The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

When Gatsby reveals to about his relationship with Daisy, Nick’s relationship with Gatsby takes a full u-turn as it rapidly advances their association from simple acquaintances to close friends. Nick’s outlook of Gatsby undergoes a similar transformation. When Nick learns of the previous relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, Gatsby’s actions make sense to Nick. The mansion, the extravagant parties, and the green light were all in the efforts for making Daisy notice him. Gatsby lives his life for the past life that he lived. He spends his life seeking the attention of his love, Daisy, and as Nick explains, “He wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was…” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby sought out the American dream in order to win over the love of Daisy which creates a different perception of himself to Nick. Nick, now knowing Gatsby’s intentions worries about Gatsby’s possible rejection, and then warns him that, “[he] wouldn’t ask too much of her, you can’t repeat the past.” (Fitzgerald 110) But Gatsby, blinded by love, strives to win Nick’s married cousin’s heart. Nick perceives Gatsby as a man dwelling on the past

The American Dream, is an idea that all Americans are familiar with, no matter what age they are. It is the dream that everyone has an equal opportunity, to use hard work and integrity to achieve success. The American Dream is an integral aspect of Jay Gatsby’s life in the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel follows Jay Gatsby, as told by Nick Carraway, through the trials and tribulations that correspond with newfound wealth and the quest to find true happiness in a cynical and testing environment. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream has the power to corrupt individuals, through his depictions of wealth, materialism, and the consequences they inflict in the character’s lives.

It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it” (George Carlin). George Carlin, criticizes the dream of prosperity, a promise to any individual for happiness and material success, if they try hard enough, Carlin realizes the reality of the unobtainable dream. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald offers an insight to the lavish life of the 1920’s, or as he coined, The Jazz Age. The novel follows the character of Nick Carraway as he learns the tragedy of an excessive lifestyle that is lived by Jay Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Fitzgerald is able to see past all the luxury and grandeur to expose the unhappiness and misery that tells the reader that money does not bring true joy. The novel describes

The 1920’s was a decade of striving for prosperity and the American dream. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s historical fiction novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby builds his way up to wealth and does everything he can to attain his goal, but is ultimately unable to attain it. Through his decision to set up The Great Gatsby as a frame story, Fitzgerald conveys the theme that the American dream is not necessary attainable, no matter how much one sacrifices or works towards it.

     Throughout the book, Gatsby avoids the reality of his simple, difficult childhood in efforts to avoid the embarrassment of having lived in

shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel… Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily. ‘They’re such beautiful shirts,’ she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds” (Fitzgerald 92). Daisy had married Tom and he was wealthy but when she went to Gatsby’s mansion, she realized the extent of his wealth. Gatsby and Daisy’s main focus in their lives was money. Money was all they really cared about. “Jay Gatsby’s quest, the wealthy Daisy, represents the emptiness of an American society focused on money, a sordid but accurate view of the American Dream” (Adamson 25). The American society is basically empty with a large focus on money rather than the significant things in life.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a fictional novel about a young man’s life , narrated by his closest friend Nick. This young extravagantly wealthy man known as Mr.Gatsby, lived in the 1920’s and represented the american dream in many different ways. In F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby” Tom and Daisy were born into this weathiness. Gatsby on the other hand had to work for his money by going to the army. In the Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald wanted to display the elusiveness of the American Dream and how more money makes the society during this time period lose their morality.

The Great Gatsby, a highly acclaim American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, entails the demise of the American dream by means of drawing a parallel between Jay Gatsby, a character whom covers his inner qualities with the idealistic characteristics of the rich during the Roaring Twenties in order to obtain the affection go the beloved and deeply flawed Daisy. Regrettably, throughout his conquest for Daisy’s affection, Gatsby falsely presumes that through his accumulation of wealth he will be able to acquire his deeply embedded desires for happiness, which mainly revolve around his acquisition of Daisy Buchanan. Eventually, Gatsby’s wealth ultimately results in his cataclysmic demise, as it is unable to provide him Daisy’s unconditional and

