes were watching god Janie only desired love and knowing that she is valued as a person, and not look at as something lower than a mule. As for Gatsby in The Great Gatsby where he craved the love from daisy. Both craved the similar loves yet, both came from two different sides, where Gatsby was rolling in dough and doing dirty work to gain money, as for Janie she worked hard to get closer to her dream.
Through Gatsby's process of attempting to
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For Gatsby he had given everything into Daisy or as much as she would let him. His world revolved around her, and it wasn’t necessarily her it was the thought of having her. For Janie she had gone husband after husband of bitter relationships and always being bossed around. There is something both Janie and Gatsby have in common, their relationships started of good but then soon turned bitter. Yet Janie had came closer to her dream because she had accepted what was. Gatsby couldnt accept the thought that Daisy love Tom and not him, so in one last burst of his blinded love he saved her from the police forces and ended up get a bullet through his body.In the end Janie was able to come closer to her American dream than
...prevent Gatsby from relating to other "nice" girls like Daisy (148). In other words, both Janie and Gatsby had stumbled into a new awareness because of major turning points in their lives, but these were just beginnings! They had graduated from being "grown up children," but now they were like "children at being adults" still having much to learn.
After reading both, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Paradox and Dream” by John Steinbeck, it is extremely clear that both authors believe the American Dream differs from person to person. Though, the main similarity between American’s different versions of the American Dream is that each person wants more than they have. No matter the social status or salary, each person dreams of more; more money, a bigger home, a better job, etc.
In American society, love, social class, and ambition are in the present life of Americans. Both books "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Hurston, are examples of Gatsby and Janie and their strive to reach the American dream. Both Gatsby and Janie are searching for love. Gatsby has found his love for Daisy, but he can’t have her because of there differences between social classes. On the other hand, Janie spends her journey searching for sense of herself and someone who treats her as equal. Despite the beginning of their past life they both reach the appearance of wealth and fortune. For Gatsby, his character is a delusion created by those who spread rumors just by seeing him throw the lavish parties. Gatsby's wealth is only a front because he was given the house from wealth and illegal dealings with Meyer Wolfsheim. Janie's character changes throughout the story in search of her identity. Janie inherited money from the death of her second husband. But the money doesn’t mean much to her ever since she met Tea Cake but still uses her money to provide for the both of them. Gatsby and Janie faced challenges on the search for their American Dream. In
To begin with money is the main thing people think of when they hear american dream. People wish to be rich and no one wants to be poor but not everyone can be rich. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” The main character of The Great Gatsby said that about the couple, Tom and Daisy, because they had problems but would go back to their old ways of buying things to make it better. In the end the money never really made it better when Daisy knew she was being cheated on and that’s where love comes in. People think money can buy everything they want to make them happy but that's where they're wrong.
The novel, The Great Gatsby, is a tragic story of lost love. Gatsby and Daisy are two different people in two different worlds. In their time apart, Gatsby was seeking for the American dream while Daisy was enjoying her riches with Tom. Gatsby is one of a few men who possess the knowledge of the true meaning of love. Love is so powerful and beautiful that Gatsby would do anything and everything to make Daisy his wife. However, love is also a mysterious thing that can turn anything from an everlasting relationship to murder. It turns out that Gatsby, a man with the possession of true love, is the one that suffers the most. Gatsby and Daisy, both represent love in their own unique way. Love could be beautiful but also cruel as the same time.
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).
The American Dream has been an emotion and mentality in people that has lasted for hundreds of years. Success and prosperity are two things everyone longs for so that they can live life to the fullest. The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire both depict the decline in the American Dream. When it comes to prosperity and money it is essential to follow your morals and values. Jay Gatsby and Blanche DuBois are two characters in each of the novels that are hurt by money and power and ultimately both characters are forced to have unfortunate endings.
There are various techniques to get a message across to the audience in literature; one very common, but effective way is to use symbolism. The symbol in a book could be anything but it’s main purpose is to express an idea, clarify meaning or enlarge literal meaning. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston her message was to live life the way you want to and not by other’s standards, she revealed this message by using a horizon to express this belief. The horizon is symbolism of dreams, specifically achieving one’s dream.
