What Is The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

972 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character of Jay Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, “The Great Gatsby” is a classic literature regarding the American dream, those who pursue it, and the impact of that pursuit. The American dream originates from the early days of the Declaration of Independence where people had hope. It was based on equality, opportunity and the pursuit of happiness. In the “Great Gatsby” those dreams were not very different. The main characters, Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and George and Myrtle Wilson, all had the American dream of hope.
Nick Carraway was the narrator of the story. He is a character that is easily sidetracked when sharing his views. His dream is possibly the noblest. He wants to make his way in the world without the help from his prominent and well-to-do family. He moved to New York from the Middle West to learn the bond business where he encountered his eclectic group of acquaintances.
The first people Nick reacquainted with were Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Tom was someone he knew in college and Daisy, his wife, was his second cousin once removed. Tom was a cynical man who was already living the American dream. He was a football star in school and had acquired his achievements so young in life that he became jaded. His family was very wealthy and he never had to work a day in his life. In the story, he feels like his life is
She introduces Nick to the great Jay Gatsby. At first no one knows anything about him. As the story unfolds, Nick learns that he was a war hero that went to Oxford. In the beginning it looked like he was living the American dream of being popular and wealthy. We find out later that his dream was actually Daisy, who he met before the war and lost her to Tom because of his lack of social and monetary status. He resolved to win her back by making something of himself. He made his fortune by doing illegal acts but reaches his goal and goes after his dream of reuniting with

Show More
Related

  • Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    The narrator, Nick Carraway, is Gatsby's neighbor in West Egg. Nick is a young man from a prominent Midwestern family. Educated at Yale, he has come to New York to enter the bond business. In some sense, the novel is Nick's memoir, his unique view of the events of the summer of 1922; as such, his impressions and observations necessarily color the narrative as a whole. For the most part, he plays only a peripheral role in the events of the novel; he prefers to remain a passive observer.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    377 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Flaws In The Great Gatsby

    514 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, deals heavily with the concept of the American Dream as it existed during the Roaring Twenties, and details its many flaws through the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy and ambitious entrepreneur who comes to a tragic end after trying to win the love of the moneyed Daisy Buchanan, using him to dispel the fantastic myth of the self-made man and the underlying falsities of the American Dream. Despite Gatsby’s close association with the American Dream, however, Fitzgerald presents the young capitalist as a genuinely good person despite the flaws that caused his undoing. This portrayal of Gatsby as a victim of the American Dream is made most clear during his funeral, to which less than a handful of people attend. Gatsby makes many mistakes throughout the novel, all of which Fitzgerald uses these blunders as a part of his thematic deconstruction of the American Dream.

    Read More

  • The American Dream In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1522 Words  | 4 Pages

    American clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger once said “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it is possible to achieve the American dream.” This idea of the “American dream” has been around since the founding and has become a prominent part of American culture and identity. This same idea is what the raved about novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is based around. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, pursues this American dream through his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan and his need to be insanely rich.

    Read More

  • Chasing the American Dream in The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... Nick makes a small funeral for Gatsby and Daisy does not attend it. He took the blame for her, and he is dead all because of her, he sacrificed for her. She and Tom decide to travel and take off. Also Nick breaks up with Jordan, and he moves back to Midwest because he has had enough of these people, and hates the people that were close to Gatsby and for bareness, emptiness, and cold heart they have of the life in the middle of the wealthy on the East Coast. Nick realizes, and reveals that Gatsby’s dream of Daisy was ruined by money and un-loyalty, dishonestly. Daisy all she cared about is wealth, she chased after the men that have a lot of money. Even though Gatsby has control, influence, and authority to change his dreams into making it into real life for him this is what Nicks says makes him a good man. Now both Gatsby’s dream and the American Dream are over.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Analysis

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though he had some thought that the meeting would provoke harmful tensions between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby, he went along with it anyways, further demonstrating his own innate lack of reservation. Ultimately, Nick is an unreliable narrator who overlooks Gatsby’s lies because of his biased judgment of him. Nick portrays Gatsby as a generous and charismatic figure while in reality, he is a duplicative and obsessed man entangled in illegal business who is determined on an unattainable goal. It is highly ironic that Nick judges others for their lack of morality and honesty; his own character is plagued by lies as he abets Gatsby in many of his schemes.

