The concept of the American Dream is used in many literary works. The term refers to a set of ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity for prosperity and success, commonly held by Americans. Furthermore, Robert Reich, an American political commentator, professor, and author explains, “the faith that anyone could move from rags to riches – with enough guts and gumption, hard work and determination – was once at the core of the American dream” (Reich). However, as stated by Azar Nafisi, “the negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” This is reflective of the state of those who chase the Dream today: they “are so busy dreaming the American Dream [and] …show more content…
fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be […]” (King) that they forget the real reason for its pursuit. Specifically, F.
Scott Fitzgerald explores this idea throughout the novel The Great Gatsby. It is made apparent through the lives of the characters of Myrtle Wilson, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby, that the American Dream is truly a nightmare in disguise as its blind pursuit leads to the destruction of oneself and of the lives of surrounding people.
The character of Myrtle Wilson is evidently doomed to suffer catastrophic events in the hands of her foolish desires. Residing in the Valley of the Ashes with her husband George Wilson, Myrtle is far from living her ideal life: a life in which she may enjoy heaps of wealth and be part of a high social class; the East Egg lifestyle. Selfishly, Myrtle engages in an affair with Tom Buchanan, an abusive Yale football star of high status and ‘old money,’ for the sole purpose of achieving her materialistic American Dream. She continues her adulterous relationship with Tom even after he “broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald 37) for saying his wife’s name at a party in their New York apartment. Despite knowing that her relationship with Tom merely exists on the basis of infatuation, and that she is to Tom a possession of his, Myrtle perceives the situation
…show more content…
selectively. In other words, she only sees what she is gaining from the affair with Tom: a sense of wholeness, wealth, and class. Furthermore, in her desperation to escape the harshness of her reality, Myrtle “[…] rushed out into the dusk, waving her hands and shouting […]” (Fitzgerald 137). Myrtle was hit by Gatsby’s yellow Rolls-Royce, “[…] her life violently extinguished, [she] knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust” (Fitzgerald 137). Blinded by what she could have or be, Myrtle impetuously runs onto the road toward the Rolls-Royce, thinking that Tom has come and can save her from her poverty and distress. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the colour yellow is often symbolically portrayed as wealth or new money, which is considered by people of higher class, as “fake money”. Myrtle being killed by Gatsby’s yellow car essentially implies that the very thing she is after, ends up taking her life. She goes to tragic lengths to attempt to achieve what she sees as her American Dream but is in reality just a selfish desire that overpowers her judgment. Not only does Myrtle cause pain and suffering to George and Tom, but she herself dies in the dirty ashes, not knowing wealth, let alone happiness. In a similar manner, Daisy, in her quest to fulfill the wishes of her shadow, destroys the lives of those who surround her. Fitzgerald often describes Daisy as wearing a white dress. Her white dresses figuratively display the mask of innocence, charm, and purity that she wears. However, underneath this mask, lies an individual that is completely absorbed in her American Dream and her violent greed for wealth. Markedly, when Gatsby left for the war, Daisy becomes devastated but, “By the next autumn she was gay again, gay as ever […] she married Tom Buchanan of Chicago […] he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald 75-76). Daisy is able to move on from the love that Gatsby provided her with because she finds a man who has ‘old money’ and a high social status, just as she does. Her relationship with Tom, although it held some meaning at the start, becomes one based solely on his materialistic circumstances. Years later, after hearing the name Gatsby for the first time since her marriage with Tom, Daisy becomes curious as to Jay’s circumstances. Upon hearing the rumours regarding Jay’s extravagant parties, and visiting him at his mansion in West Egg, Daisy is excited to let him back into her life. Essentially, she begins having an affair with Gatsby and is in awe of his wealth. Daisy is ready to tell Tom about the affair and about her love for Gatsby until Tom brings Gatsby’s true past to light: Jay comes from a family of poor farmers and bought drug stores to earn money. In other words, he belongs to a lower class and is also known as newly rich. Daisy feels repulsed by this harsh truth because in her mind, Gatsby has the means to satisfy her materialistic needs and to fulfill her American Dream. Daisy greedily feeds Gatsby false hope and then leaves him without a second thought, after realizing that she can gain more from Tom. Nick describes that Tom and Daisy “were careless people […] they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back to their money or their vast carelessness” (Fitzgerald 179). Daisy, who kills Myrtle, lets Gatsby take the blame for her careless actions even after she betrays him. Her American Dream held such a high status in her mind that she essentially watched Gatsby lose his life without a hint of guilt, in hopes that she might still be able to realize her dream. The destructiveness of blindly chasing the American Dream can also be seen through Jay Gatsby, a wealthy resident of West Egg who hides the struggles of his past so that he may be seen as a man of high social standing.
