F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby

Since American literature’s emergence, the American dream has become a conceptual ideal for many people throughout history. Although the dream has its own distinct aspects throughout different time periods, it predominantly focuses on the foundations of wealth, success and a desire for something greater. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, is primarily known for the numerous lavish parties he throws each weekend at his ostentatious mansion in West Egg in an attempt to reunite with Daisy Buchanan, a woman he falls in love with prior to entering the war before the Roaring Twenties. However, he is seized with an impotent realization on the fact that his wealth cannot afford him the same privileges as others that are born into the upper echelon. Gatsby is completely blinded from his opulent possessions until he becomes oblivious of the fact that money cannot buy love or happiness. Throughout the story, the predilection for materialistic features causes many characters to lose sight of their aspirations, demonstrating how a dream can become easily corrupt by one’s focus on acquiring wealth and power.

The American dream can mean many different things and can be interpreted in different ways. To some people, the American dream is the belief that if a person works hard enough, he or she can be successful in America no matter what race, gender, or nationality. In the 1920’s, the concept of the American dream was very much the same, that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if he or she works hard enough. By having money, a car, a big house, expensive clothes, and a loving family symbolizes the American dream. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the 1920’s is a time period in which the American dream becomes corrupt and dangerous. For Jay Gatsby, a main character in the novel, his American dream is about gaining wealth and material possessions in order to find happiness. Through his decision to symbolize wealth, superficiality, irresponsibility, and foreshadowing, Fitzgerald conveys the the theme that the American dream is a perfect concept and is something that can never be accomplished, but can always be reached for.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald tells the tragic story of two star-crossed lovers. Fitzgerald uses the Roaring Twenties as the setting of this novel. The twenties were a time of promiscuity, new money, and a significant amount of illegal alcohol. Fitzgerald was a master of his craft and there was often more to the story than just the basic plot. He could intertwine political messages and a gripping story flawlessly. In the case of The Great Gatsby, he not only chronicles a love story, but also uses the opportunity to express his opinion on topics such as moral decay, crass materialism, individual ethics, and the American dream.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the compelling story of the lengths one man goes to in order to try and win back the love of his youth. In order to do so, the titular figure of the novel, Jay Gatsby, reinvents himself from the hardscrabble soldier of his younger years into an enigma of a millionaire; during his time living at West Egg, Gatsby is revered by all, but known by none. Despite the lavish lifestyle which has made him ever so well known, Gatsby is never able to win back Daisy, the girl who has for so long represented the culmination of all of his desires. To convey the complex themes of the novel, Fitzgerald makes use of the literary techniques discussed in How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster, especially in his portrayal of the geography of the Eggs and in Gatsby’s quest to win Daisy’s affection. In his novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s desperate struggle to ingratiate himself into Daisy’s life to illustrate how one can never overcome the socio-economic barriers placed upon them at birth.

The American Dream is a recurring theme in Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The American Dream is all about starting with nothing and making your way to achieve millions of dollars and “happiness.” In The Great Gatsby, by showing Gatsby’s tragic flaw, his belief that money will buy Daisy’s love, Fitzgerald in a way criticizes the American dream. Fitzgerald exudes this image of corruption in the American Dream through aspects of wealth, relationships, and social class.

In the past the American Dream was an inspiration to many, young and old. To live out the American Dream was what once was on the minds of many Americans. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was presented as a corrupted version of what used to be a pure and honest ideal way to live. The idea that the American Dream was about the wealth and the possessions one had been ingrained, somehow, into the minds of Americans during the 1920’s. As a result of the distortion of the American Dream, the characters of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby along with many others, lived life fully believing in the American Dream, becoming completely immersed in it and in the end suffered great tragedies.

Money, commonly associated with happiness and success, is deceiving because it doesn 't necessarily breed enjoyment at all. Lorraine Hansberry 's A Raisin in the Sun and F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby examine the difference between wealth and appreciation of life. Lorraine Hansberry explains this with Walter, a negro father in a poor family who seeks more money than is realistic to bring happiness into the family. Fitzgerald uses the character Jay Gatsby to show that wealth doesn 't imply success or happiness. Both characters occupy strikingly different roles in their stories, yet decently portray money 's impact on life. In The Great Gatsby and Raisin in the Sun, wealth is made to seem as the key to happiness, but, in essence,

The American dream is the idea that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby we are given a glimpse of 20th century New York; a story focused on the corrupted American dream. Many characters in the book are in pursuit of the American dream not aware of the impact their behavior will have in the end. The Great Gatsby is a tragic story portraying the downhill spiral of the American dream due to the carelessness of the wealthy.

It only takes a spark to start a fire. That spark could be a dream or a passion that has the possibility of growing into something larger than life. To transform that dream into a reality, goals must be set and plans must be made. The goal that many people were pursuing during the Roaring Twenties was the American Dream. It enticed people with the promise of prosperity and success all with a little hard work and elbow grease. Yet somewhere along the way, the goal was lost in the midst of affluence and illegal alcohol. F. Scott Fitzgerald used The Great Gatsby to portray how fulfilling the American Dream became impossible due to the growing desire of wealth and pleasure and the disappearance of social and moral values.

The demise of Jay Gatsby portrays shows a faulty American dream. Fitzgerald's characterization of Jay Gatsby as the hopeful and ambitious man parallels the original values of the American dream. Like the American Dream, reputation precedes Gatsby. The author conceals Gatsby's personal narrative until chapter three which leads to the reputation of wealth and success. It is not until later in the novel where the reader is able to see Gatsby's true flaws. By using this technique Fitzgerald is able to convey the role of reputations in modern society and how greatly they can differ from reality. Although the reader was first led to believe that Gatsby lives the ultimate life of luxury and wealth, his lavish life leads him to steep slope to the bottom.

The American Dream, a concept coined at a time when wealth, power, and prosperity was the ultimate goal. In, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates a situation where the dream in the end turns into a complete nightmare. Jay Gatsby’s love of Daisy contributed to his hunger for a wealthy lifestyle, which finally brings Gatsby to his failure.

Scott Fitzgerald 's, “The Great Gatsby”, is used to teach us the prime example of the American experience or the American dream. On the other hand, J.D Salinger 's book, “The Catcher in the Rye”, is generally about the story of a young boy, losing innocence and trying to keep children from falling off of this metaphorical cliff, or in reality, losing their innocence. While these two stories may seem drastically different from each other, they both share a deeper meaning. Throughout both of these books, while the plot line and thematic ideas may seem different, both of these characters share the same trait, idealism; they both desire things that they cannot possibly reach or things, or something as simple as fitting in and feeling like

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.

For generations many have immigrated to this great nation know, as the United states of America, all seeking for their share of the American dream. The American dream is the philosophy that anyone can become successful through hard work and perseverance. The 1920’s embodies this concept like no other decade in American history. It is also during this time frame that one sees the perversion of this dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggests in his novel, The Great Gatsby that there is a right and wrong way to obtain the American dream. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is symbolic for the materialistic nature of the American dream and its corruption in the 20th century.

With money, Gatsby believes that anything is possible. He does all he can to buy his happiness, yet he lacks the foresight to see the worthlessness of his efforts.