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Application of the american dream in popular literature
Application of the american dream in popular literature
Application of the american dream in popular literature
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In the book “The Great Gatsby”, Gatsby, begins by allowing his mind to believe that he can repeat the past. He starts to fanaticize about Daisy, a girl he met before war. Towards the end of the book his dream is crushed due to Daisy leaving and eventually giving him the fall for Myrtle’s death. The American dream is a time in history in which riches mattered and money bought everything even happiness. Fantasy was all about imagining something that isn’t necessarily possible. Gatsby tends to stick to the ideal of the American dream throughout the story. For example, the green light. This symbolizes the open door to new dreams that lead to never ending imagination. Therefore, everything Gatsby allowed himself to believe was reality, came to be a thought that was …show more content…
never even possible. In this, Fitzgerald brings across the idea of dreams vs. reality. As kids we all dream of being astronauts, doctors, teachers, and vets. Each child has had a different past and or childhood that either allowed them to be those things or totally denied the fact because of who they are. Different kids grow up thinking they have to be as if they were someone else and they begin to fantasize and make themselves appear that way. On page 50 of the book it tells how Gatsby carries a big stack of books that allow him to appear to be intelligent when in reality he’s as smart as a log.
Reality is based off your options coming from how hard you work for who you want to become. However, dreams are the exaggerated goals to where we can’t necessarily conquer to become what we imagine. Society begins to shake off and relive the past by adding in new or greater details that they think will change the past or as said before make it better. The Great Gatsby shares an important factor of how the American dream faced reality or in other words death. In “The Great Gatsby” it shares a lot about materialism, which is the belief that what you have or look like is more important than what you actually believe in. The west egg was all about the “new”. This side was less familiar of what to do with their money, had less class, and created many get together just to lure in the people who’ve had experience also known as the east egg. These people cared more about what they looked like to others and became fake to be seen as equal or fit in with the experience riches. Money was a big part of the American dream some say it’s why it was drawn away from
reality. Riches is the best word to describe a fake person. The fact that money always leads to destruction of any situation explains why the American dream was ended along with Gatsby’s life. Gatsby was used as a symbol to where it showed how the American dream was finally ended meaning he met reality and it ended his life and crazy imagination.
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the pursuit of the American dream in a corrupt period is a central theme. This theme exemplifies itself in the downfall of Gatsby. In a time of disillusionment the ideals of the American dream are lost. The classic American dream is one of materialism and when Gatsby incorporates Daisy, a human being, into the dream he is doomed to fail.
Gatsby's tragic loss of the American dream has to do with his toxic quest to fall in love with daisy “When he kissed her, She blossomed for hints like a flower and the incarnation was complete. In Daisy, Gatsby's meretricious dream was made
The American Dream is a major in American Literature. According to James Truslow Adams, in his book Epic of America, this dream promises a brighter and more successful future, coupled with a vision based on everybody being equal irrespective of their gender, caste and race. It emphasizes that everyone is innately capable of achieving his or her dreams with hard work. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is portrayed by Jay Gatsby's vision of attaining the social status he desires. Gatsby can achieve his dream once he marries Daisy Buchannan, a young woman he met in Louisville, where he falls in love with the opulence that surrounds her. Throughout the book, the motifs of the green light and fake facade are used to signify Gatsby's hope and never ending lust for status respectively. Gatsby's obsession with restructuring his past leads to his failure. Fitzgerald uses these motifs of the green light, fake facade and past to showcase Gatsby's objectification of his American Dream.
According to Cynthia Wu, no matter how many critical opinions there are on The Great Gatsby, the book basically deals with Gatsby's dream and his illusions (39). We find out from the novel that Jay Gatsby is not even a real person but someone that James Gatz invented. Wu also tells us that Gatsby has illusions that deal with romance, love, beauty, and ideals (39). Wu also points out that Gatsby's illusions can be divided into four related categories: he came from a rich upper class family, a never ending love between him and Daisy, money as the answer to every problem, and reversible time. Through Nick's narrations we can really see who this Jay Gatsby is and the reality to his illusions, and from this we can make our own decision on who we think Jay Gatsby really is.
Gatsby is a dreamer; he does everything only to pursue the only dream that he had in his life- Daisy, who also stands as a symbol for the American dream in the 1920s.
