The Emptiness of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Essay

Nick realizes from his experiences that people in East Egg are very fake and absentminded. Tom and Daisy are perfect examples of this kind of lifestyle. They are very self-centered and express no sympathy

An individual 's idealistic world will often be far from the reality of their situation; their own idealistic world in which they wish to live will cloud the truth from their eyes, deceiving them of what their life truly is. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby lives his life under an illusion, the illusion that he is living in his own ideal world in which everything will work out for him. Gatsby, while living his ideal life, throws constant parties, parties so extravagant they can be seen across the bay. Gatsby does this in the hopes that his past love, Daisy, will see these parties and wish to attend. His deluded sense of his reality blind him from the reality that Daisy is

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, an idealistic and illusionary goal to achieve wealth and status. The ruthless pursuit of wealth leads to the corruption of human nature and moral values. Fitzgerald uses characters in the novel to show the corruptions and the illusionary nature of the American Dream. The superficial achievement of the American Dreams give no fulfillment, no real joy and peace; but instead, creates lots of problems for the characters in the novel. What happens to Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan represent the failure of the American Dream. Each character has a different dream. For Jay Gatsby, his dream is to attain happiness, represented by Daisy's love, through

The first dream that does not get fulfilled is the one of Gatsby. He starts off as an underprivileged boy and struggles his way to the top. We make his acquaintance when he is on the top of his life. He is enjoying his big house and his vast wealth. The one thing he cannot have is his lovely Daisy. Gatsby’s story reflects the “classical” American dream: Anyone can make anything of himself/herself with just elbow grease, spirit and a whole lot of confidence. Jay loves Daisy and, sadly, she is the one thing which he cannot procure to his “perfect life”.

Although "The Great Gatsby" is filled with multiple themes such as love, money, order, reality, illusion and immorality, no one would probably deny that the predominate one focuses on the American Dream and the downfall of those who attempt to reach its illusionary goals. The attempt to capture the American Dream is the central of this novel. This can be explained by how Gatsby came to get his fortune. By studying the process of how Gatsby tried to achieve his own so-called American Dream, we could have a better understanding of what American dream is all about, in those down-to-earth Americans' point of view. The characterization of Gatsby is a representative figure among Americans as he devoted his whole life to achieve his dream.

Gatsby believed that in order to fulfill his own concept of the American Dream he needed to win Daisy’s love, and to do that he would need to “establish himself as Somebody.” Although he loves Daisy, he also sees her as more of a goal – a step toward the perfect life promised by the American Dream. In a way, Gatsby views Daisy much the way

so when it did not work out, he had nothing. This created the tone and mood of emptiness and loneliness. Another example of the mood created after Daisy and Tom leave without of trace is when Nick describes them after they have gone. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mass they made…” (Chapter 9)

quotation emphasizes that Gatsby’s dream is too high and unrealistic. He has idealized Daisy so much that she cannot live up to his expectations. Therefore, his somewhat unattainable dream represents the harsh reality of the American Dream.

Jay Gatsby was an ambitious young man, who became a victim to the American Dream. He, like many other Americans, had wanted it all. In other words, Gatsby’s goals and aims in life were all about money and love. Although he was able to obtain a large amount of money, Gatsby was not able to win the women of his dreams. Moreover, it seems as though he could not be satisfied with what he currently had. These unsatisfying feelings and the lack of accomplishment lead to Gatsby’s fall or death.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, portrays the life of a man who is truly focused on one dream: to reclaim the love of his life. Fitzgerald illustrates the problem of being so single-minded through Gatsby’s ultimate demise. His slow evolution and reveal of the character of Gatsby leads to a devastating climax once his dream fails. Fitzgerald uses extended metaphor and sharp diction to depict Gatsby’s crumbling life in his last moments.

The Great Gatsby, first published in 1925, echoes its era, and predicts its tragic end. In the novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald “revealed the negative side of the period’s gaiety and freedom, portraying wealthy and attractive people leading imperiled lives in gilded surroundings” (Danzer 656).It illustrate “the dying American Dream and the corruption of historical values”(Bewley 23). The wealthy characters in the book are careless, materialistic and empty, showing the corrupt side of the American Dream, but Gatsby is different. In the novel, Nick describes him as having “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such I have never found in any other person and which is not likely I shall ever find again” (Fitzgerald 2).He kept believing and fighting for his dreams to the very end, even after it became clear that Daisy would not leave Tom to stay with him.

Gatsby’s quest for Daisy wasn’t just a quest for love, but also a quest for “The American Dream.” Gatsby always had a plan and set goals for himself while he was a young child. Gatsby’s father explains how he always had a schedule written out on an old copy of Hopalong Cassidy. “He opened it at the back cover and turned it around for me to see.

This story brings to life the roaring twenties with all the different elements such as, the flappers and the Jazz Music. Also this story is a story that has been told a thousand times: the American Dream. The Great Gatsby is a novel told in the point of view of Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousins and Gatsby’s best friend. Nick tells the story of a millionaire named Jay Gatsby, whose desire is to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, his one true love over the past five years. He hopes to reconnect and go back to how it was before Daisy, but along the way he is misguided. Throughout the story we learn about Gatsby’s dream to achieve and fulfill the American Dream, his quest leads him from poverty to wealth and into the arms of his long lost love, and in the end is misguided with his love for Daisy that it unfortunately leads to his death. It is seen that most of characters in the novel are corrupted and only after there own selfish pleasure while trying to achieve the American Dream, the perfect life. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, is a novel about how the American Dream is unachievable and leads into materialism, selfish pursuit of pleasure, and corruption. Through the use of characterization, imagery, and symbolism Fitzgerald reveals the loss of hope and the loss of the American Dream of

The carelessness demonstrated by Tom and Daisy can be characterized by the carelessness of those who can afford to be careless. Daisy is careless because she is manipulative and untrustworthy. She camouflages herself around her money when the going gets tough. Tom was much more careless. Tom believed he could do whatever he pleased and escape punishment. Myrtle; Tom’s mistress was, of course, a causality of sorts in this war of

The passage is structured into three sections, each differing in the use of narration, description, and dialogue. The first paragraph is Nick’s narration that prepares the reader to discover the “strange story” of Gatsby’s youth. The following five paragraphs are an intriguing mixture of narration and description. Gatsby’s descriptive revelation of his past is retold through by Nick’s narration. The filter of Nick’s own opinions inevitably affects the nuance of Gatsby’s experiences. Nick’s biased disapproval of the rich is conveyed through subtle words such as “bought luxury,” which implies his scorn for the rich who enjoy excessive luxury at the expense of others’ efforts.The last paragraph consists of Gatsby’s monologue only, in which the expression of his thoughts are independent of Nick’s opinion. Through this Fitzgerald provides the reader with Gatsby’s honest thoughts, in which his illusions are further made obvious. For example, his misguided belief that Daisy thought he “knew a lot because [he] knew different things from her” is overconfident and idealistic, giving the reader an insight into his character.