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Daisy Buchanan

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The concept of The American Dream was first coined by James Truslow Adams who described it as, “the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each”. The concept of a land with free opportunity for all, no matter social and economic class, incentivizes many. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby embodies the ideals of the American Dream as he explores the validity of it through the characters of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy socialite, and Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a mechanic. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald exposes the true nature of the American Dream as he weaves the stories of not only the Roaring Twenties, but also the individuals within the transformative time period. …show more content…

She embodies the spirit of the American Dream in human form, onlookers describe her as: “She vanished into her rich house, into her rich, full life…[he] was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe, and proud above the struggles of the poor” (Fitzgerald 149-150). Daisy represents the “wealth” that Myrtle so desperately tried to obtain. Daisy, to put it simply, glows of prosperity. She lacks the need to fathom the “struggles of the poor” as they attempt to achieve the American Dream, rather she possesses the highly enviable ability to “vanish” back into her dream-like and “rich” life. Her struggle to obtain the American Dream is evident in her pre-wedding anxiety: “Tell ‘em all Daisy’s change’ her minde [said Daisy]...We...hooked her back into her dress, and half and hour later...the incident was over. Next day at five o’clock she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver” (Fitzgerald 76). Daisy’s apprehension before the wedding presents an internal conflict, one that results in the perseverance of the American Dream as she chooses to obtain wealth and prosperity through her marriage to Tom Buchanan. The struggles of Daisy, an upper-class woman, is meager compared to the ones of Myrtle Wilson as they both strive for the same American Dream: wealth. Ultimately, the Dream favors Daisy Buchanan due to the fact that Daisy successfully achieves it by merely putting back on her wedding dress “without so much as a shiver”. The institutionalized bias is prevalent as the wealthy woman easily achieves the Dream while the lower-class attempts are shot down by the Dream, the same Dream that supposedly provides equal opportunity to

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