Reservation Blues By Sherman Alexie And The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

America still to this day holds on to the idea of the “American Dream”. This is rather surprising in today’s society and the ups and downs that the nation is facing. The dream in the past was more about freedom and equality. Moving through the decades, this dream has morphed into something quite different. Instead of what America means for all of its inhabitants, the nation has become more individualized. Society has moved to interpret the dream of what America can do for the one. Instead of the unified nation, America has been known for in the past, a shift has started creating an inconsistency in who can realize the dream. The myth of the “American Dream” has been hugely affected by increased materialism, the gap in economic status, and the fantasy of “rags to riches” idea.

If there was a favorable circumstance under which one could endeavour all their hopes and visions, wouldn’t one pursue it? The American Dream was introduced as an interpretation to cause the people of America in the early twentieth century to work tougher. The American Dream is the opportunity to reach the goals one sets for themselves. It is about having your dream job and life one has always fantasized about. The dream is also about having freedom and equality. In the novel, “Of Mice & Men”, John Steinbeck uses symbols and motifs such as the vicious slaughtering of virtuous animals, Crooks’ rubbish bunkhouse and Lennie and George’s deception of an ideal farm to exhibit the perception that materialistic success results in happiness is a major flaw in our thinking about the American dream, and it is this thinking which makes the dream unattainable for many.

Many of famous figures in our society’s past have spoken their minds about the American Dream, for each and every one of those minds, are a different response. J. G. Ballard once spoke of his American Dream, “The American Dream had run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It’s over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam.” The outlook on this dream has changed over the years it has existed, most societies nowadays look onto this as a “curse” or something worse. This dream now is speculated as hurting our home, America. As Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men, the grave story of the American Dream was revealed by main characters, George, Lennie, and Candy. These main characters give us an inside look into what they think the American Dream is.

Fitzgerald uses Characters in The Great Gatsby for multiple reasons: as catalysts for significant events, as physical representations of 20s society, and in order to illustrate important themes in his novel. Fitzgerald uses Daisy and Myrtle particularly as inherent contrasts of people in the 1920’s. One represents love, the other sex; One wealth, the has a lack thereof; and they both represent different pitfalls in 20s society.

The American Dream: Is is fact or fiction? In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers set forth the idea of an American Dream by providing us with the recognizable phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. The green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock symbolizes Jay Gatsby’s “Pursuit of Happiness” in the novel, The Great Gatsby, set in the 1920s on Long Island, New York. The American Dream can be defined as “the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, not by chance” (Fontinelle, Amy). At the birth of our country in 1776, our founding fathers introduced the American Dream as a personal desire to pursue happiness; however, the pursuit of happiness was not intended to promote self-indulgence, rather to act as a catalyst to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. As our country has changed, the idea of the American Dream, in some cases, has evolved into the pursuit of one’s own indulgences such as material gain regardless of the consequences.

The American Dream is often stated to be the foundation of many ideals in the United States society. Some believe that the dream is made for only monetary gain, while others maintain that the dream is part of a higher national vision. The term American Dream was coined in Epic of America by James Truslow Adams, where it was defined as being part of the great national vision of America (Source 1). It is defined as an opportunity to gain the highest happiness and riches. However, as stated by Adams, “what is better and what is richer?” (Source 8). It is due to the possible interpretations of this dream that it has slightly changed from its original meaning into a mixture that heavily favors monetary gain.

That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”(quoted in “In Search of the American Dream”) For some, Truslow Adam’s definition of the American Dream leaves out the reality of how one’s socioeconomic status, on average, determines one’s wealth in American society. History shows that people born without certain privileges can’t ascend the figurative ladder to success with ease like their counterparts. Among these privileges were generational wealth and being White. A time when this was most evident was the 1920s: a time of mass spending, lavish lifestyles, and materialistic attitudes. Literary works like “In Search of the American Dream” by Jonas Clark, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “One Christmas Eve” by Langston Hughes, show how the roaring culture of the 1920s caused an economic boom which widened the gap between the rich and the middle class, making it even more difficult for the majority of Americans to attain a sense of social and financial security. By the 1920s, the American Dream begins to lose its inclusive message and transform into an exclusive one in where one’s socioeconomic status mainly determines if one attains the Dream.

American Literature has never ceased to reveal what this land has to offer and the idea that you get out of it what you put into it. The idea that you could have freedom, opportunity, and the ability to make money became known as the American dream. People wanted this dream to become their reality, no matter the cost or who stood in their way. On the other hand, it was obscure to those who had never experienced it before, including some within our own walls. Authors from decades past give us insight as to what both of those worlds look like.

