The Great Gatsby And The American Dream Analysis

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the ideals of wealth and dreams are exhibited through the lives and experiences of Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Specifically, Gatsby tends to waste his wealth rather than investing for the future. He uses the “green light” to serve as a constant reminder of his dreams and life goals he wishes to pursue. Nick Carraway’s friendship with Gatsby enables him to partake in the wealth and luxuries of Gatsby's lifestyle. The American Dream is brought to fruition through Gatsby’s lavish lifestyle and extravagant parties. Furthermore, the motifs of wealth and dreams are perpetually shaping and influencing the characters’ decisions, experiences and outcomes over the course of the story.

Fitzgerald’s novel, the Great Gatsby is one of the most meticulously written story of all time. This book incorporates different themes, yet the shadiness of the American Dream is the most significant one. The American Dream designates that one starting very low on their economic or social status and getting success and wealth trough their arduous work. Having a big house, a nice car and a happy family show the success of the American Dream. This dream is also shown by the concept of a self-made man, who struggles through life to get successful and wealthy. This dream does not only cause corruption but also destruction.

The American dream is the idea of the perfect family and a house with a white picket fence; some people strive their whole life to achieve the dream, but the dream is unachievable—there is no such thing as perfect. The Balance’s article What Is the American Dream? The History That Made It Possible by Kimberly Amadeo says:

The American dream can mean many different things and can be interpreted in different ways. To some people, the American dream is the belief that if a person works hard enough, he or she can be successful in America no matter what race, gender, or nationality. In the 1920’s, the concept of the American dream was very much the same, that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if he or she works hard enough. By having money, a car, a big house, expensive clothes, and a loving family symbolizes the American dream. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the 1920’s is a time period in which the American dream becomes corrupt and dangerous. For Jay Gatsby, a main character in the novel, his American dream is about gaining wealth and material possessions in order to find happiness. Through his decision to symbolize wealth, superficiality, irresponsibility, and foreshadowing, Fitzgerald conveys the the theme that the American dream is a perfect concept and is something that can never be accomplished, but can always be reached for.

The American dream is often described as the desire for social mobility and the opportunity for wealth and success for all. According to Laura Goldblatt, author of Can’t Repeat the Past: Great Gatsby and the American Dream, “The term ‘American Dream’ provides a shorthand for aspirations that include the desire for social mobility, the ideals of freedom, and a non-hierarchical society,” (1) Of course, while there is an overall definition of the American dream, its interpretation varies from person to person. For some, it is the white picket fence and upper-middle class ideology. For others, it’s the dream of being able to support their families with their hardwork and dedication. However, for Jay Gatsby, it is only to gain wealth and success that will lead him to earn the love of Daisy Buchanan. To him, Daisy was his American dream and he would do anything, buy anything and give anything to have her, as shown throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s interpretation of the American dream is best encapsulated through his relentless pursuit to obtain Daisy’s love and attention. Although he used a showy appearance of wealth and prosperity to fulfill his desire for Daisy’s attention, the readers realize that money could not buy her affection in the long term, that Gatsby only committed to a life of extravagance for the sole purpose of wooing Daisy Buchanan, and he died sad and alone with his version of the American Dream never being fully realized.

There's always a start and an end to a dream. From the start line to the finish line of living out the dream. Gatsby represents the American Dream, he had started near the start line. The start line represents that there's both an advantage & disadvantages, the certain kind that not everyone has the same opportunities for and they’re not in the same social status.

American culture has been described as a “melting pot”. This means that everyone has incorporated their specific opinionated types of cultures and mixed it all into America. American culture was a slower-paced, slower communicating, and a better relationship filled culture. American culture has evolved into a faster communicating, better educated, and fast-paced culture. American culture is going to evolve into where we will barely talk in person and it will be less natural to talk face-to-face because of the many technological advances. As the future progresses, the “American Dream” begins to fade. In the “American Dream” it is stated that there should be “prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and

Through the decades, individuals have created a representation of how the American Dream should be. This dream as historian James Adams referred to as “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” However, during the time of Fitzgerald, the writer of The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was about discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. Furthermore, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses a variety of literary devices to portray the American Dream. He introduces Gatsby, a poor man who hopes and dreams to spend a life together with Daisy, extending arms to reach the green light.

He starts out as a poor boy from North Dakota, Gatsby at this time is working for his money, he is a clam digger and salmon fisher in lake Superior, he also works as a janitor when he attends college. He returns back to lake Superior where he meets Dan Cody and he takes him in, letting him work on his boat. Gatsby was supposed to inherit money from him, however that never happened and he became poor again. He does eventually become rich again but not without compromising his morals. Before, Gatsby did what any normal person would do, he worked hard for his money doing everyday jobs, but after, he got his money through illegal drug stores and bootlegging. He is called out by Tom who says, “I found out what your ‘drug stores’ were… he and this Wolfshiem bought up a lot of side-street drug stores… and sold grain alcohol over the counter.” (141). In this indirect characterization you can see how far Gatsby went in changing his morals to become rich. Instead of sticking to his morals and working regular jobs like he did before, his demand for money corrupted his morals and he turned to bootlegging, forever changing his morals and who he was as a person. The richest and happiest man is the one who sets the joy and happiness of others in the center of his

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.

The psychological concept of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a pyramid of desirable needs organized based on the fundamentality of the stage emphasizing how “some needs take precedent over others” (Boeree). One should only move up in levels through the pyramid of needs once he has achieved the needs below. Maslow’s Hierarchy is ordered through the needs of physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and self-actualization. Often times, when individuals are preoccupied with achieving a goal of self-actualization, or maximizing their full potential in life, a few stages are skipped. This individual is not truly self-actualized. In The Great Gatsby and Death of a Salesman, the idea of the American Dream is presented differently; through

The American dream is an illusion, and one can never achieve true happiness when one is searching for it. This is what F. Scott Fitzgerald was thinking when, amongst his failing marriage and panicking country, he wrote one of America’s most beloved classics. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a self-made, overly optimistic millionaire who throws lavish parties in search of his long-lost love, is eventually found to be not only a liar, but a failure as well. This failure portrays a different ideal for Fitzgerald: the American dream. In fact, within his novel, Fitzgerald metaphorically depicted the American dream as unachievable and impractical, using the very title itself.

     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?

Although Gatsby earns his wealth through bootlegging, this does not make him a gangster. Gatsby turned to Meyer Wolfsheim for a high paying job, no matter what the job was. After Gatsby’s death, Nick

In chapter four of The Great Gatsby, the character Gatsby takes the narrator Nick into Manhattan for some lunch. As they enter the city from the Queensboro Bridge, Nick remarks that, “Anything can happen now that we’ve slid over this bridge…. Even Gatsby can happen, without any particular wonder.” (69) By this point in the story we know that Gatsby is rich and that he throws elaborate parties at his home which is a “factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy.” (5) Later, in chapter six, we discover that Gatsby comes from humble beginnings in North Dakota and was actually named James Gatz; Jay Gatsby was a reinvention. This leads me to wonder why Nick would think that someone as complicated as Gatsby doesn’t carry any wonder in a