The Importance Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The term “The American Dream” was coined in 1931 by American writer James Truslow Adams and described America as a place of opportunity based on one’s ability and hard work. Although the term originated in 1931, the fundamental ideas of the American Dream debuted in 1920’s society and contrasted greatly with previous notions of a stagnant class structure. This was due to the booming post-WWI economy, which provided an increase in accessibility to leisure items and activities, allowing luxuries typically reserved for the upper class to be enjoyed by the masses. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, reflects these social and economic changes. The novel follows the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby, who achieved prosperity in spite of being born the son of a poor, North Dakota farmer. Though many believed in an emergence of class mobility in the 1920’s, the novel The Great Gatsby demonstrates the ultimate inaccessibility of the American Dream - a holistic realization of social and economic equality.

The American Dream is defined as “America was going on the greatest, gaudiest, spree in history and there was going to be plenty to tell about it” (Cowley 31 ) this is what everybody was claiming the American Dream was supposed to be . The money was all for show, the dream was all a lie, and the class you were a part of was suppose to dictate your life. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is consumed by the want for the American Dream and chasing what was the illusion of true love, wealth, and social status.

The American Dream, something we all dream to prosper, however differs from each one of us. Whether it be to obtain riches or love, or simply live happy, we all aspire to cross that finish line at the end of day. The universal theme of the American Dream is presented throughout The Great Gatsby, and is shown throughout many of the characters in which many are emptied, because of their lust for money. For instance, in the novel The Great Gatsby the main character Gatsby shows downfall for the American Dream, because of his ambition, and corruption. The character expresses his downfall through his traits of ambition, and resilience in obtaining his materialistic riches, and most important living happy ever after with his “nice” girl Daisy, the one who got away.

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.

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.

The American Dream is a recurring theme in Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The American Dream is all about starting with nothing and making your way to achieve millions of dollars and “happiness.” In The Great Gatsby, by showing Gatsby’s tragic flaw, his belief that money will buy Daisy’s love, Fitzgerald in a way criticizes the American dream. Fitzgerald exudes this image of corruption in the American Dream through aspects of wealth, relationships, and social class.

Many people believe the American Dream is just becoming rich or getting higher social status to a point where you will be financially set for life. People of the lower social class usually think that getting more money will solve all their problems.Gatsby first had the dream of becoming rich and successful but then his dream transforms to becoming centered around Daisy and then does some very immoral things and continually throws his money away weekly to try to gain her attention back. Even though

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he demonstrates the actions of society and by doing, so he ridicules the high class and lower class, which ended up critiquing the American Dream. The American dream is an idea to give people hope that through hard work one will achieve wealth, fame, and prosperity. This dream symbolizes the desire to attain a luxurious house, car and even a perfect marriage if one is diligent enough. It is represented by the idea of a self-sufficient man or woman who is determined to achieve a goal to become more successful. However, the American Dream is an illusion that only leads to corruption in the pursuit of social mobility.

The American dream is the idea that everyone should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby we are given a glimpse of 20th century New York; a story focused on the corrupted American dream. Many characters in the book are in pursuit of the American dream not aware of the impact their behavior will have in the end. The Great Gatsby is a tragic story portraying the downhill spiral of the American dream due to the carelessness of the wealthy.

The American dream represents hard work and ambition.In the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald has many themes but the one that stands out most to me is the American dream.The American dream is defined by coming from a poor establishment and are striving to make the best of your life to become wealthy.In the novel Fitzgerald uses this theme that makes life seem so extravagant just to have your world crash before you with corruption. The people who are affected by corruption are Myrtle,Gatsby,and Daisy.

First, the clearest embodiment of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby is Jay Gatsby because of his rags to riches story. However, Gatsby’s true American Dream was not achieved by the enormous mansion or fortune, or renown parties. “For Gatsby, wealth was never the end goal, it was always just a tool to get Daisy into his life” (Nagel 115-116). Daisy was the goal, Daisy is what

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicted the American Dream through Gatsby’s experience of working hard to become rich, though not really achieving his true dream. In the novel, Gatsby’s motivation to achieve the dream of becoming rich is to get his dream girl, Daisy, because she would only marry a rich man. He then works towards his supposed dream of becoming rich and throwing lavish

In the American Classic, The Great Gatsby, embodies the Theme of the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. This book is the ultimate critique of the American Dream which criticized the ideology that anyone in America can rise in status with enough hard work, but only if you are getting money illegitimately. He tries to communicate that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal and that it ends up being more about materialism and selfish pursuit of pleasure. He conveys that no amount of hard work can achieve the amount of wealth that people like Gatsby have.

In the novel The Great Gatsby, the topic of the American Dream is weighted heavily. In fact, the whole novel is written around the American Dream. It is so involved in the foundation of The Great Gatsby, that most of the characters’ lives can be seen as the definition of it. Daisy, Tom, and Gatsby can be observed as the ideal people that everyone aspires to be just like. However, the American Dream is just as it sounds, a dream. One never really knows what is happening beyond what someone will let you see. The idea of the “american dream” is nothing but a phony. Sure, everything always looks shiny and perfect from afar, but just as the character Nick learns in the novel, the idea of perfection is nothing but a fallacy.

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