The central focus of the story is the enigma of Gatsby, his past life, and his perusal of Daisy. Desperate to rekindle their former love, Gatsby works tirelessly to achieve the pinnacle of the American dream, settles in a large, posh house, throws lavish parties, and seems on excellent terms with the world at large. That, however, is not what makes him truly happy. All he did, he did in pursuit of Daisy, and initially it appears to work. She insists that she still loves him ardently. However, when pressed, she chooses Tom once more, and Gatsby is shattered. Nick says that, “If that was true, he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream,” (161). In the end, Gatsby’s dream turns on him, betraying him to the caprice of the world. He had sincerely believed in the American Dream, and believed it would help him secure Daisy’s love. When both failed him, he was left with a lavish but empty house, and to Gatsby, his wealth and prosperity were nothing without someone to share them with. The final nail in the coffin is Gatsby’s funeral, where it becomes clear what his immense wealth gained him in terms of the human affection he was truly after. Nick Carraway jumps through all sorts of hoops and harasses many people in order to get them to go to Gatsby’s funeral, to no avail. When it came time for the burial,
It would seem that Gatsby would get his dream come true because he already had it all, money,satise and a good home. Both gatsby and janie weren't satisfied where they stood in there life for several reasons. Janie didn't like to be told what to do because she didn't find it a marriage when the woman and man weren't in love. Janie was forced to marry Logan by Nanny because he had land and his name was clean in the town, but janie didn't care about that she wanted love, and couldn't find an old man that could almost be her grandpa attractive. After she had enough janie left him and went run off with a new man named
America has been labeled "The land of opportunity," a place where it is possible to accomplish anything and everything. This state of mind is known as "The American Dream." The American Dream provides a sense of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. This dream, however, originates from a desire for spiritual and material improvement. Unfortunately, the acquisition of material has been tied together with happiness in America. Although "The American Dream" can be thought of as a positive motivation, it often causes people to strive for material perfection, rather than a spiritual one. This has been a truth since the beginnings of America, such as the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, which is an example of this set in the 20’s. The characters in this novel are too fixed on material things, losing sight of what is really important.
The recurring themes of society, class, and self identity can be seen throughout many different writings of the 20th century. Two of these writings include, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. Both novels focus on the protagonist's goal of achieving equal rights in their own environment while at the same time trying to figure out who they are in the world. In the early 1900s, when “Their Eyes Were Watching God” takes place, slavery had very recently been abolished (relatively speaking) and the lasting effects of segregation take a toll on Janie, the protagonist. In the Great Gatsby, although Jay Gatsby is white, and thus does not have to deal with the factor of race, he struggles with many different aspects of American Society, mainly the class system and the American Dream. The American dream depicted by F.Scott Fitzgerald is a desire to gain wealth and prosperity. However, at the same time the book does not suggest that wealth equates to success. Even though Gatsby does have material wealth, he is not successful in gaining what he wants to be happy. Despite his material wealth, Gatsby is never united with the love of his life, Daisy. This shows that even though Gatsby has achieved the dream of wealth and prosperity, he has not achieved his final goal. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie too believes in the American Dream, and similarly to Gatsby, it is not a dream of wealth and prosperity. For her, it’s a dream of Freedom in all aspects of life. Both characters however, spend much of their time trying to conform to the rest of the world and essentially be like “everyone” else instead of trying to be distinct individuals. Societal norms of the early 1900s tak...
A society naturally breaks up into various social groups over time. Members of lower statuses constantly suppose that their problems will be resolved if they gain enough wealth to reach the upper class. Many interpret the American Dream as being this passage to high social status and, once reaching that point, not having to concern about money at all. Though, the American Dream involves more than the social and economic standings of an individual. The dream involves attaining a balance between the spiritual strength and the physical strength of an individual. Jay Gatsby, of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, fails to reach his ultimate dream of love for Daisy in that he chooses to pursue it by engaging in a lifestyle of high class.
When Mr. Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby,” he described the actions of the human society. In a certain way, not only did he describe and critic the high class but also the lower class, which ended up critiquing the American Dream. The American Dream was a idea give to believe that a human being should pursue being happy, wealthy, and loved which has cause any human being to go in search for this idea. All that is end up being found is the fact of having the illusion of having more material is to be happy than being happy by valuing what you already have.
...nreachable to be completely happy and obtain a perfect life. The matter of fact is that the "American dream … no longer exists except in the minds of men like Gatsby, who it destroys in their... restless pursuit of it." (Pearson 645) Knowing this it is clear that the American dream is a beautiful idea, though, a nightmare of pain and failure to anyone that pursues too much.