The American Dream: Is is fact or fiction? In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers set forth the idea of an American Dream by providing us with the recognizable phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. The green light at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock symbolizes Jay Gatsby’s “Pursuit of Happiness” in the novel, The Great Gatsby, set in the 1920s on Long Island, New York. The American Dream can be defined as “the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone. The American Dream is achieved through sacrifice, risk-taking, and hard work, not by chance” (Fontinelle, Amy). At the birth of our country in 1776, our founding fathers introduced the American Dream as a personal desire to pursue happiness; however, the pursuit of happiness was not intended to promote self-indulgence, rather to act as a catalyst to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. As our country has changed, the idea of the American Dream, in some cases, has evolved into the pursuit of one’s own indulgences such as material gain regardless of the consequences.

‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ is a play of the absurd genre, written by Edward Albee in the late 1950s. Whilst ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a literary fiction, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. Both texts use the American Dream to illustrate the corrupt culture of America in the 1920s and 1960s. The ‘American Dream’ was a term first coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931, in his book, ‘The Epic of America’. His idea of the American Dream was the ‘Dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.’ Initially, in the 1920s the American Dream focused on the motivation of individuals to achieve great success. By the 1960’s the American Dream was focused on the celebration of victory, following the end of the Second World War. The dream itself revolved around the opportunity to have children and the value of family. Many individuals aspired to live up to the ideals of family, which involved having children with a stable economic status. However, many individual’s struggled to live up to these expectations and therefore suffered from disillusionment. Both texts effectively present the American Dream as a corrupt trap, through how it blurs the difference between dreams and realities.

Many years ago today, the United States of America was the prime example of prosperity and opportunity. It established America with the idea that its citizens would be guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, it is true that people have liberties and are free to pursue happiness. However, in recent years, in the worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment, growing economy inequality, and medical care have skyrocketed. Despite the odds, the American Dream is still a goal that many people strive for and hope to reach. In fact, an essay written by Brandon King, The American Dream: Dead, Alive or on Hold? He says, “the American dream is a dream in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with the opportunity for each according to his/her ability and achievement…” (King 610-611). Therefore, the problem with the American Dream lies not within the dream itself, but within the means people pursue to attain this dream.

“The American Dream” is advertised as being the act of a person having an idea, goal, or as the saying suggests, a dream, and then them spending time, energy, and money to make it come true. However, if you haven’t realized it yet, there’s a reason they call it a dream because it hardly becomes a reality. More and more people are realizing this so called “dream” is nothing but a hoax, and that the promises America assures and guarantees such as equal opportunity and equal success are nothing but pure manipulation. Furthermore, the American dream no longer stands by the virtue of discrimination and prejudice, overwhelming debt, and failed establishments.

Founding father Benjamin Franklin described the American dream as the “pursuit of a better existence… a higher quality of life through hard work, determination, and devotion” (Benjamin Franklin). The American dream is an idea that if you work hard, you can rise from “rags to riches” and live a wealthy and prosperous life with moral values of respect and integrity. Ironically, Franklin’s version of the dream was decaying during the roaring 1920s when society became corrupt and obsessed with greed. In his classic book, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows how the American dream of “hard work, determination, and devotion” was deteriorating because society had become greedy and materialistic. In addition, moral values were in decline and that

Dreaming is essential for the human spirit, the reason homo sapiens sapiens wiped out the neanderthals was because we could believe in something bigger than ourselves. Even when our dreams are far from fruition, we as humans still believe in them as it is in our nature. S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders and in John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men have certain characters that possess dreams that they believe in and work towards, whether they’re achievable or not. Many unique personalities such as Crooks the stable buck, Dallas Winston, Curley’s Wife, Darry, and other characters in both books are disenfranchised from a notion henceforth referred to as “The American Dream”. “The American Dream” is a very vague phrase. However, it can be amounted to being a lower-class citizen (frequently an immigrant) and then moving to America. Then (in America) they get a stable job with good income, buy a house, have a family, and live happily ever after. The frequency and large application for the term “The American Dream” is what initially drew a large amount of immigrants in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s because it was viewed as the land of freedom and most importantly, opportunity. “The American Dream” can be, and is a widely used phrase but in this essay shall be used to refer to many characters’ own hopes and dreams for their future. Characters in Of Mice and Men and in The Outsiders are frequently disenfranchised and held back from ‘The American Dream’ by an aspect out of their

The American Dream is surely based on the concept of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” but it is above all, a matter of ambition. James Truslow Adams, an American writer and historian, in 1931 states: "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”, which not only points towards a better standard of living for Americans but also denounces a degree of greed in the US society. Ambition not only “killed the cat” but killed relationships as well in texts like Sister Carrie and Death of a Salesman. While the American Dream was supposed to be a collective success at its initial stage, ambition, along with a pinch of greed and materialism were perfect ingredients