Gatsby, despite having worked hard to earn his riches and having achieved what most would consider the American Dream, is on an endless quest to win Daisy back. Gatsby takes extreme measures to ensure that he catches Daisy’s attention through his wealth as seen by the massive mansion in which only he resides, the weekly lavish parties he throws, and all of his expensive shirts. He “bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay” (Fitzgerald 78). While admiring his house with Nick, Gatsby accidentally admits, “It took [him…] three years to earn the money that bought it” (Fitzgerald 90). Jay has worked extremely hard to get to where he is now and it seems that all of his hard work, dedication and wealth is for Daisy Buchanan. He is aware that he must be rich in order to have a chance with Daisy, as she is accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle and solely love will not be enough for her. Gatsby went from rags to riches and took the risk of getting in trouble with the law while doing so, as he “was in the drug business” (Fitzgerald 90). Additionally, Gatsby, who is head-over-heels for Daisy and yearns to achieve his dream, takes the blame for the death of Myrtle Wilson and as a result, he is fatally shot by George, who seeks revenge. It was “The
chauffeur [who…] heard the shots” (Fitzgerald 161). Nick is the sole person who rushes to Gatsby’s house anxiously after hearing the news and just a handful of people attend the funeral. Gatsby is insanely caught up in this dream of his and forgets to live the life that he was given. The green light that is described numerous times symbolizes Gatsby’s American Dream: Daisy. Nick: thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city […] Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes us (Fitzgerald 180). Gatsby dies along with his dream. He exists in the world, chasing this dream at all costs and consequently, forgets to live his life until it is too late. It is made evident in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, through Myrtle Wilson, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby that the impetuous and desperate pursuit of the American Dream, specifically a materialistic one, merely leads to ruination. Ironically, the very dreams that they chase so anxiously act as their hamartia, and become the reason for their downfall. When the vision of the dream is lost, there is no purpose or drive left. Jon Meacham is correct in saying that “The American Dream may be slipping away. We have overcome such challenges before. To recover the Dream requires knowing where it came from, how it lasted so long and why it matters so much” (Meacham). What was once a dream that involved hard work, patience, and dedication, now consists of selfishness, greed and a nightmarish reality, as individuals go to the most extreme lengths in hopes of grasping success.
