The Importance Of Hopes And Dreams In The Great Gatsby

1531 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gatsbys successes

Hopes and Dreams are an important aspect of life. When kids are young they are taught to have big dreams and do anything they can to achieve them. Yasiel Puig was born in Cuba and had a gift to play baseball. Puig had a dream to play in MLB but being born in poverty and not being able to travel outside of Cubs stood in his way. Puig had attempted to escape the country and was caught so many times that he had lost count. Not giving up on his dream to play in the majors he was finally smuggled into the US by drug runners and got a contract from a major league team. Puig went out of his way everyday to achieve a dream that he had of one day playing in the major, just like Gatsby went out of his way in hopes to be with Daisy. In F. Scott Fitzgerald …show more content…

Fitzgerald’s use of flowers throughout the book show that you’re dreams are beautiful and can go anywhere but will eventually die off. Nick travels over to Tom’s house to give him a visit. Tom and Nick walk through the house and see Daisy and her friend Jordan begging to wake up for the day. “The other girl daisy made an attempt to rise-she leaned slightly forward with a conscientious expression…” (Fitzgerald pg. 13). Daisy’s introduction to the book was just like a flower, she rose slowly but bloomed at the end. Fitzgerald made her look like she was just being born and had all these dreams ahead of her. When Nick moves in next to Gatsby, he tries to become friends with him just so he could ask Daisy to come over to the house. Nick agrees to ask her for him but when she agrees Gatsby goes overboard on buying flowers. “The flowers were unnecessary, for at two o’clock a greenhouse arrived from Gatsby’s, with innumerable receptacles to contain it,” (Fitzgerald pg. 89). This moment is what Gatsby …show more content…

As the book progressed green was turning yellow and Gatsby dream has almost completely died. After the feud between Tom and Gatsby, Gatsby and Daisy are driving home. As they are passing by Wilson’s house, Myrtle seems to run out in the road to get their attention but ends up getting hit and killed when she gets in front on the car. “So we drove off toward death through the cooling twilight… A moment later she rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting; before he could move from his door the business was over,” (Fitzgerald pg. 143-144). Myrtle represented Gatsby’s dream because she was introduced already bloomed and full of adventure. Whenever Daisy ran her over it was like Daisy had also run over Gatsby dreams. Gatsby returned home from the night of Myrtle’s death and told his butlers to wait by the phone to see if Daisy would call him. As Gatsby was trying to go to sleep he was setting up a mattress so he could sleep on it. “Once he stopped and shifted it a little and the chauffeur asked him if he needed help, but he shook his head and in a moment disappeared among the yellowing trees,” (Fitzgerald pg. 169). After all the events that had occurred during the afternoon, Gatsby was hoping that Daisy would call him. Since all the plants had turned from green to yellow Gatsby’s dream has come to an end. The next

Show More
Related

  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    377 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gatsby is unrealistic. He believes he can relive the past and rekindle the flame he and Daisy once had. He is lost in his dream and accepts that anything can be repeated, "Can't repeat the past…Why of course you can!" (116, Fitzgerald). For Gatsby, failure to realize this resurrection of love is utterly appalling. His whole career, his conception of himself and his life is totally shattered. Gatsby's death when it comes is almost insignificant, for with the collapse of his dream, he is spiritually dead.

    Read More

  • The Residue of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald elucidates the hollowness of the American Dream, as the unrestrained longing for wealth and freedom exceeding more honorable desires. He illuminates the idea that having or attaining this American Dream will result in unethical behavior or unethical acts.

