Essay about Jay Gatsby and the American Dream

The ideal American Dream can be portrayed in many different ways, though generally based upon the idea of opportunity for upward mobility within society. While people move to the top of society, they accumulate the perceived good things in life: the perfect partner, high social status and respect in the workplace to go along with the unlimited wealth and power. This idea is dated all the way back to the beginning of American literature. In the past, Americans started with the basic needs and only the things they needed to get by in life. Now families are transforming into a life view filled with the perfect life, nice car, large house, and the ideal family. In The Great Gatsby the main character Jay Gatsby was born into a family with no

The American Dream is what we all aspire to achieve. The idea of starting off with nothing and to become something has caused millions of people from all corners of the world to immigrate to this country for over 300 years. However, what exactly is the American Dream? F Scott Fitzgerald answers this question within his novel The Great Gatsby. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald analyses the high class of the 1920s and reveals that the American Dream has been distorted from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. Fitzgerald incorporates the aspects of both the Òold dreamÓ & the Ònew dreamÓ in his tragic story to depicts how the inflexible dream has been corrupted and lost forever.

He made money his goal, but only sees what he wants to see. He only sees the large house he lives in, the expensive clothes he wears, and the happy people at his parties. In chapter 9, a man Nick called to visit Gatsby’s funeral had “implied that [Gatsby] had got what he deserved.”(pg#), showing how little everyone truly cared for him apart from his money. Gatsby saw the money as a chance at happiness, as a chance at Daisy. The rose tinted glasses he wears prevented him from foreseeing the fake friendships, and his sad, empty funeral that the money would play a large part in causing

​Gatsby’s American dream roots upon the fallacious assumption that material possessions are compatible with happiness, youth and beauty. For example, his romantic perspective of life towards Daisy justifies his inability to achieve his dream. Gatsby describes her voice as “full of money –

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

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.

The American Dream means that by persistently working hard, one can achieve success; this is in contrast to other countries where the immigrants came from, in which one was either born into money and privilege or not, and if you weren't, there was no way of achieving this success. The American Dream eliminated the barriers between people that social class had held for centuries in Europe. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows the corruption of the American Dream from what it used to be in the past. Not only does Jay Gatsby achieve his success without hard work, but this success is not a matter of being able to achieve just like every other person. His success is just a result of the 'I

The great Gatsby is a classic novel in which money is centered around everything. All Jay Gatsby wants to do is live the American dream. Some say Gatsby did live the American dream. Though Gatsby made lots of money and threw tons of parties their was one thing he was missing. The thing Gatsby was missing was a peaceful state of mind and a lover. In this book written by Scott Fitzgerald called The Great Gatsby Jay Gatsby finds out the American Dream isn 't attainable by everyone.

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

     Perception and reality do not always align. Is true love really true love, or is it a farce, a self-created mythical re-interpretation of the thing we hold so dear? In The Great Gatsby, is Gatsby really in love with Daisy, or his vision of her? Does she feel the same way for him, or does she truly love him? And what does the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock mean to Gatsby?

Symbolism is a big part in how people express certain feelings or represent important items. The American Dream is a huge achievement that everyone wants to reach. Whether people want to admit it or not, it is a symbol all it’s self. It can be anything really, a great job, a family, white picket fence, even music or attending concerts of your favorite band. The American Dream is something that makes you so happy and what you can achieve or want achieve in your lifetime. The main AMerican Dream is money, a family, and happiness. In The Great Gatsby the american dream is a green light.There are several different colors for the different symbols in the book which are portrayed throughout the book often, and in the right context. Each character is put with that color and in different scenes for different reasons. Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, and Nick Carraway all portrayed the same color symbol; yellow which stands for death and or/ corruption.

The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates the society in the 1920's and the associated beliefs, values and dreams of the American population at that time. These beliefs, values and dreams can be summed up be what is termed the "American Dream", a dream of money, wealth, prosperity and the happiness that supposedly came with the booming economy and get-rich-quick schemes that formed the essential underworld of American upper-class society. This underworld infiltrated the upper echelons and created such a moral decay within general society that paved the way for the ruining of dreams and dashing of hopes as they were placed confidently in the chance for opportunities that could be seized by one and all. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the

In chapter four of The Great Gatsby, the character Gatsby takes the narrator Nick into Manhattan for some lunch. As they enter the city from the Queensboro Bridge, Nick remarks that, “Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge…. Even Gatsby can happen, without any particular wonder.” (69) By this point in the story we know that Gatsby is rich and that he throws elaborate parties at his home which is a “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy.” (5) Later, in chapter six, we discover that Gatsby comes from humble beginnings in North Dakota and was actually named James Gatz; Jay Gatsby was a reinvention. This leads me to wonder why Nick would think that someone as complicated as Gatsby doesn’t carry any wonder in a

     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”.

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.