Gatsby’s claim to love Daisy is nothing more than wanting to complete his collection of the grand prize being a trophy wife. It became apparent to Nick that Gatsby wanted to repeat the past in order to win the award of a perfect woman. While reminiscing, Nick realizes Gatsby’s desire was that, “He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you.’ After she had obliterated four years with that sentence they could decide upon the more practical measures to be taken. One of them was that, after she was free, they were to go back to Louisville and be married from her house- just as if it were five years ago” (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby’s relentless need to ‘get the girl’ blinds his ability to comprehend Daisy’s feelings of the situation. His want to shatter the Buchanan’s marriage

The "American Dream" is a frequently used term to reference to the opportunity to move up in social status, create a family, and live a comfortable life. Somewhere in the 1920s the “American Dream” got a new meaning, and that meaning for a lot of people was greed. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald shows the corrupt nature of the American Dream through some of its main characters. F Scott Fitzgerald shows the frailty of the American Dream with Jay Gatsby the protagonist of the story. Gatsby had a huge desire to succeed in everything, the root of this desire was to impress the love of his life, Daisy .

First of all, Gatsby finds himself being held hostage by his bitter past numerous times throughout the novel. Beginning with his unwillingness to let go of his old flame Daisy Buchanan, this pushes him to make outlandish attempts to reconnect with her. Gatsby happens to buy a mansion within close distance to Daisy’s house, “But it wasn't a coincidence at all...Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay”(Fitzgerald 83). This shows that his past love still holds him captive in his now present life so much that he feels the need to have a close connection to her in order to be content with his life. In attempt to lure Daisy, Gatsby often throws lavish parties where he finds himself “among strangers”(Fitzgerald 71) hoping she will make her way

The Great Gatsby revolves around the characters’ basic desire for someone they cannot have. Jay Gatsby always strives to achieve a better life and is never content with his life in the here and now. After Gatsby and Daisy reconnect, Gatsby still wants more from Daisy; denying her husband is not enough for him. He wants Daisy to confess to Tom that her love for him is nonexistent, but she is unable to. Nick, Jordan, Gatsby, Tom, and Daisy all sit in silence, waiting for Daisy’s response, but “She wanted her life shaped now, immediately—and the decision must be made by some force—of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality—that was close at hand” (Fitzgerald 151).

One of the most influential writers of the early 20th century was a man named F. Scott Fitzgerald. The biggest topic that he wrote about was the American Dream. Fitzgerald uses many different aspects of writing to get his opinion across, such as the outcome of stories like The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”. He also uses the setting and to explain his beliefs. Based of his work, Fitzgerald believes the American dream is not only unrealistic, but also unattainable.

Gatsby does not belong to his own class and he is not accepted by the upper class, therefore he becomes an exception. Because of disappointment of being looked down upon and impossibility of accept by the upper class, he has nothing left except his love, which is also his “love dream”. Gatsby’s love for Daisy has been the sole drive and motive of his living. Gatsby’s great love is also the root of his great tragedy, because he is desperately in love with a woman who is not worthy of his deep love. Fitzgerald offers Gatsby with the spirit of sincerity, generosity, nobility, perseverance, and loyalty. All his good natures can be seen

Gatsby’s obsessions are not limited too simply possessing wealth, but they also extend to the manner in which it was acquired as well. First Gatsby claims having attended Oxford, and even goes so far as to flaunt Nick a picture,“ A souvenir of his Oxford days…” (71). Gatsby openly avoids mentioning how long he was at Oxford and why he was there. The small dishonest taste that Gatsby has of Oxford only serves to make his desire to change the past more consuming than ever before. Gatsby wants a simpler time, a better time with more noble aspirations. Gatsby uses the photograph to undo his past. In addition, Gatsby furthers the tales of his grand life insisting that he lived in all the capitols of Europe like a rajah. Fitzgerald proves Gatsby’s stories to be lies beyond any reasonable doubt. Jay sounds like a fool, and his condescending willingness to underestimate the intelligence of his listeners proves he acts as a fool. Gatsby’s false stories suck him deeper and deeper into the abyss that is self-worthlessness. Finally, the rainbow that Jay Gatsby follows through life has the ultimate treasure at the end –true love. The desperate alteration of his past serves only one purpose, to impress the shallow Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby innocently assumes that his money and accomplishments can buy anything – even