Essay about Jay Gatsby´s American Dream in The Great Gatsby

How do we define this ideology of the American Dream? Society has formulated this idea over time. We as people have chosen to base our lives around it and make it our goal to try and achieve something that in all honesty is just this abstract idea that we as have chosen to believe and chase over time. Due to society following this ideology, people have grown to believe that happiness can only be achieved after they have reached the American Dream. You see these advertisements for products that make you think if you don’t own that specific product than you are not going to achieve the American Dream. Media has managed to turn people into these materialistic beings that are just sitting there waiting to be told what to buy next. For my paper I will be analyzing the film The Great and focus primarily on this idea of materialism and more specifically how this American Dream myth and ideology plays into it. Why does the media want us to believe that happiness is derived from the “stuff” we buy and not the things we already have?

Gatsby wanted more and more of Daisy and he will not rest until she tells Tom that she never loved him. Gatsby goes as far as to plan a dinner party so that Daisy can tell Tom in front of everyone and this dinner party ends up being his down bringing. At the party even Daisy goes as far as to say ““Oh, you want too much!"-"I love you now – isn't that enough? I can't help what's past."-"I did love him once – but I loved you too."” (Fitzgerald 261). Gatsby’s greed and obsession with wanting more and more sees to it that Gatsby will never fully achieve his dream. Fitzgerald also uses his character Tom, the husband of Daisy, to show that the American Dream cannot be achieved. Tom seems to have everything, a big house, a beautiful wife, lots of money from a successful sports career, and the freedom to spend it as he pleases. However, he too wants more, “[Tom] nodded sagely. “And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart I love her all the time."” (Fitzgerald 251). Tom knows that what he is doing is wrong but he makes excuses for his affair and acts as if what he did was justified. Even though he has a beautiful wife he still wants more and this drives him to having an affair with Myrtle. Fitzgerald uses these characters to show the false reality that is the

     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?

     F. Scott Fitzgerald is seen as one of the greatest American writers, admired by his contemparies and by modern audiences of today. Fitzgerald was very much in tune with the early twentieth century American culture. He is credited with capturing the ‘Jazz Age’, which he described as “a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken”. Fitzgerald observed the culture around him with a critical eye. Despite being able to depict America like few others could, many see Fitzgerald’s writing as an indictment on its values.

Jay Gatsby becomes so enthralled in his American Dream and the immoral means that he would use to obtain it, however, that he could not see foreboding events around him. He acts in a manner of obliviousness when many of the people whom he associates with mock him, such as when and an unnamed woman in Gatsby’s house in Chapter VI gives an insincere invitation for Gatsby to come to dinner and, after Gatsby naively accepts the invitation, Tom ridicules him by asking Nick, “Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?”(Fitzgerald 103). Such an honest reaction, however, could only be expected from the man who went about his business of illicitly acquiring money differently than he did his personal life. Despite reservations of the narrator, readers

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 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 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”.

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

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, presents a contrast between the wealthy and the penurious. The novel was set in the early 1920s right after World War I with a very prosperous economy. The novel began with the narrator, Nick, introducing the idea of social class by talking about the difference between East Egg and West Egg. This geographical barrier represented “old money” and “new money”, later in the novel he introduced the Valley of Ashes which symbolized “no money”. Nick was cousins with Daisy, who was married to Tom Buchanan, they represented old money and saw themselves as a higher class. Jay Gatsby was neighbors with Nick and he symbolized new money as he came from a poor family and worked for

The American Dream means that the ideal American achieves success though hard work and determination. It alludes to the idea that anyone who tries in America can become successful. That all it takes to make the American Dream come true is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. This is exactly what Gatsby is describing in his quote on page 73.

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.

Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby’s relationship was damaged by their contrasting social classes, but also because he had a lack of status and wealth. In relation to this Daisy married Tom for his wealth and status not for his love, which suggests Daisy is a materialistic character is more concerned about her money and possessions than she is about intellectual and spiritual objects. “Gatsby is an idealist, he seeks for