The Great Gatsby and the American Dream
Everyone wants to be successful in life, but most often people take the wrong ways to get there. In the 1920’s the American Dream was something that everyone struggled to have. A spouse, children, money, a big house and a car meant that someone had succeeded in life. A very important aspect was money and success was determined greatly by it. This was not true in all cases however. The belief that every man can rise to success no matter what his beginnings. Jay Gatsby was a poor boy that turned into a very wealthy man, but did he live the American Dream? Money is actually the only thing that Gatsby had a lot of. Jay Gatsby tries to live the life of The American Dream, but fails in his battle.
I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes – a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. (P. 171).
On his last visit to Gatsby’s house, Nick realizes that Gatsby’s belief in life and love resembles the hope and faith of those early Dutch sailors coming to America, looking forward to freedom and spiritual and material jubilation. With this in mind, we can be sure that Gatsby is the reflection of the American Dream. So, in what way is Gatsby representative of the American Dream?
After people have determined their specific aspirations, they need to structure a course of actions to achieve them in order to bring their dreams to reality. For Gatsby, his dream is very easily realized, to a certain extent, by virtue of his immense ambition and idealism. As described by Nick in the novel, Gatsby has an "extraordinary gift for hope", which has never been found in any other person:
If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away.
"...One Nation, under God, indivisible, with justice for all." Most Americans have heard and said this pledge to allegiance hundreds of times. The question is, do we really believe in the power of its meaning? It's a shame that America, land of the free, is also the land of capitalism, scandal and discrimination. Though we have the freedom to bear arms, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious and political affiliation, some Americans claim that they do not have the freedom to be themselves. Images from the media of aesthetic beauty and financial success bombard the majority of Americans on an everyday basis. It is only natural for one to attempt to 'improve' himself or herself by living up to the standards imposed by society. Unfortunately, America's brand of 'self-improvement' often comes with a price. I agree with the definition in Webster's College Dictionary of the American Dream: 'an American ideal of social equality and especially material success. Though the American Dream is very much alive for many, it is not necessarily well for most.
A fine and daring ideal in the 18th century, and at the heart of what America hoped that it stood for. 'The Great Gatsby' examines how this dream existed in the early 20th century and whether or not it had been accomplished. The American Dream permeated all of society, and so every one of the characters in the book is in some senses a reflection of the the world envisaged by Jefferson and Washington, and even before them by those first people fleeing to a new life in the New World.
Americans are perpetual dreamers, unwavering optimists, and incessant innovators. We believe in ourselves, we believe in a better world and we believe that we can do anything we put our minds to. Pursuing the American Dream at all costs, economic class, race, and religion are not barriers; we achieve our goals no matter how unattainable they may seem. We are a nation of underdogs who put our heads down and work towards our goals. Dating back to the Revolutionary War, this mentality won us our freedom; we were David and England was Goliath, but we wanted freedom more than they resisted it. Our nation had a dream and it was determined to make it a reality. 250 years later, Americans are just as ambitious as our Founding Fathers. Young people in this country
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 cause 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
The book starts off with the narrator Nick Carraway. He is from Minnesota and in 1992 he moves to NYC in the summer. He starts by giving us advices that his father told him about not to make fun of people what so ever. Daisy Buchanan is Nick’s cousin; she is married to Tom Buchanan. Jordan Baker is Daisy’s close friend. Daisy Baker falls in love with Nick, and he loves her back. He goes to NYC to study about the bond business.
The Objectification of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby 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.
America is the land with the most dreamers. America is the land of opportunity and equality. In America your dreams can be fulfilled if you work hard to achieve your goals. The American dream to most is, to be wealthy and to be able to afford anything. Wealth is a plus in life because you can afford expensive items that do not necessarily have a use, but it does not necessarily matter how hard you try or how much you spend you can not buy happiness. Although being wealthy can make you seem happy on the outside, on the inside you would not be as happy as you seem. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author shows how being wealthy will not make you happy. Many people have voiced their opinions of the America dream.
It’s been ingrained into the fabric of society that to be truly happy in life, one needs to be wealthy. The characters in The Great Gatsby show this is not always the case, and that wealth is not always as important as one would believe. Society has always placed a significant importance on being rich, being wealthy. It makes one believe that being wealthy is the only true way to live a happy and fulfilling life. With this in mind, many readers are going to look at the characters in The Great Gatsby, such as Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan, and fantasize about one day living the lifestyle that they live. While many characters in The Great Gatsby would appear from the outside to be living the American Dream, it what lies underneath this image of
A dream is a deep ambition and desire for something; everybody tries to reach their dreams no matter how far away they may seem. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories strive for nothing less than “The Great American Dream”. This is the need to be the best of the best, top of the social ladder, and to be happier and more successful than anyone has been before. Fitzgerald writes about this American Dream that every character has but can never achieve; the dream is kept unattainable due to obstacles, the disadvantages of being low on the social ladder, and also the restrictions of having a high social status.
In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to become happier with their lives. The characters in the novel are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class(West egg and East egg) though the main characters only try to make their lives better, the American dream they are all trying to achieve is eventually ruined by the harsh reality or life.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
Fitzgerald's criticism of the American experience is obvious in The Great Gatsby. He has treated the subject of the 'American dream' in this artistic work by embodying fictional characters standing for the materialistic side of the experience represented by the Buchanans as opposed to the spiritual side envisioned and incarnated by the tragic hero Gatsby, standing alone seeking perfection and using money as a means to make his dream come true. In fact, Nick Carraway, the narrator, is right when he describes the magnitude of Gatsby's dream by saying:"Through all he said, even through his appalling sentimentality I was reminded of something - an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago. For a moment a phrase tried to take shape into my mouth". It is evident that Nick has realized the essence of Gatsby’s dream which represents the spiritual level of the 'American dream'. In this sense the phrase 'the American dream' refers to the romantic enlargement of the possibilities of life on a level at which the material and the spiritual become confused. Gatsby is a victim of this ‘dream’ because he is unable to differentiate between fiction and reality. This is apparent in his willingness to mix up fiction with reality, his appalling sentimentality as Nick
The American dream was an idea that with hard work Americans could live with equal opportunities and prosperity. In the 1920s, many Americans worked to achieve the perfect American Dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald 's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, searches for the American dream in his own life. However, like the many people who fail to achieve the idea of the American dream, Gatsby is one of them. Growing up in a poor family, Gatsby finds that he doesn 't have as many opportunities as those around him. Therefore, he dedicates is life to finding his idea of the perfect life and "stretched out his arms toward the ... single green light, minute and far away" (Fitzgerald 21). Despite his good intentions, Gatsby makes
People are often seen basing their lives off of society’s standards. Many writers criticizes the influence that society has over its members. The romantic novelist Jane Austen satirizes her society and those who follow it. One of her most famous works, Pride and Prejudice, is a great example of this satire. Throughout the novel she explores the effects of society through her characters. In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, she divulges the central theme of society and social class through the characters Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, and Lady Catherine.
The author clearly wishes to continually demonstrate broken and corrupt relationships in order to display how the failing of the American dream can poison the family. In addition, at one point in the book, Gatsby works with Nick to bring her over so that he can see her again and show her his house. The moment when they appear truly happy together occurs when they are together in Gatsby’s gardens. Fitzgerald plays upon the classic garden image to show that the two are only happy in their natural state, but they are not; they live in the world tainted by the actions and more specifically the failings of mankind. Furthermore, Roger Lewis implies the importance of the valley of ashes in the portrayal of the theme of Gatsby.