preview

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Essay

Good Essays
The Great Gatsby

The main theme of the novel “The Great Gatsby” focuses on the American Dream and it is portrayed through the life of Jay Gatsby. Through Gatsby’s life we see the withering of the American Dream, a tragedy that struck Jay’s near finished dream. The American Dream is what many have hoped of achieving, it has existed in the past and is in the present. The American Dream gives people a goal that they can work towards, it also gives them a purpose in life. The American Dream represents luxury and wealth it believes the goodness of the quality of life. For Jay Gatsby, he was so close to achieving the American Dream. He had the wealth and the class, all he needed was his long lost love, Daisy. Gatsby truly believed that he
…show more content…
Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual presence none of it was any longer real. Once he even toppled down a flight of stairs" (P.96 – 97)
Daisy means everything to Gatsby, his American Dream is merged with his dream of being with Daisy. Without Daisy, Gatsby’s American Dream is incomplete.

A major factor that makes Gatsby’s American Dream so tragic is that everything seemed to be so perfect in the beginning, for example we see that he almost had the perfect life. He had collections of nice cars to a nice grand white mansion to collections of imported shirts. Nick Describes Gatsby’s parties:
"Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiter in New York - every Monday there same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.” (P.43)
This shows the amount of wealth Gatsby had, he threw parties weekly and most of his guests haven’t even seen Gatsby. He didn’t throw the parties to show of his wealth, he threw the parties in hope of attracting Daisy. Gatsby needed Daisy to complete his life, his dream to be with Daisy fused with his American Dream. However, it was tragic that he had to die at such a young age, epically when he’s so close to achieving the American Dream.

Generally speaking, the American Dream is mostly achieved by people of the higher class, the people who reside in the “East Egg”. It is a lot easier for high classed people to achieve the
Get Access