The American Dream : The Great Gatsby Essay

How does Fitzgerald relate Gatsby’s dream to the American Dream? What seems to be his message about the American Dream as expressed in the last two paragraphs of the novel?

The American Dream is what we all aspire to achieve. The idea of starting off with nothing and to become something has caused millions of people from all corners of the world to immigrate to this country for over 300 years. However, what exactly is the American Dream? F Scott Fitzgerald answers this question within his novel The Great Gatsby. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald analyses the high class of the 1920s and reveals that the American Dream has been distorted from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. Fitzgerald incorporates the aspects of both the Òold dreamÓ & the Ònew dreamÓ in his tragic story to depicts how the inflexible dream has been corrupted and lost forever.

How do we define this ideology of the American Dream? Society has formulated this idea over time. We as people have chosen to base our lives around it and make it our goal to try and achieve something that in all honesty is just this abstract idea that we as have chosen to believe and chase over time. Due to society following this ideology, people have grown to believe that happiness can only be achieved after they have reached the American Dream. You see these advertisements for products that make you think if you don’t own that specific product than you are not going to achieve the American Dream. Media has managed to turn people into these materialistic beings that are just sitting there waiting to be told what to buy next. For my paper I will be analyzing the film The Great and focus primarily on this idea of materialism and more specifically how this American Dream myth and ideology plays into it. Why does the media want us to believe that happiness is derived from the “stuff” we buy and not the things we already have?

The American Dream means that by persistently working hard, one can achieve success; this is in contrast to other countries where the immigrants came from, in which one was either born into money and privilege or not, and if you weren't, there was no way of achieving this success. The American Dream eliminated the barriers between people that social class had held for centuries in Europe. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows the corruption of the American Dream from what it used to be in the past. Not only does Jay Gatsby achieve his success without hard work, but this success is not a matter of being able to achieve just like every other person. His success is just a result of the 'I

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the behavior of the wealthy during the 1920s is showcased through actions of characters such as Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Nick, and Meyer Wolfsheim. Old Money display their wealth in conservative, less ostentatious ways, while New Money are showy and take advantage of the luxuries they can now afford. Fitzgerald argues that most New Money families, who have come into wealth recently, make their fortunes through illegal activities such as bootlegging and gambling. He contrasts them with Old Money families, who have been wealthy for many generations, and make their money in “honest” ways. With the rise of New Money during the 1920s comes transformation of the American Dream. The achievement of the American Dream is now possible through new means besides the traditional ones of industry tycoons. Actors, athletes, movie directors, bootleggers, and gangsters all come into wealth and experience upward social mobility through persuasion and hustle. Through his portrayal of the East and West Egg elite in The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald contrasts the values held by each. He argues that to the new money families, the American Dream is no longer a concept that revolves around success and prosperity through traditional values of hard-work, determination, and initiative. Rather, it evolves to emulate an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess.

literature has meaning and a sturdy purpose. Three words with important meaning in society appear in

     Perception and reality do not always align. Is true love really true love, or is it a farce, a self-created mythical re-interpretation of the thing we hold so dear? In The Great Gatsby, is Gatsby really in love with Daisy, or his vision of her? Does she feel the same way for him, or does she truly love him? And what does the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock mean to Gatsby?

The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates the society in the 1920's and the associated beliefs, values and dreams of the American population at that time. These beliefs, values and dreams can be summed up be what is termed the "American Dream", a dream of money, wealth, prosperity and the happiness that supposedly came with the booming economy and get-rich-quick schemes that formed the essential underworld of American upper-class society. This underworld infiltrated the upper echelons and created such a moral decay within general society that paved the way for the ruining of dreams and dashing of hopes as they were placed confidently in the chance for opportunities that could be seized by one and all. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the

     F. Scott Fitzgerald is seen as one of the greatest American writers, admired by his contemparies and by modern audiences of today. Fitzgerald was very much in tune with the early twentieth century American culture. He is credited with capturing the ‘Jazz Age’, which he described as “a generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken”. Fitzgerald observed the culture around him with a critical eye. Despite being able to depict America like few others could, many see Fitzgerald’s writing as an indictment on its values.

The American Dream is achievable depending on your perspective and/or attitude. One person can look at the glass as half full, or half empty. Throughout The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is not able to achieve his dream while Sofia, from the book How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, was able to. It all depended on how they looked upon achieving their goal. In the end, the American dream is to be surrounded by what makes you happy and what you have achieved.

Jay Gatsby becomes so enthralled in his American Dream and the immoral means that he would use to obtain it, however, that he could not see foreboding events around him. He acts in a manner of obliviousness when many of the people whom he associates with mock him, such as when and an unnamed woman in Gatsby’s house in Chapter VI gives an insincere invitation for Gatsby to come to dinner and, after Gatsby naively accepts the invitation, Tom ridicules him by asking Nick, “Doesn’t he know she doesn’t want him?”(Fitzgerald 103). Such an honest reaction, however, could only be expected from the man who went about his business of illicitly acquiring money differently than he did his personal life. Despite reservations of the narrator, readers

A commonly held tenet among people from all generations is that hard work will ultimately lead to wealth and prosperity. This concept, illustrated in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is known as the American Dream. Although many have this dream today, it is a one in a million chance to attain it, regardless of whether or not a person is tremendously deserving of such success. James Gatz, later known as Jay Gatsby, is a character who experiences this minute probability of the American Dream coming true. Through the character of Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream is so difficult to achieve that it is unattainable.

After the world was left ravaged by a great war which brought previously unknown amounts of pain on a global scale the citizens sought after distractions. Soon after men and women both with newfound vigor and rights took to the streets to celebrate, but a wall named prohibition stood in its way. A wall that would be leaped over by the many who believed they earned their right to recline and drink to their hearts content. Although illegal, drinking was commonplace and happiness the name of the game. F. Scott Fitzgerald understood this and crafted a tale that reflects the freedom of choice and flexibility allowed by the United States. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the film Chicago directed by Rob Marshall

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope

In the world of 2017 it just seems that more and more people fall deeper into poverty. From the south side of Chicago to the streets of Cleveland, to the dumps of Detroit, to the gangs in LA it just seems more and more people keep falling down the never ending hole of poverty and depression. Even their offspring fall into this terrible fate as they fall into the weight of student debt. The United States has been claimed to be the “land of opportunity” ever since its first European settlers stepped foot onto its fertile soil; Many of whom chased the “American Dream”. But is the American Dream achievable to the average American? Even in the 1900s this was a prominent question as people questioned if the American dream is achievable including