Myrtle Wilson came from a working class family with a low social standing. Due to her family’s lack of money, Myrtle’s options were limited to marrying men of equal or lower economic status than herself. As a result, Myrtle married George Wilson, a poor car mechanic. In her relationship with George, Myrtle lacked control due to her status as a woman and was thus forced to listen to her husband. However, because of her lower status, Myrtle did learn to use her physical attributes to her own advantage. In other words, Myrtle knew how to exaggerate her physical beauty in order to attract men such as Tom Buchanan; who would pay her with money and expensive gifts in return. Thus, “there is a clear connection between the material disadvantages” Myrtle faced and her lack of morals; given “the paucity of her allotment of the fundamental decencies” (Voegeli). In other words, because of her lack of economic backing, Myrtle Wilson grew up as a woman of lower class with less options in life; which limited her social power and drove her to act unlike any high class lady. Thus, Myrtle’s only option for increasing her status was through material services such as her relationship with Tom Buchanan. All in all, Myrtle Wilson’s economic status limited her to the life of a low class woman and her power others in her
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. The “death car,” as the newspapers called it, didn’t stop; it came out of the gathering darkness, wavered tragically for a moment, and then disappeared around the next bend. Michaelis wasn’t even sure of its color — he told the first policeman that it was light green. The other car, the one going toward New York, came to rest a hundred yards beyond, and its driver hurried back to where Myrtle Wilson, her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick dark blood with the dust. Michaelis and this man reached her first, but when they had torn open her shirtwaist, still damp with perspiration, they saw that her left breast was swinging loose like a flap,
The first time that the reader catches an insight of Myrtle, Fitzgerald develops Myrtle to be a mere object of Tom's’ desire. Fitzgerald does this to extenuate the fact that Tom will not move on past Daisy to be with her. Tom “got some women” that supposedly is a secret but there is a lack of secretism on Myrtles end seeing as she is now calling during evening meals from “New York” just to talk to Tom. This further proves that she is in need of attention, something her husband can not fully give her at any random moment of the day. Myrtle is willing to express herself even when she’s already married. It reveals that she is deceiving her own husband, who is later mentioned in the novel. This allows for Myrtle to be looked down upon by the reader, it also entails her to be seen as an attention seeker. Again, Fitzgerald appeals to present-day behaviors by allowing Myrtle to be viewed as someone who wants to be showcased. Almost everyone can relate that they’ve wanted attention in their life at some point. This connects Myrtle to the reader's past or current feelings. Fitzgerald uses this to let readers feel compassion for Myrtle which emphasizes all she needs is for someone to properly love her, treat her, and show her what she needs to do to become successful in her
When he first meets Daisy, Gatsby becomes infatuated with his idea of her, or rather, the false persona that she creates of herself. In fact, Gatsby reveals that “she was the first ‘nice’ girl he had ever known” (155). Gatsby was so impressed with Daisy mainly because of her wealth and her status; it is what he wants. However, Daisy chooses Tom Buchanan over Gatsby, solely because of his social status. As a result, Gatsby revolves his whole life around her: he becomes wealthy, creates a new image of himself, and buys a house across the bay from Daisy. For instance, he fabricates lies about how “ [he is] the son of some wealthy people in the middle-west” (69) and how “ [he] was brought up in America but educated at Oxford” (69) in order to impress her. These lies end up altering others’ perspectives of him - not necessarily in a positive way - and impacting his life as a whole. Daisy unwittingly transforms Gatsby into a picture-perfect image of the 1920s: lavish parties, showy cars, and a false illusion of the attainment of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s newfound wealth and success, he never fully accomplishes his dream: to get Daisy. Gatsby’s final act for the sake of Daisy has no impact on her feelings towards him. When Gatsby claims that he crashed into Myrtle and killed her, Daisy carelessly lets him do so, which ultimately results in his death. To make
Many of the occurrences in The Great Gatsby produced far-reaching effects for several of the characters. Of these occurrences, one of the most influential and important incidents was the death of Myrtle Wilson. While her life and death greatly affected the lives of all of the main and supporting characters, her death had a very significant effect on the lives of Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby.
Tom had money, Daisy knew this. She acknowledged that his money was inherited and that held the love in their relationship. She found that Gatsby grew up underprivileged, and he was supposed to inherit money from a man by the name of Dan Cody, but that opportunity fell through. Gatsby attempts to depict his life as though he inherited his money, but “even Daisy appears unable to cope with the reality of Gatsby’s lower class background”(W) Everyone that attends Gatsby’s lavish parties realize, “Gatsby is never truly one of the elite—his dream is just a facade”(W). As hard as Gatsby tried, everyone could see through his fabrications and lavish parties, most importantly Daisy. She knew his true background and didn’t love him because of it. She wanted a man whose money was inherited, not earned like Gatsby’s. “Both Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, Daisy's husband, possessed wealth. Gatsby at least used his wealth to seek out beauty and claim it for himself. Buchanan the lecher lacked any larger goals. In the end, Daisy chooses to remain with Buchanan, and Gatsby is murdered by the deranged husband of Myrtle Wilson, Buchanan's mistress, who had been accidentally run down and killed by Daisy. Buchanan serves as Gatsby's executioner; he allows George Wilson to believe that Gatsby had killed Myrtle” (Trask). Since his love for Daisy was steadfast, Jay Gatsby took the blame for killing
Throughout the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle is a victim of her own desperation. This sense of despair stems from her marriage to George Wilson. As soon as she marries George she knows she made a mistake and she pays for that mistake every second of her life. This despair that originates from her marriage then translates into her cheating on her husband with a married man, Tom Buchanan and completely ignoring him. Due to her obvious desperation, Tom is able to boss her around on numerous occasions and makes her do what he wants because of her desperation.
