The Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Essay

Nick longs to live the life of a millionaire, but for now the most he is able to do is to live next to one who represents his ideal life. Nick’s ideal world is one of money, and to him, Gatsby represents the life in which he thinks he would like to live. Nick demonstrates his admiration for Gatsby and his wish to be able to live that life when he says, “there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life” bespeaking that Nick finds the wealthy to be “gorgeous” and that he represents everything Nick finds to be the ideal life. Nick finds wealth to be something fantastical and it is something he strives to attain for himself in order for him to live his ideal life. Nick believes himself to be in the pursuit of the ideal life in his new home in West Egg, and that to be wealthy is a life of ease in which there is little struggle, the ideal life.

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.

Differentiating between reality and dreams can be difficult in a world of wealth, lies, and alcoholism. The characters of The Great Gatsby seem to live the lives of Greek gods, believing that they are immortal and immune to the perils of common people. They party all day and all night, dressed in evening wear (as opposed to a work suit) sipping on expensive liquors. They have no sense of the lives led on the other side of town (or down Mt. Olympus). Living in a world of uncertainty, influenced by alcohol, distorted by wealth, distinguishing what could be and what really is can be difficult.

Jay Gatsby, taken in by a bittersweet fruit, drags himself through filth. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby becomes wealthy to achieve his American Dream, but he fails to achieve it because of the corruption and disillusioning effects of materialistic society.

He had high hopes that he would be successful without help from others. In The Great Gatsby, Nick described his family and his history. How his family came from wealth. Nick came from a family who believed in the American Dream: "The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on to-day." (Fitzgerald 3). In this quote from this novel explains his heritage. According to Dust and Dreams and "the Great Gatsby," Nick was determined to become successful. He didn't believe in failure. "Nick's constant romantic self-projection, his own large sense of glamorous possibilities, his ability, even while noting that tawdriness of an actuality, to understand the glamour that it could still legitimately possess for an outsider- these, of course, are so obvious and so spelled out as to need no commenting on here." By John Fraser. (Fraser 557). This quote states how Nick's determination for success ties into the American Dream. He comes from a family of wealth and a proud family who believed in the American

The American Dream is indefinable. There is no one set of words or characteristics that the entire population assigns directly to its definition. With the American population consisting of people of various races, ethnicities, ages, classes, and genders, it seems trivial to even attempt to attribute a single definition to the concept of the American Dream. It is this inability however, to be confined within one single meaning, that allows for the American Dream to govern the desires and goals of the large and diverse American population. And, regardless of all of the heterogeneity within society, the American Dream is generally a goal of all American peoples. In examining this idea, I began to think about the specific meanings attributed to the American Dream for different types of individuals. I broadly outlined the American Dream for myself, to represent the belief in hard work as a pathway to success and raising oneself in society. Consequently, this higher position in society allows for the possession of increased amounts of power. My definition however, neglects to take into account the certain other societal constructs that could possibly have a decisive role in how to both define and achieve the American Dream for the wide variety of people who pursue it.

The American dream can be defined as the promise of living in America with opportunities for all, regardless of social class, and according to their ability and effort (Schnell, 2010). Proponents of the American dream believe that there is equal opportunity for all in the American society to achieve success. Success is not pegged on social status, race, or creed, but rather on an individual’s own efforts. The definition of the American dream has unique interpretations to different people. The most common meaning is that of a life of abundance and prosperity, characterized by economic rewards that enable one to live a middle class life of comfort. Here, success is measured by material possessions such as beautiful homes, cars, a high

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.

Originally, the American dream for the first settlers was for their children, and they would sacrifice everything for freedom of religion, and thought. Although, the American dream in the 1920’s is to live in happiness through financial and social success. For many, this selfish dream is achieved through illegal activity such as bootlegging, and gambling. This dream is mirrored in many novels such as The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s demise to highlight both the fragility of, and un-attainableness of the American dream in the 1920’s.

Everyone has dreams of being successful in life. When the word American comes to mind one often thinks of the land of opportunity. This dream was apparent with the first settlers, and it is apparent in today’s society. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), he illustrates the challenges and tragedies associated with the American dream. By examining Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson through the narrator Nick Carraway, I understand the complex nature of the American dream. Jay Gatsby represents the cost complex of them all.

Gatsby's dream was doomed to failure because of his lack of principles. This shows a major flaw of the American Dream philosophy, just like the get rich quick schemes of today, Jay is trying to buy Daisy?s love, not earn it. Nick attempts to tell Jay that his dream is pointless by saying that the past cannot be relived. Jay quickly told Nick, "Yes you can, old sport." This shows the confidence that Jay has in fulfilling his American Dream, and his commitment to it.

“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.

One thing that surprises me about Nick is that he was loyal to Gatsby who seemed likeable enough but empty inside. He seemed like the picture was more important than the real person. Nick was interested in person and would put himself in a bad light to help a friend. “I didn’t want to go to the city. I wasn’t worth a decent stroke

The United States of America is the most powerful and wealthy country in the world. The varieties of class, individuality, religion, and race are a few of the enrichments within the "melting pot" of our society. The blend of these numerous diversities is the crucial ingredient to our modern nation. Even though America has been formed upon these diversities, its inhabitants- the "average American"- have a single thing in common; a single idea; a single goal; the American Dream. The Dream consists of a seemingly simple concept; success. Americans dream of a successful marriage, family, successful job, and own a Victorian-style home with a white picket fence and an oak tree with a swing tire in the front yard. The

Although to Nick, Gatsby seems at once completely unoriginal, extremely knowable, being with him, he notes, was "like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines” (Fitzgerald 55). Gatsby, in Nick’s point of view, was disruptive. He is unable to trust Gatsby, for a fear that he would just vanish at the moment in which a promise leans toward its fulfillment.