Nick's Perception Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

When concluding his novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald composes a final passage of narrator, Nick Carraway, reflecting on the story of Jay Gatsby following his sorrowful passing. He comments on the concept that in chasing a future dream, individuals are only to be mired back into the past. As the novel ends, Fitzgerald displays powerful utilization of eloquent diction and images of the past to highlight his most essential idea of hopes and dreams; ultimately, Fitzgerald delivers a critique of the classical ‘American dream,’ while also relating similar values to that of the element of money within the 1920s society.

The Great Gatsby is one of America’s most recognized classic novels and films. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby is a novel that offers a vivid peek into the American life in the 1920's. The central themes of the “Lost Generation” in the 1920’s are shown through the decay of the American Dream. This novel shows that the American Dream no longer stands for the proud idea it once did, but rather it stands for the corruption in the 1920's society. The end of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby is shown through the actions of the characters, when America is abused and destroyed, and when Gatsby cannot attain the success that he desires with Daisy and through the careless and dependent attitudes of the upper class.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby tells the story of a nouveau-riche man chasing his dream in the midst of the prohibition. The story is told from the perspective of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick recounts the summer he spent with Gatsby as Gatsby tries to attain the American Dream, which he has personified in his past love, Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald presents two contrasting responses to the American Dream through his characterization of Nick as cynical and Gatsby as hopeful.

“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality”. (Iris Murdoch). How had Jay Gatsby left such an imprint on Nick’s life? Jay Gatsby’s greed and imagination had left his efforts blinded, from the undying need to win Daisy back. However, most people have surrounded themselves with respect on their ethics and morals. Gatsby along with the other citizens of the West and East Egg had constructed their lives around their philosophy and opinion of a good life. The 1920’s had been an era in which been corrupted by the American Dream. The American Dream had been the willing to want, that anyone could make material success, everlasting love, and political power, by hard work and dedication. The Roaring Twenties had created this irrelevant idea that the people could put up facades and mask what they truly were. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells a story of the depths and problems that surround wealth and the society of the West/East Egg. Gatsby was great because the idealism of wealth and the American Dream was great, however his intentions were tragically too idealistic, which ultimately caused his death. Jay Gatsby blinded by many materialistic needs, had been under the impression that life is stricken in a rewind of an illusion.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby was written in 1925 about the disintegration of the American Dream. This work tells the story is about Jay Gatsby and how he dreamed his American Dream would be, but nothing always turned out as he planned. The narrator is Nick Carraway and he shows how the whole story is happening through his own eyes. The book shows how wherever you are that you are corrupt in life no matter how much you have or how little you have. The American Dream is not all you need in life and this book shows everyone that even if you are rich you are very poor in life.

F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby is a criticism of the dying American Dream in the 1920 's and how it is corrupted by greed and materialism. The American Dream used to be a quest towards success, but now it is a rat race for wealth and status. The pursuit of the American Dream gave the characters in the novel, money and prestige, but along with it came corruption, barbaric human nature, and carelessness. However, the protagonist, Jay Gatsby is one of the very few Americans left who still have an honest and pure American Dream: to win back the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby fails to see that his dream is impossible because of his overwhelming love for Daisy and spending five years of his life to impress her. Gatsby is so caught up with Daisy and the past that he fails to see how she is a married woman with a child and that his dream only brings indirect suffering to Tom, Daisy, Myrtle and Nick by causing death, depression, disagreements, and desolation.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, follows the story of Jay Gatsby, a man who personifies the American Dream. The narrator of the novel is Gatsby 's neighbor, Nick Carraway, who is connected with all the main characters and has the ability to see the good in Gatsby. Through the focus of Nick, a man with a fairly nondescript background, a story of corruption, illusion and desperate desire unfolds. The story takes place in the roaring twenties, a time that emphasizes the dichotomy of society, with the previously rich and the newly rich living a life of jubilance, while those in the valley of ashes—or other areas of the like—slave away their

The overall theme of “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald is the rise and death of the “American Dream”. The theme is shown to us through the life of Nick Carraway and the high-class society of which he lives amongst. The characters continually hint at the falsified “American Dream” in their actions and viewpoints throughout the novel. This dream is built through false hopes and crushed by failed goals.

