Dreaming Can Bring Misery in the Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitgerald

Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man living in a mansion. No one really knows how or why he got his fortune, he is a mystery to say the least. The story is told by Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor, who had just moved from the midwest to West Egg. Nick is related to Daisy who is married to Tom who was friends with Nick back in their Yale days. Gatsby is in love with Daisy, which is partly the reason why he throws such extravagant parties. In hopes that one day Daisy will attend one. Gatsby is livin the american dream.The pros are pros, and the cons are destructive.

Jay Gatsby is renowned for throwing the biggest parties in New York to display his wealth. In reality, these parties are meant to impress one person, Daisy, the love of his life. Daisy’s friend, Jordan Baker, confirms this when she tells Nick, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night, but she never did. Then he began asking people casually if they knew her, and I was the first one he found” (F, 80). Unfortunately, Gatsby lost his chance to marry Daisy because of his low social class. His hope to be reunited with Daisy is the ambition behind his wealth. However, the parties he throws fail to attract Daisy’s attention and results in his self-doubt; this is seen through his attempt to ask people about Daisy. His uncertainty makes him desperate, which conducts him to use his wealth to throw parties for their use value. Even though Gatsby is now accepted as a bourgeoisie, he remains unhappy because he cannot be with the person who makes him truly

The rekindling of this epic “love” tale begins when Gatsby buys a house directly across the bay from Daisy, her husband, and child. They do not know it yet, but Jay certainly does. Every night he walks outside and stares through the fog at the green light on Daisy’s dock. Some would consider these gestures endearing and romantic, but with all of that left aside it still seems as if he is stalking her. He is always searching for her everywhere he goes and is intrigued by the mentioning of her name. She is married to Tom Buchanan, a descent from old money, and is living quite lavishly. She hardly remembers Gatsby even exists until Jordan Baker mentions him at dinner. When Daisy hears Jay’s name a sudden bolt goes through her and she flooded with memories of the past. Everyone at dinner can see how this has affected her, including her husband. Nick, who is unaware of the situation, is surprised at what he has seen.

In Their Eyes Were watching God, author Zora Neale Hurston writes, "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.” Hurston is talking about dreams. When the ship is at a distance, the watcher can believe that his dreams may come true. However, sometimes the ship becomes closer and eventually makes it to the shore. When this happens, the watcher must accept the reality of what is actually on board the ship. Often, this discovery is disappointing. Hurston conveys that believing in dreams is exciting, but it can set people up for disappointment when their dreams do not come true in reality exactly as they imagined. Author F. Scott Fitzgerald explores this theme in his novel The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, who dreams for

The protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is a man driven by his desire for Daisy Buchanan, the woman he loves. Gatsby goes to great lengths to win Daisy's affection, including purchasing a grand estate across the water from her home and throwing extravagant parties in the

Originally, the American dream for the first settlers was for their children, and they would sacrifice everything for freedom of religion, and thought. Although, the American dream in the 1920’s is to live in happiness through financial and social success. For many, this selfish dream is achieved through illegal activity such as bootlegging, and gambling. This dream is mirrored in many novels such as The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s demise to highlight both the fragility of, and un-attainableness of the American dream in the 1920’s.

Let’s say that there is a person who has an important goal that he wants to eventually reach, such as becoming a professional football player. He goes to all the practices, goes to the gym everyday, and he studies all of the plays that he might do. He puts in tons of work and at the end of highschool he gets a scholarship to play football in college. So, he is on the team, and on his first day of practice, he has a career ending injury. He can no longer play football for the rest of his life. How do you think that made him feel? The Great Gatsby is a book about a man, named Nick, who has a neighbor, called Gatsby, who likes a woman who he knew in the past. Of Mice and Men is a book about two men, named George and Lennie. They are trying to get a job and enough money to buy some land, so they can “live off the fatta the land” (Fitzgerald 14-15). The Great Gatsby and Of Mice and Men both show characters that are determined to achieve the american dream. As these characters get closer to achieving the american dream, things start to go downhill. This shows that no matter how determined someone is to achieve the american dream, they might not be able to achieve this dream.

Jay Gatsby, the title character of the novel is an incredibly wealthy young man, living in a medieval mansion in West Egg on an imaginary area of Long Island. Gatsby has many laudable traits. For example, he is filled with optimism and the ability to transform his dreams into reality. Jay is also extremely faithful to his true love, Daisy Buchanan, even to the point of death. When we first meet Gatsby, he is the aloof host of the fantastically opulent parties thrown every weekend at his mansion. It appears he is surrounded by wondrous luxury and is courted by beautiful women and the rich and powerful men of the time. Jay is also a very admirable character due to his status of wealth and being a hero of War World I, “In the Argonne Forest I took two machine gun detachments so far forward that there was half a mile gap on either side… I was promoted to be a major, and every Allied government gave me a decoration- even Montenegro”. However, Nick who narrates the book views Gatsby as a flawed man who is dishonest, deceitful, a liar, and a dreamer whom is searching for answers in the past, “he talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy… if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…”

Many years ago, my grandparents came to the United States in pursue of the American Dream. They came chasing opportunities and in hope of gaining a better life. As the years passed, they achieved their goal and continued their journey as dreamers. The American Dream as seen by many today is that any person, regardless of their background, can achieve great things in America as long as hard work and effort is put in. Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, uses his 1925 novel as an allegory for his interpretation of the American Dream. The American Dream is a never ending dream; those who pursue it thrive for more, and those who achieve it are never satisfied.

     Gatsby lives a selfless life in order to attain his dream. His loyalty to his dream is Gatsby’s most noble characteristic. Although it seems to be too idealistic, Gatsby “[throws] himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that [drifts] his way.” (101) His entire existence revolves around his dream; recapturing Daisy’s heart, taking her away from Tom and living happily ever after in his mansion he built with her approval in mind.

Early in the book, the character Jay Gatsby, is introduced as a dreamer who is gracious, charming, and a bit mysterious. As the novel progresses we also learn that Gatsby is a self-made man who achieved the American Dream of rising up from the lower classes to the top of society. But to Gatsby, the desire for Daisy and love proves more powerful than money. Something that shows his obsession of her, is this example.

Five years before the start of the novel, Jay Gatsby who had learned from Dan Cody how to act like one of the wealthy was stationed in Louisville before going to fight in WWI. In Louisville, he met Daisy Fay, a beautiful young heiress, who took him for someone of her social class. Gatsby maintained the lie, which allowed their relationship to progress. Gatsby fell in love with Daisy but had to go off to the war and in that time of his absence daisy married tom. Determined to get her back, Gatsby falls in with Meyer Wolfshiem, a gangster, and gets into bootlegging and other criminal enterprises to make enough money to finally be able to provide for her.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces the character, Gatsby, to show how The American Dream failed him so devastatingly. Gatsby had the dream to be reunited with Daisy and repeat the past again. Daisy and Gatsby were once in love in October of 1917. Daisy was eighteen and Queen Bee of high society, while Gatsby was a young officer who was head-over-heels in love with her. However, Gatsby had to leave for war, leaving Daisy behind. Even

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel about the American Dream. In the Great Gatsby, the dream is that one can acquire happiness through wealth and power. To get his happiness Jay attempts to reacquire the love of his lost sweet heart, Daisy. The main problem with Jay's dream is that Daisy is married. Gatsby's personal dream symbolizes the larger American Dream 'The pursuit of happiness'.

Gatsby creates an identity for himself as a wealthy man, who lives a glamorous life by throwing huge parties, and is known by the most prestigious figures in New York. What the partygoers don’t realize is that the parties and his wealth is all in the hopes of rekindling with his love from the past, Daisy. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the story of a young man named Jay Gatsby, who came from nothing, and built up to be everything that he had hoped and dreamed of being. However, his one dream did not become a reality due to misfortunate events. All the money in the world couldn’t make Gatsby happy, as he died as his true self, not the identity he created for himself.