The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

       In F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, the principle character, Jay Gatsby makes an exhaustive effort in his quest for the American Dream. The novel is Fitzgerald's vessel of commentary and criticism of the American Dream. “Fitzgerald defines this Dream, he depicts its’ beauty and irresistible lure”(Bewley 113). Through Gatsby's downfall, Fitzgerald expresses the futility and agony of the pursuit of the dream.

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.

The idea of American Dream as presented by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Great Gatsby novel involves rising from poverty or rags to richness and wealthy. The American Dream exemplifies that elements such as race, gender, and ethnicity are valueless as they do not influence the ability of an individual to rise to power and richness. This American Dream makes the assumption that concepts such as xenophobia are non-existent in America a concept that is not true and shows vagueness of the American Dream. In his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the Great Gatsby to demonstrate the overall idea of living the American dream. Gatsby leaves his small village of farmers and manages to work his way up the ladder although some of the money he uses to climb the ladder is associated with crime “He was a son of God and he must be about His Father's Business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 6.7). This phrase shows that Gatsby wasn’t meant for a life similar to that of his father but rather destined for greatness. However, his dream his short-lived and he doesn’t make it to the top as Daisy who is a symbol of his wealthy rejects her and a series of events transpire that result in his death before he could live his American Dream alongside everyone else who was working up the ladder to live the American Dream.

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 American Dream is like a beautiful yet poisonous mushroom. Its colorful appearance lures humans and animals to consume it, but the outcome results in death if left untreated. The American Dream lures people into thinking that their dream and their social class can be changed with hard work and determination. However, the results are deadly in The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald with all that tried. Through the use of imagery, Fitzgerald characterizes Jay Gatsby as ambitious, naive, and selfish, demonstrating how time and a corrupt, rigid and selfish society contributes to the non-existence of the American Dream.

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.

As humans, we crave love and affection from others, and in order to live the “American Dream” money is a necessity. It was the infectious love of money that brought Nick, a wealthy veteran who wanted more out of life, to the Eggs. More importantly, the love that Gatsby had for Daisy motivated him to live the life of the rich and prove it. The characters were influenced by the love of money, or money bringing love. Love and lust could be completely changed when money was thrown in, and for the characters in the book, there was never enough.

The American Dream is something every American wants to have in life, even those outside of America. Everyone thinks that they have a dream that once they achieve it everything about life will be so perfect and nothing could go wrong. In The Great Gatsby it shows how it is not always perfect. Fitzgerald’s idea of the American Dream was depicted in his book. It shows how his American Dream never made him happy.

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.

F. Scott Fitzgerald manages to define, praise, and condemn what is known as the American Dream in his most successful novel, The Great Gatsby. The novel is set in 1922, and it depicts the American Dream--and its demise--through the use of literary devices and symbols. While the theme of the diminishing American Dream in the movie is portrayed through the use of color/lighting and various camera angles to capture the class difference that occurs between the citizens from the Valley of Ashes and East/West Egg.

F. Scott Fitzgerald writing is filled with the notions of what many call the American Dream. The stories of rags to riches in a new land of opportunity. And all the hardships in between. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream as something that is unattainable without the presence of tragedy, failure, and unattainability through his use of elaborate symbols and metaphors.

Scott F. Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, depicts the difficulties in achieving the American Dream, and what some of the morally questionable actions one would do to achieve it are. The novel focuses on a very rich man, named Jay Gatsby, and the strange obsession he has with Daisy Buchanan, a married woman who he had a relationship with in the past, before she got married. The book also talks about Gatsby’s perseverance to make Daisy fall in love with him, using his extreme wealth as well as power. The author uses money, extravagancy and almost fictional parties to show that the American dream is impossible to obtain. Money is the main reason that ignites the actions of the main characters in the book.

The American Dream is defined as the idea of working for the necessities in life: a house that is capable of housing a family, a loving family, and a job that supplies these necessities. This idea also consists of living in a society that is not restricted by social classes and allowing people of the society to have freedom to choose where they belong. The American Dream was and still could be the main focus of people who are going out on their own to create a family. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald took a different route in his most famous novel. Fitzgerald uses his book, The Great Gatsby, to show how the idea of the American Dream is slowly dying in the society he created.

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.

Originally, the discrepancy between the affluent class and the destitute class becomes evident in the contrast between countless cities, primarily East Egg and West Egg. When Nick Carraway relocates to the East coast, he “lived at West Egg, the- less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (5). Nick establishes a clear contrast between East Egg and West Egg; from the beginning, Fitzgerald establishes a distinction between the “old money” and the “new money”. Fitzgerald portrays the members of West Egg, the “new money”, as pompous and careless while spending their money; in contrast, he portrays the members of East Egg, the “old money”, as responsible and capable of handling their money. Fitzgerald utilizes the contrast between these two cities to explore the diversity of the two leading social classes. Additionally, introducing the Valley of Ashes