What Does The American Dream Represent In The Great Gatsby

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In the story the Great Gatsby there are many themes and symbols that show the story for what it is actually about and how it represents the American dream. When the author Fitzgerald wrote the novel he implemented symbols in the story that would show you what wealth does to you and how that may actually not be the American dream people would expect. There are many good things that come with success but the story suggest that it actually may have its own consequences as well. What exactly are the consequences of achieving the American dream that the story attempts to symbolize though? And what does the pursuit of the American dream cost to a person? In my essay I will show how the story represents these symbols of the American dream and also how the characters represent them as well. …show more content…

The portrayal of the American dream is shown to have a very flexible lifestyle to any situation you are put in and the wealth could allow you to do to things that normal people wouldn’t be able to do. The consequences of the American dream are that your are not entirely able to be satisfied since many of the people in the Great Gatsby are rich already so they have reached the climax of life already and everything seems to go downhill in expectations afterwards. The narrator of the story (Nick), said this about his friend Tom early in the story since he experienced success very early in his life.This may also apply to many other characters in the story since they are all similar in terms of achieving the American

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