Although setting life goals is important, once it consumes your personal thought, romance can become a dangerous pressure. In The Great Gatsby, the theme of romantic pressure is introduced with Gatsby 's fixation of Daisy. The influence of wealth and social status cause distress in relationships. Elements of Fitzgerald 's personal life are represented through the characters of Nick and Gatsby. Through these two figures, the audience is shown two sides of Fitzgerald, the outsider and the dreamer. Through characteristics of Nick, we are reminded of Fitzgerald 's constant fascination with the wealthy lifestyle and the perspective of the wealthy through the eyes of an “outsider.” Gatsby suggests an extravagant and influential side of Fitzgerald. Gatsby characterizes a financially reckless and showy side of Fitzgerald. His relation regarding an attraction to unattainable women and the hope for an imaginary goal describes both Fitzgerald and Gatsby. The novel itself influenced the world of literature by providing it with an accurate depiction of life in the 1920s and is commended for its captivating style and romantic interest. The 1920’s were a time for hard working individuals to search for a social standing in hopes to obtain wealth and success. The promise of the American Dream and the pressure of timeless love cause the downfall for both Gatsby and Fitzgerald, causing them to finally realize that their simplistic view on love was irrational. (“The Great Gatsby’s Betrayed

The American dream is defined as “an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative” (Google). There were many conflicts that interfered with trying to reach each individual's dreams. Each character had their own meaning of their dream, Jay Gatsby especially. He had a big impact in his life, Daisy, which led to failure in his own American dream. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby almost lived out his American dream, by finding the love of his life, and almost fulfilled the dream to be with her forever.

The Great Gatsby depicts The United States in the 1920s. While originally, this period depicted the Great American dream with people pursuing their goals and seeking happiness, it contained an unfortunate turn with people running after money, riches and materialism. Towards the final stage of the story Nick states "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made." This clearly displays how most of the upper society had surrounded themselves with lavish cars, posh houses, and extravagant parties forgetting the true value of life. Fitzgerald displays that the "American dream" is not all that people see from the outside, but that a majority of these individuals lived shallow lives, with narrow mentalities. Everything on the outside was glistening, but the inside held many dark, and upsetting secrets. Throughout various themes, symbols and motifs, the underlying meaning that Fitzgerald wants revealed becomes evident.

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway arrives in New York in search of the American dream. He goes to visit his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom, and soon figures out that his next door neighbor, Gatsby, is in love with Daisy. Nick’s eyes are opened to a lot as he spends time in New York. Some themes he was exposed to are corruption, materialism/decadence, and American dream. These themes are represented throughout the story by Tom’s affair and his friends wealth and their lifestyle.

During the 1920s, the perception of The American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they work hard enough. Fitzgerald is saying that those who pursue the American Dream can never be satisfied.

Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby. He comes from the Midwest, educated at Yale with Tom Buchanan, and moves to New York to pursue a career on Wall Street buying and selling bonds. Nick also starts out withholding all judgments toward people. This is the start of his version of the American Dream. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world… ‘Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge’ I thought; ‘anything at all…’” (Fitzgerald 68-69) Then he becomes the neighbor of Gatsby. After becoming good friends with him, Nick watches Gatsby pursue his version of the American Dream as he chases after Daisy. Now Nick is completely intrigued by Gatsby’s passion and hope for this dream of his. However, after watching Gatsby’s dream being crushed after his death. Nick then loses all hope that he has in the American Dream goes and, as he believes, is something of the past. Through Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows the positive of the American Dream, and then at the same time, shows that the dream is never perfect and that it will not always work out the way you want it to through

In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Carraway, the narrator, forges an affectionate, but ambivalent, friendship with Jay Gatsby, encountering the evolving nature of American idealism and varying values of the East Coast from that of the Midwest, during the twentieth century. Originally, Nick Carraway is from the Middle Western City of Chicago, until he decides to move to New York city, aspiring to live the American dream, yearning to attain a fortune through the financial sector. After spending a summer, Nick decides to go back home because he felt sick of the East Coast, wanting “ the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart”.