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Poem : The American Dream

Decent Essays

What is the American Dream?-- The idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. It also represents that people, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in life by his or her own work. The desire to strive for what one wants can be accomplished if they work hard enough. The dream however is not realistically attainable by many. Some do achieve all that is know of the American dream, but sometimes factors such as discrimination and unequal opportunities provide barriers to one's chance of …show more content…

A theme of them is that all the example of what happens after a discarded dream is that does not simply vanish, but undergoes an evolution.
The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel that shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s through the lives of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson and others. The most significant theme relates to the American dream and the corruption of the American dream. In the novel, the American dream not only caused corruption but also caused destruction. Jay Gatsby was born to a poor farmer family and before going to war fell in love with a girl named Daisy Fay. After the war, Gatsby received a letter from Daisy telling him that she had married the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Gatsby then decided to commit his life to becoming a man of the kind of wealth and stature he believed would win Daisy's love. The chase for the American dream and to be with Daisy destroyed Gatsby. The ambition for something threw Gatsby over the edge. His love and chase for Daisy took over his whole life. He felt that he had to live up to the American dream to accomplish what he truly dreamed for, Daisy. Daisy fell short of Gatsby’s expectations however and no matter how hard Gatsby tries to live his fantasy, he will never be able to achieve it. Gatsby looked up to the American dream and followed it so he can be the picture perfect

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