    Read More

  • The American Dream in The Great Gatsby

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby,a novel by F,Scott Fitzgerald,is about the American Dream,and the downfall of the people who try to reach it.The American Dream means something different to different people,but in The Great Gatsby,for Jay Gatsby,the subject of the book,the dream is that through acquiring wealth and power,one can also gain happiness.To reach his idea of what happiness is,Gatsby must go back in time and relive an old dream.To do this,he believes,he must first have wealth and power.

    Read More

  • Essay On Why Is Nick An Unreliable Narrator In The Great Gatsby

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about Nick Caraway, a man who moved into New York in West Egg. He soon finds out that his house borders a mansion of a wealthy man, named Jay Gatsby, who is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy Buchannan. Nick describes his past experiences with Gatsby. He is an unreliable first person narrator, for he is extremely subjective being biased towards Gatsby and he is deceptive, with his lying and past actions. His evaluation of Gatsby is not entirely just, due to his close friendship with Gatsby.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button And The Great Gatsby

    2285 Words  | 5 Pages

    Nick finds out a few days after his move that an adored man by the name of Jay Gatsby lives next door to him. He hears about the parties that he throws and such from a friend of his cousin Daisy. He meets Daisy Buchanon, her husband Tom Buchanon, and friend Jordan Baker, at their house in East Egg. This is when everything begins to unravel. Nick is then invited to Gatsby 's party and attends it. After the party it is very apparent that Nick is intrigued in Gatsby. He even watches the party unwind, "There was music from my neighbor 's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and he champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his motor-boats slid the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before." (3.1) Nick eventually meets up

    Read More

  • What Does The American Dream Mean In The Great Gatsby

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    People would do anything when it comes to love. They would do the unthinkable just to be noticed. That’s exactly what Gatsby had to go through. The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925 and has been highly recognized in society since then. One of the main reasons it is considered a classic American novel is because of its success and relevance to American history. It is also your typical love story that never gets old. In this story, the reader gets a glimpse at Jay Gatsby’s lavish life and his over the top parties that are held every weekend. He is living the American Dream. The story is told by Nick Caraway, a young man from Minnesota who moves to West Egg, Long Island for the summer to learn about the bond business. He

    Read More

  • The American Dream in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    1085 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emerging trends of the 1920’s. More importantly, the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dreams and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive to acquire the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the author's view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.

    Read More

  • Gatsbys Pursuit Of The American Dream

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its impossible goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is used in many novels. This dream is different for different people; but, in The Great Gatsby, for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness. To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream; and, in order to do this, he must have wealth and power.

    Read More

  • The Most Valuable Character in The Great Gatsby

    611 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Nick is the golden thread, in which every important character in the story is directly tied to. For instance, the first time Nick runs into Jay Gatsby at one of his grand parties, he realizes that he and Jay were in the same division during the time they both served in the war. In addition, he finds later that his connection with his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, whom Nick went to Yale with, ...

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Great Gatsby

    469 Words  | 1 Pages

    Here's the story in a short version. Nick Carraway is a young man from a wealthy family, living in a Middle Eastern city. The Carraway's are something of a clan, actually. Nick's grandfather came here in 1851 and started a business, which his father carries on today. Nick graduated from Yale University in 1915, and just a little later he was in the Great War.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Book Report

    3257 Words  | 7 Pages

    At the onset of this book, the reader is introduced to the narrator, Nick Carraway, who relates the past happenings that construct the story of Jay Gatsby and Nick during the summer of 1922. After fighting in World War I, or the Great War as Nick called it, Nick left his prominent family in the West of America for the North where he intended to learn the bond business. Nick was originally supposed to share a house in West Egg near New York City with an associate of his, but the man backed out and so Nick lived with only a Finnish cook. Right next door, Gatsby lived in a glorious mansion with expansive gardens and a marble swimming pool, among other luxuries. Yet Nick did not even hear about Gatsby until he went to visit his distant family at East Egg next to West Egg.

    Read More

More about What Is The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Open Document