gatdream F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - Danger of the American Dream Great Gatsby Essays

Danger of the American Dream Exposed in The Great Gatsby

I have read many books during my life. The Great Gatsby was the only novel that I found to be magnificent. F. Scott Fitzgerald has made me realize that there are many aspects in life that need to be taken seriously. The Great Gatsby has struck me emotionally as well as physically - it contains both physical and emotional pain.

All of Fitzgerald's characters had a Dream, however, Jay Gatsbys dream stood out above the others. Jay Gatsby was the only character throughout the whole novel that I found to experience both emotional and physical pain. Continuing with the emotional pain, Jay Gatsby exaggerates it. His American Dream is to go after a lost love, a love that he thought would love him and stay with him until death will break them apart, but it didn't end like that. This dream, his love, left him, and ran off with another, her husband. This left Jay Gatsby alone, tormented, miserable, and devastated. His American Dream left him, destroyed him and ruined his life, his whole entire life

I also found in Jay Gatsby an injury, a physical pain that tormented him day and night. It is the pain of Denial. However, Jay Gatsby was not the only one that had an American Dream and got hurt, there were others, others that died because they thought that their American Dream was real. Take for instance, a young lady named Myrtle. She was a wife and at the same time a lover of another. She was the lover of Tom, who was Daisy's husband, and Daisy was Jay Gatsby's love. A good connection there, right? Myrtle loved Tom, with all her heart. He was her American Dream, and yet she didn't find love near him, but death among his wife, who killed her accidentally. A tragic for a young lady like Myrtle.

Among other things, I find Gatsby to be rather vague. My eyes could never quite focus upon him, his outlines are dim. Everything about Gatsby was more or less like a mystery, something that you had to figure out yourself. Fitzgerald writes "Gatsby 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 obsucurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic roled on under the night". At first Gatsby did not know that his dream, his American Dream was away, past him, far away from everything he ever owned in life. This American Dream cost him his life. He died with honor and with pride.

But yet, Daisy and and Tom lived on with remorse, regrets and guilts and hallucinations, because of the death that Daisy caused Myrtle, and Tom for lying to Myrtle husband about the car that killed Myrtle. These lies and guilt were Tom's and Daisy's American dreams after what they caused. They played with fire, they get burned. That's the way it will always be.

The American Dream is dangerous. Gatsby took a risk, and lost his dream. Daisy took a risk and lost half her strength and Tom his pride of being a strong man. They put all of their heart and might to follow their dreams, and yet at the end, it all went to loss. Everything they ever hoped for, everything they ever wished for, went down the drain, down to loss and shame. As a nurse, I consider the American Dream to be a dangerous dream, a dangerous dream, becauuse you never know what can happen, what can occur to you on the end. My American Dream is to heal and cure patients who are in need and make a good job out of it, but somehow sometimes it backfires on me, and what I'm left with is guilt, like Daisy herself. I cannot cure Gatsby of his American Dream, but I did found an injury, the injury of Denial, like I mentioned before. Daisy denied him, and he denied himself. He didn't want to give up, he went from poor to rich to get his dream. He even changed his name, for his dream. I wouldm't deny myself that far. I would be proud of who I am, but Gatsby wasn't. He went all the way for her, and the one who ended up losing was him.

The only cure that I find in Gatsby is his death. He died with honor and pride, he died for Daisy. He protected her, he knew that his time was over, he sensed it. And it happened. He was murdered, from Myrtle's husband because he thought it was him who killed Myrtle. And yet, Gatsby lay peacefully in his grave, while Daisy lived on with pain and guilt. This is the cure of Gatsby's injury, the cure that I found, as a nurse of injured patients. This is the emotional cure. The physical cure, will be his slow death, in his pool, the one that hurt, after you are stabbed or shot. The one that last memories come to your mind, memories that make your eyes close and rest peacefully forever. Gatsby's last memories were Daisy's, I'm sure of it.

Overall, Jay Gatsby woke me up to the true danger of the American Dream. This is reality. The American Dream is dangerous, because it can cause you guilt, shame, regrets, remorse and death. One must be careful to avoid the mistakes of Gatsby, and instead, only pursue true pride and honor. One must always be careful of the dreams one follows.

"One thing I think we can be sure of: that when the tumult and shouting of the rabble or reviewers and gossippers die,The Great Gatsby will stand out as a very extraordinary book", by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby.