Essay On The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The term “The American Dream” was coined in 1931 by American writer James Truslow Adams and described America as a place of opportunity based on one’s ability and hard work. Although the term originated in 1931, the fundamental ideas of the American Dream debuted in 1920’s society and contrasted greatly with previous notions of a stagnant class structure. This was due to the booming post-WWI economy, which provided an increase in accessibility to leisure items and activities, allowing luxuries typically reserved for the upper class to be enjoyed by the masses. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, reflects these social and economic changes. The novel follows the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, who achieved prosperity in spite of being born the son of a poor, North Dakota farmer. Though many believed in an emergence of class mobility in the 1920’s, the novel The Great Gatsby demonstrates the ultimate inaccessibility of the American Dream - a holistic realization of social and economic equality.

“It is the elusive Gatsby, the cynical idealist, who embodies America in all of its messy glory.” Clearly as Adam Cohen asserts in his New York Times article “Jay Gatsby, Dreamer, Criminal, Jazz Age Rogue, Is a Man for Our Times”, this phenomenon is indeed true in that the American Dream is presented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as an idea that has been depraved into a dream characterized by the constant shift in ethics and fraudulence centered around materialistic visions of opulence and wealth.

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, an idealistic and illusionary goal to achieve wealth and status. The ruthless pursuit of wealth leads to the corruption of human nature and moral values. Fitzgerald uses characters in the novel to show the corruptions and the illusionary nature of the American Dream. The superficial achievement of the American Dreams give no fulfillment, no real joy and peace; but instead, creates lots of problems for the characters in the novel. What happens to Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan represent the failure of the American Dream. Each character has a different dream. For Jay Gatsby, his dream is to attain happiness, represented by Daisy's love, through

(105) The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father 's business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end. As Nick recounts Gatsby’s backstory, he offers both factual information and this more abstract description. He notes how artificially Gatsby has created his personality and identity, but also seems to respect the commitment he shows to that artifice. To better articulate the fraudulence of Gatsby’s identity, Nick employs several sets of symbols. First he describes him as a “Platonic conception of himself,” implying that Gatsby projected an ideal (“Platonic”) way his life could

The novel The Great Gatsby is an interesting tale of two cities really. Nick Carraway; the narrator, represents all that is good an wholesome in the great midwest. He is a well-educated man who aspires to be a bond broker. His character is conflicted internally and externally throughout the novel but really culminates into a loathing for all things eastern. Carraway’s farmboy charm and doe-eyed innocence is put to the test when he meets The Great Jay Gatsby. Gatsby represents all things Nick is unfamiliar with and is curious about. Nick, being from the midwest, has no real street smarts so when he meets the “wicked” east, his lack of experience is proof positive that he really does not belong

5 When Nick arrives at Gatsby’s party, he notices that it is a very mixed crowd: people from East Egg rub elbows with people from West Egg, and people from New York high society meet those from "the wrong side of the tracks." It seems that whoever wants to show up to Gatsby’s party is welcome. He also describes the party guest as rich, rude, ill-mannered, and self-indulgent.

American culture has been described as a “melting pot”. This means that everyone has incorporated their specific opinionated types of cultures and mixed it all into America. American culture was a slower-paced, slower communicating, and a better relationship filled culture. American culture has evolved into a faster communicating, better educated, and fast-paced culture. American culture is going to evolve into where we will barely talk in person and it will be less natural to talk face-to-face because of the many technological advances. As the future progresses, the “American Dream” begins to fade. In the “American Dream” it is stated that there should be “prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and

shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds” (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy had married Tom and he was wealthy but when she went to Gatsby’s mansion, she realized the extent of his wealth. Gatsby and Daisy’s main focus in their lives was money. Money was all they really cared about. “Jay Gatsby’s quest, the wealthy Daisy, represents the emptiness of an American society focused on money, a sordid but accurate view of the American Dream” (Adamson 25). The American society is basically empty with a large focus on money rather than the significant things in life.

The Great Gatsby is about how corrupted the American Dream was and how it affected many individual’s lives. The characters in the novel have a huge role in portraying the corruption and lifestyles of those living the dream during the 1920’s. Due to the idea of a success promise that the East had to offer, many westerners packed their lives up and headed that way in hope of a better life. Nick Caraway, one of the main characters, is one of the westerners that took the gamble of moving east during this time period. Nick who was originally from Minneapolis- St. Paul, wanted to experience what New York had to offer. “Instead of being the warm center of the world the middle-west now seemed like the rigid edge of the universe- so I decided to go east and learn the bond business. Everybody I knew was in the bond business so I suppose it could support one more single man” (Fitzgerald 20). In the summer of 1922, he decided to rent a house in what is known as West Egg, Long Island. The only connections Nick had in the East were his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, whom he had met at college years ago. Daisy and Tom, along with their young daughter lived in the East Egg. The mansion next to Nick’s house belonged to Jay Gatsby. In the beginning of the novel, Nick makes it known to readers that he hasn’t seen Gatsby even though he was throwing large, loud, and outrageous parties almost every night. However, when Nick and Gatsby do meet they become rather close and by the end of

In the novel New York City represents the corrupt underbelly of Gatsby’s world where oddities thrive. New York City is a location unlike any other in the novel. The values and social normalities in the city completely differentiate and contrast those of the Eggs or the Valley. An example of an obscure normality in New York City that would not be socially accepted anywhere else in New York is when, Nick and Gatsby are on their way to the city for lunch.While crossing Queensboro Bridge into New York, they pass by a limousine being “driven by a white chauffeur, in which sat three modish negroes, two bucks and a girl”(Fitzgerald 72). This is something that may upset or catch someone off guard, an individual such as Tom who has such strong prejudice beliefs when it comes to people of colour. New York is also a place where corruption thrives, where businesses like drug trafficking and bootlegging are prosperous businesses run by men like Meyer Wolfsheim, in the words of Gatsby, “[he] [is] the man who fixed the world series in 1919”(Fitzgerald 77) . Men who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, are clever, and have their ways to get around the police. People like Tom and Wolfsheim thrive in a location like New York City, adding to the corruption and deception of the

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the behavior of the wealthy during the 1920s is showcased through actions of characters such as Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Nick, and Meyer Wolfsheim. Old Money display their wealth in conservative, less ostentatious ways, while New Money are showy and take advantage of the luxuries they can now afford. Fitzgerald argues that most New Money families, who have come into wealth recently, make their fortunes through illegal activities such as bootlegging and gambling. He contrasts them with Old Money families, who have been wealthy for many generations, and make their money in “honest” ways. With the rise of New Money during the 1920s comes transformation of the American Dream. The achievement of the American Dream is now possible through new means besides the traditional ones of industry tycoons. Actors, athletes, movie directors, bootleggers, and gangsters all come into wealth and experience upward social mobility through persuasion and hustle. Through his portrayal of the East and West Egg elite in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald contrasts the values held by each. He argues that to the new money families, the American Dream is no longer a concept that revolves around success and prosperity through traditional values of hard-work, determination, and initiative. Rather, it evolves to emulate an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that has a large focus on the ideas of the American Dream and social class in the 1920s. In the novel, the people of West Egg and East Egg are people of the upper who have earned money either through inheritance or working hard and have had many opportunities to make their American Dream a reality. The people of the Valley of Ashes are people of lower class who have little to no money and have to work all their lives to make ends meet. Even though both social classes strive for the same thing, The American Dream, neither of them will ever truly achieve it. Fitzgerald uses a vast contrast in the settings of East Egg, West Egg, and

     The statement made by Marius Bewley’s critical essay “Scott Fitzgerald: The Apprentice Fiction”, “Fitzgerald’s ultimate subject is the character of the American Dream in which, in their respective ways, his principle heroes are all trapped.”, can be justified through Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and his short story “Winter Dreams”. In both pieces of literature, Fitzgerald explores and comments upon Americans and their pursuit of the American Dream through Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green’s pursuit of their “golden girls”.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the setting of New York in the nineteen twenties performs an extensive role in the novel. Although the nineteen twenties are a time of economic prosperity, they appear to be a time of corruption and crime as well. In New York, particularly, the nineteen twenties are a time of corruption and moral scarcity. The setting is during the Jazz Age as well, where popularity, fashion, and commerce are a primary inclination. The setting of The Great Gatsby efficaciously portrays the behavior of the characters in The Great Gatsby, as well as the plot and development. The setting assiduously delineates how themes, motifs, and symbols can fluctuate in relation to the time or location. The setting of The

A major theme in the movie was wealth. Gatsby was known for throwing extravagant parties and everyone in New York would attend. His parties were elite and people like movie stars, gangsters and politicians would attend his fantastic parties. Not only did these parties represent wealth but they represented the American dream. Women who attended the parties wore provocative clothing cut their hair real short and drank openly. These were things women wouldn’t even imagine doing 20 years ago. Everything was going great in America and people believed they could do anything.