George Wilson is the naïve husband to Myrtle Wilson, the woman having an affair with Tom Buchanan, who is the "brute of a man, a great, big, hulking physical specimen"(Fitzgerald 16) husband to Daisy Buchanan, the woman whom Jay Gatsby, the main character, is in love with: a very removed yet significant role in the story. Evidently playing the role of the common man, in a story revolving around wealth and possessions, George Wilson is the owner of an auto body shop and is described as a "spiritless man, anemic and faintly handsome"(29). Wilson's common man image helps to further develop the theme of Wilson is deeply in love with Myrtle to a point where he is paranoid of losing her. "`I've got my wife locked in up there,' explained Wilson calmly. `She's going to stay there till the day after tomorrow and then we're going to move away"(143).
The Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture defined the American Dream as “the idea that the US is a place where everyone has the chance of becoming rich and successful.”But those principles have changed. It has become something that is further out of reach for most people without facing misfortune. It has been tainted by greed, power, anger, and jealously. J. G. Ballard said “the American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. [It is] no more. It 's over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.” The American Dream has causes destruction. The American Dream is disillusionment.
Jay Gatsby is one of the most interesting and memorable characters in this novel. Born as James Gatz to poor farmers in North Dakota, he decided at an early age that he wanted more out of life than North Dakota could offer. Gatsby comes to the East Coast after the war and makes a fortune in bootlegging and other questionable business activities due to the help of characters such as Meyer Wolfsheim. He buys a mansion on West Egg, in order to be directly across the bay from Daisy Buchanan. He gives his wild, extravagant parties and drives his flashy automobiles in hopes of attracting Daisy's attention. She becomes his reason for being and Gatsby never loses sight of his dream and often reaches out to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. After Nick arranges for Daisy and Gatsby to meet again, the two become close again. Gatsby believes that she loves him as much as he loves her and that she is going to leave Tom and be with him. Gatsby is murdered by George Wilson, who believes that Gatsby murdered his wife, Myrtle Wilson.
... shining, his golden opportunity…the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him…”(qtd.in The American Dream). A person who “manages” to achieve his or her version of the American Dream is often said to be “living the dream”. However this concept has been subjected to great criticism because some people that the social structure of the U.S. prevents such an idealistic goal for everyone. May critics often allude to various examples of inequality rooted in class, race, ethnicity, and religion, which suggests that the American Dream is not attainable to everyone. The principles of the American Dream are too idealistic. Everyone has dreams and goals, but the American Dream is one that is infinite and endless. It is very difficult to live the dream when so much of it is obscured by the government.
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.
Years ago, the United States of America was the prime example of prosperity and opportunity. In recent years, in the worst recession since the Great Depression, unemployment and interest rates have skyrocketed. The “American Dream” is an idea that was once a commonly accepted ideology in this country. It has since become only a fallacy. The “American Dream” is no longer an attainable idea, only a fantasy. The “American Dream” is not a true dream that will ever be equally attainable by everyone.
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.
What is the American Dream, and who are the people most likely to pursue its often elusive fulfillment? Indeed, the American Dream has come to represent the attainment of myriad of goals that are specific to each individual. While one person might consider a purchased home with a white picket fence her version of the American Dream, another might regard it as the financial ability to operate his own business. Clearly, there is no cut and dried definition of the American Dream as long as any two people hold a different meaning. What it does universally represent, however, it the opportunity for people to seek out their individual and collective desires under a political umbrella of democracy.