Failure Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby Analysis

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the ideals of wealth and dreams are exhibited through the lives and experiences of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Specifically, Gatsby tends to waste his wealth rather than investing for the future. He uses the “green light” to serve as a constant reminder of his dreams and life goals he wishes to pursue. Nick Carraway’s friendship with Gatsby enables him to partake in the wealth and luxuries of Gatsby's lifestyle. The American Dream is brought to fruition through Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle and extravagant parties. Furthermore, the motifs of wealth and dreams are perpetually shaping and influencing the characters’ decisions, experiences and outcomes over the course of the story.

In book, “The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts how the American was corrupted through wealth. Fitzgerald provides many examples. The most common example shown was Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s idea that to achieve his American Dream must be to acquire wealth. In order to show this, Fitzgerald uses various literary elements. Two of those being imagery and foreshadowing, these played a critical role in describing the theme, and specific moods to show what was to come and as well as describe the story as a whole. These play a vital role in representing Gatsby’s life and journey to acquiring Daisy, his version of the American Dream.

       In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, the principle character, Jay Gatsby makes an exhaustive effort in his quest for the American Dream. The novel is Fitzgerald's vessel of commentary and criticism of the American Dream. “Fitzgerald defines this Dream, he depicts its’ beauty and irresistible lure”(Bewley 113). Through Gatsby's downfall, Fitzgerald expresses the futility and agony of the pursuit of the dream.

Ambitions are an integral aspect of human culture. They motivate us in a ceaseless pursuit of constant success. However, humans are truly not contempt with their successes, and perpetually dream for more success in a never-ending spiral of greed. Jay Gatsby’s character throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, is an ideal epitome of human greed, or as we can refer to it, the American dream. Fitzgerald is able to foster a culture within the novel where dreams seem unreachable, despite the amount of hunger, or greed, one may possess in aim of fulfilling their desires. A sense of elitism is also present within the novel as Fitzgerald ably crafts astounding discrepancies within the social structure of the era fondly

The first dream that does not get fulfilled is the one of Gatsby. He starts off as an underprivileged boy and struggles his way to the top. We make his acquaintance when he is on the top of his life. He is enjoying his big house and his vast wealth. The one thing he cannot have is his lovely Daisy. Gatsby’s story reflects the “classical” American dream: Anyone can make anything of himself/herself with just elbow grease, spirit and a whole lot of confidence. Jay loves Daisy and, sadly, she is the one thing which he cannot procure to his “perfect life”.

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.

Jay Gatsby is a self-made man, he turned himself from a farm boy to one of the richest men in America at the time and bought himself a beautiful mansion on West Egg, Long Island with the other new millionaires. In contrast to the newly rich, there are those who have inherited their wealth from family before them such as Tom and Daisy Buchanan. These people were lucky to be born into their lives and reside on East Egg along with other family’s with “old money”. Readers come to easily

Although "The Great Gatsby" is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could have a better understanding of what American dream is all about, in those down-to-earth Americans' point of view. The characterization of Gatsby is a representative figure among Americans as he devoted his whole life to achieve his dream.

Even though Gatsby was born James Gatz on a small farm in North Dakota, he was motivated by Dan Cody and Daisy to dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth and love. Some people might claim that Gatsby was able to achieve his dream because he succeeded in becoming a fabulously wealthy man in West Egg. However, this is only partially true, for Gatsby’s genuine American Dream was to attain Daisy Buchanan. Therefore, this novel portrays both the power and deleterious result of the American Dream (C. J. Dawson).

Gatsby was a man who did not wish to live his family's life, a man who wanted to go above the level of his parents. Jay Gatsby's legal names was James Gatz, "he had it changed at the age of seventeen at the specific moment that witnessed the beginning of his career"(Fitzgerald 104). By doing this Gatsby was trying to put as much space between him and his parents who were shiftless and unsuccessful farmers. To escape his family’s life of poverty hr became the right hand man of Dan Cody. He managed to accomplish this feature by earning his trust slowly throughout the five years that Gatsby was with Cody. Dan Cody was a man made of money. His family was there for every metal rush since the seventy- five, and from him Gatsby learned the proper education of a high society man. Gatsby by doing this left his parents behind to become a new

In the period of the 1920’s, there was a certain status of wealth that was difficult to achieve. There were two societal classes consisting of those with wealth from prior generations, and those who worked to earn it themselves. Tom, Daisy, and Nick, who represented the old money society did not have to work hard, unlike Gatsby which he represented the new money and they had to work to earn money. People like Gatsby, who gained their wealth on their own often fought for the approval from the upper class who inherited their wealth. Rather than having new money and old money, people who tried achieving the American Dream and ended up in failure usually they end up like George and Myrtle Wilson In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the notion that social norms in the upper class depict the idea that being apart of it was impossible unless they were born in it was expressed through Daisy’s rejection of Gatsby because of the corrupt way in which he gained his wealth, making his American Dream unattainable.

The American dream has been alive since the first settlers moved west, and is without a doubt a notion that guides the course of millions of Americans. However, while few actually achieve great wealth and social acceptance, others can merely dream about moving up the class ladder. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, narrates the story of the incredibly wealthy Jay Gatsby and his dazzling love for Daisy Buchanan during America’s roaring twenties. The narrator Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor, gets to witness the chronicles of the millionaire and his circle of careless friends. Fitzgerald incorporates figurative language to persuade the reader about the evident contrast between the miserable poor class and the lavish upper class of New York city.

The novel’s protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is the perfect representation of Fitzgerald’s viewpoint of the American Dream because he is this young man who goes from rags-to-riches. However, Gatsby attains his wealth through crime, whereas the traditional way was to do honest, hard work. Furthermore his shady methods and his actions prove the faultiness of Fitzgerald’s version of the American Dream by

This essay will prove why Jay Gatsby isn’t an accurate portrayal of the American dream. This essay will be spilt into three main sections, a counterclaim, and conclusion. The first main section will discuss Gatsby’s dream of Daisy compared to Wilson’s dream of earning through his repair shop. The following section will discuss Gatsby’s illegal wealth compared to Wilson’s shop. Lastly, Gatsby’s hardships will be compared to Wilson’s. The counterclaim will discuss how Gatsby fits the idea of the American dream followed by a

Within the American dream concepts, it views it as a form of rising perspective, giving the chance to any new person wanting to fulfill this dream. It states that it starts low economic and social level to a fame and richness status achieved within the rise and its property. It also represents people that are successful at this due to their work and achievements. It relates the origins of this on every individual on the hard work they imposed on themselves. However this is an aftermath on The Great Gatsby, that is actually going against it and showing it in a declining way were the state is more likely that its corruption and destruction, due to the 1920’s issues. All of the mentioned arguments apply in this case although the results are negative; Jay Gatsby and Daisy were the main controversy in the plot when representing the American dream in terms of the novel, and therefore people who purse it are in the same conditions. Although the main destruction of this was mainly on the emotional part it easily ended the lives of the 3 main characters in the novel. The reflective purpose of achieving something no matter the way, involving pursuing of the achievers, more likely gives us an arrogant and depressive emotional effect that before this it’s a hidden trigger, that therefore involves it on corruption leading into the next phase and giving a message of an “actual” achievement, which is the failure of it, the destruction and the bad image of the American dream.