The American dream today is very different from Gatsby's. The dream today is to have our necessities and to have fun. Many people would like to have a house to call your own, a job you like that pays the bills, and a healthy family. Gatsby's dream was to be wealthy and to find love, which was Daisy. He wanted to be an important person that people remembered. Gatsby thought that his wealth would buy Daisy's love, He tried to buy happiness and become something he wasn't. Even with all of his money he was not ever truly happy until he got Daisy. Gatsby lived his whole life with money and class but in the end he ended up dying because of
Like the author Garrison Keillor once said “ I believe in looking reality in the face and denying it” ,but in this tale , isn’t very wise. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, some of the character are in disillusionment, but the one that is constantly in it is Jay Gatsby.Although, people can do this, Gatsby tries to recreates the past and never considers Daisy’s reality.Through Gatsby’s choices, Fitzgerald displays his argument that people should accept reality .
What distinguishes a dream from reality? Many combine the two, often creating confusing and disappointing results. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the impact that reality has on an individual by examining the life of Jay Gatsby. This twentieth-century piece of literature holistically portrays the Jazz Age and accurately captures life in the 1920s. This decade was a time in which many individuals strove towards fulfilling the American Dream. The extravagant and lavish lifestyle which many people lived depicted their romantic desire for wealth. This constant greed and artificial attitude consequentially produced fantastic misconceptions of reality. Jay Gatsby’s life parallels the lives of those who lived during the 1920s because similarly to Gatsby, they too had no astonishing beginnings and created deceptions that were the only route to the American dream. The significance of understanding the difference between what is fantasy and what is reality is crucial, as Gatsby is the epitome of the result of dreams dictating a person’s actions. Fitzgerald suggests that fantasy never matches reality and successfully proves this by comparing the fantasy that Gatsby creates to reality.
In society, many people mistakably blind themselves from the truth of reality in order to achieve the materialistic things life offers. They become intrigued by these ideas and dreams of another life and turn it into an obsession, unable to understand the consequences. In the novel, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Jay Gatsby’s perception of life exemplifies this by allowing his dreams to overpower reality. His belief happiness can be found through wealth, love and possessions causes him to think everything should and will be capable of his reach. Motivated by obsession with love and success, Gatsby creates an impractical dream for himself and Daisy.
Book Analysis F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of "The Great Gatsby," reveals many principles about today's society and the "American dream. " One of the biggest fears in today's world is the fear of not fitting into society. People of all age groups and backgrounds share this fear. Many individuals believe that to receive somebody's affection, they must assimilate into that person's society. In the story, Jay Gatsby pursues the American dream and his passion for being happy only to come to a tragedy and total loss.
Parties, alcohol, and the desire to change from “rags to riches”. These things are not only represented in the movie The Great Gatsby, but also represent the time of the Roaring Twenties. The Great Gatsby depicts an accurate depiction of the time when America ended World War I in 1918, and entered in a period of wealth and materialism. Although The Great Gatsby exemplifies United States with accurate representations, there are few inaccurate details regarding the American Dream, flapper girls, and Prohibition.
Themes of hope, success, and wealth overpower The Great Gatsby, leaving the reader with a new way to look at the roaring twenties, showing that not everything was good in this era. F. Scott Fitzgerald creates the characters in this book to live and recreate past memories and relationships. This was evident with Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, Tom and Daisy’s struggling marriage, and Gatsby expecting so much of Daisy and wanting her to be the person she once was. The theme of this novel is to acknowledge the past, but do not recreate and live in the past because then you will not be living in the present, taking advantage of new opportunities.
The American dream is an ideal in American literature that has been around for centuries. An idea that your average Joe can go from rags to riches, while finding love and having high social status on the way up the ladder. The American dream can be based off the idea of self-reliance, freedom, and just having a general dream to do something better for your life or for your family’s life. In The Great Gatsby, however, the American dream was more focused on materialistic items such as big houses, nice clothes, and fancy cars. Jay Gatsby started as a poor man in his early life, but ended up being quite wealthy. In his early life, he was very dedicated to his dreams, even writing a daily schedule to better himself. But once he acquired a great deal of wealth, he became blinded by his need for luxurious things, and never truly figured out that money cannot buy love and it cannot buy happiness. That instance is what made the novel tragic. Gatsby thought that having wealth meant he had a chance at getting his old love, Daisy, back.
perhaps even one of the greatest novels of all time. In order to be revered as a
The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald In the novel “The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald” has the thematic structure as a failure of the American dream. In a number of ways, the characters in this novel fail to achieve the American dream. This is shown in the manner in which most of the characters in this novel live their lives. This paper will be aimed at discussing the thematic structure as a failure of the American dream.