    Read More

  • Examples Of A Dream Deferred In The Great Gatsby

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is no living without aspirations and goals to reach for. Without a purpose, life is an aimless meander through meaningless days. However, all people on earth do not share the same dream. Each human being has their own thoughts, purpose, and talents, and to try and take those and cram them all into the lowest common denominator is an exercise in futility. Neither regions, nor common background have any effect on the goals of the people who are contained in them. As such, the American Dream, vaguely defined as a nationwide struggle for prosperity and wealth, is a futile attempt to unite the people of this nation, while doing more harm than good, which is shown in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald through the characters

    Read More

  • Divided Between Power And Dream In The Great Gatsby

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gatsby’s true dream is made abundantly clear throughout the entire text; winning Daisy back and reigniting the flaming love they once had. Gatsby’s dream of having Daisy divides him from his power at one critical point in the text, “Then I turned back to Gatsby-and was startled by his expression. He looked-and this is said in all contempt for the babbled slander of his garden-as if he had ‘killed a man.’ For a moment the set of his face could be described in just that fantastic way” (134). As Gatsby is arguing with Tom over Daisy and whom she loves, he loses himself to his temper and emotion. He embarrasses himself and soils the image of himself that he's built up for others to see, and loses his perceived power. Gatsby also shows a lack of personal integrity, esteem, and power when he requests for Daisy to say she never loved Tom at any point in time, such as when he says, “‘Daisy, that’s all over now,’ he said earnestly. ‘It doesn’t matter any more. Just tell him the truth-that you never loved him-and it’s all wiped out forever’”

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gatsby’s personal dream symbolizes a larger version of the American Dream where everyone has the opportunity to try to get what they want. Later on in the novel,it is shown that Gatsby thinks that Daisy feels the same way about him that he does about her. It proves that he is convinced of this when he takes the blame for the death of Myrtle. He says that he was driving when in reality Daisy was. He also feels the need to watch over her and protest her as she returns home.

    Read More

  • Ambition and the American Dream in The Great Gatsby

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    "[. . .] the man who gives his name to this book [. . .]"

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby And The American Dream Essay

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby: Chasing Dreams

    715 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

    1547 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Among The Ash Heaps And Millionaires In The Great Gatsby

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gatsby’s dream of winning Daisy has been deferred for long enough, that it seems impossible to everyone else around him. He pursues the past while he is in the future. He pines for Daisy after losing her to another man. Gatsby’s elaborate parties were all thrown in hopes that someday Daisy would wander inside. Nick finds out Gatsby’s intentions when he says, “Then it had not been merely the stars to which he has aspired on that June night. He became alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor” (Fitzgerald 83). All the extravagant spending, the house, the new identity, the illegal activities, were all for Daisy. He throws everything he has into this charade as he tries to adapt to Daisy’s world of high society. The problem is that Gatsby is so close, but yet so far away, “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way... 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 25). Gatsby tries to embrace the light that emits from the end of Daisy’s dock. The light is something that he cannot hold, just like he cannot hold Daisy Buchanan in his arms. He attempts to pursue his dream that is nothing more than an illusion. Despite being blinded with his infatuation with her, “He hadn’t once ceased looking at

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby and the American Dream

    864 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hope and the American Dream Portrayed in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

    1701 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrays a world filled with rich societal happenings, love affairs, and corruption. Nick Carraway is the engaged narrator of the book, a curious choice considering that he is in a different class and almost in a different world than Gatsby and the other characters. Nick relates the plot of the story to the reader as a member of Gatsby’s circle. He has ambivalent feelings towards Gatsby, despising his personality and corrupted dream but feeling drawn to Gatsby’s magnificent capacity to hope. Using Nick as a moral guide, Fitzgerald attempts to guide readers on a journey through the novel to illustrate the corruption and failure of the American Dream. To achieve this, Nick’s credentials as a reliable narrator are carefully established and reinforced throughout the story.

    Read More

  • Essay On The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On The Great Gatsby

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Up until now, the term American Dream is still a popular concept on how Americans or people who come to America should live their lives and in a way it becomes a kind of life goal. However, the definitions of the term itself is somehow absurd and everyone has their own definition of it. The historian James Tuslow defines American Dream as written in his book titled “The Epic of America” in 1931 as “...dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” The root of the term American Dream is actually can be traced from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 which stated “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Hopes And Dreams In The Great Gatsby

Open Document