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.

GatsbyÕs dream give him a purpose in life and sets him apart from the rest of the wealthy class on Long Island. He never gives up his pursuit to win over Daisy; from the moment he is seen reaching towards her house in East Egg to the final days of his life, patiently waiting outside DaisyÕs house for hours when she has already decided to abandon her affair with him. Gatsby is the only character that retains the purest traits of the old dream, but loses in the end by attempting to achieve his dream by transposing his original ambition into the dreamÕs modern state.

The American Dream in the 1920’s revolved around the accumulation of wealth. Jay Gatsby believes he can buy happiness, which to him, consists of having Daisy to himself. He believes he can do this by achieving a level of respect in East Egg; known for new money. His goal was to make fortune to please Daisy.

Another illusion that Gatsby holds is his conviction he can repeat the past. An example of this would be the way Gatsby had acted after returning from the war. He acted as if nothing had happened, and if he had not left. Gatsby states, “Can’t repeat the past, why of course you can!” Gatsby’s illusion of repeating the past runs very closely with his illusion of Daisy’s love. Gatsby believes that it would be perfectly normal and acceptable for Daisy to tell Tom that she had never loved him. He is completely motivated and determined

Gatsby had not achieved his goal and dream to win Daisy’s heart and have her fall for him again, in order to “fix everything just the way it was before” (The Great Gatsby, p.110), despite the fact that he had won Daisy’s heart back, it wasn’t the Daisy that Gatsby wanted. Gatsby had worked all his life to impress Daisy and meet her standard for wealth, not because he is tremendously attracted towards Daisy, but more because of the idea of having Daisy.

Instead of promoting the idea of hard work and decency, the American Dream now sprouts the want for wealth above anything else throughout the novel. This is most evident in Jay Gatsby, he truly believed that wealth and material items would be able to fix his problems and recreate his happiness from the past. Gatsby was not born into money, he came from a family of poor North Dakota famers. Therefore, he must go out and acquire wealth for himself. However, Gatsby did not make his fortune honestly, throughout the novel it is suggested that he made a profit off illegal and corrupt business deals. This is first suggested when Nick meets Wolfsheim, a business associate of Gatsby, curious of what Wolfsheim does for a living, Nick inquires. Gatsby then tells him, “He’s the man who fixed the World Series back in 1919.” (73) Fixing a World Series is not honest work and it shows that Wolfsheim is a corrupt individual. Furthermore, Gatsby does business with Wolfsheim which implies that he has not earned his money through honest means either. Nevertheless, the wealth alone does not bring Gatsby the happiness and satisfaction he desires. Towards the end of the novel, Nick discovers the reason that Gatsby went through all the trouble to acquire his massive fortune, it was to reconnect with the love of his life and recreate the happiness they once shared together. However, in chapter six, Nick reminds Gatsby that the past cannot be repeated. Gatsby, who is infinitely full of hope

However as we begin to learn about his corruption, and the way by which he came by this money, we begin to loose this image of greatness. Even Nick swings form admiration to resentment. When Gatsby tells Nick about all his great travels and accomplishments around Europe traveling like royalty and studying at oxford. This Makes Gatsby a hero, however Nick doesn’t believe him, until Montenegro is mentioned, and the same applies to us. This is the point when our faith in Gatsby’s greatness, is reaffirmed. As the book progress and we dig deeper into Gatsby’s past. We begin learning more and more about his life built upon deception, we really start to suspect the rumors of his under ground involvement in crime, specially after meeting Meyer Wolfsheim. It is my personal opinion that Wolfsheim, was in fact a Jew, due to his characteristics, “a large nose” “a diminutive stature”. It is an important point to note, due to the fact that during the 1920’s, The Jews were blamed for Americas corruption, due to there infamous greed at that time. So when Gatsby is seen doing business with people like Wolfsheim, it slanders his name and he, is no longer the American dream, on the contrary, he is now, one of the people that corrupted America . We begin to learn his true identity is not Jay Gatsby, but that he is relay a man named James Gatz.

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby’s hold of the past and his pursuance of his own American Dream ends in certain death. Throughout the story, Gatsby believes that his passion can sway Daisy to leave Tom. These events lead him to relentlessly chase wealth in order to gain social status that is worthy of Daisy. However, the story does not end according to Gatsby’s ideals. Fitzgerald utilizes symbolism to demonstrate Gatsby’s tragic flaw, his chasing of a dream that is already dead.

Throughout the novel, Gatsby is constantly trying to gain the affection of Daisy. If he were to win back Daisy, he would in a sense, achieve the American Dream. Yet he can’t because he belongs to a different social class, Gatsby is new money, while Daisy is old money. While talking about Daisy to Nick, Gatsby says. “Her voice is full of money...It was full of money — that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it”(Fitzgerald Chapter 7). While Daisy has been wealthy for year, Gatsby has only recently acquired his newfound riches. The difference is shown very explicit in nature as it becomes the barrier for Gatsby and Daisy and overall their happiness. Gatsby and his party goers, or new money, is described as irresponsible, self-made, and ostentatious. While Tom and Daisy, or old money, is described as elegant, refined, and established wealth. The stark difference in the end leads to the tarnishing of the American Dream for all those involved, as they no longer have hope for a better future. Angela Hickey explains in her analysis of The Great Gatsby, “ Gatsby can never hope to obtain Daisy because he doesn't have the right kind of money”(2). Hickey explains the way that social divisions cause Gatsby to never reach true happiness in order to achieve the The American Dream. In this case, the social differences

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.

Gatsby explains how he wants to rekindle his relationship with Daisy and he is desperate to repeat what they once had. He wants it to seem as if the past had not happened and that Daisy never married Tom. If he could go back he would but he cannot so he will do anything and everything it takes to get Daisy back and fulfil the perfect picture he has in his head. This shows Gatsby’s love for Daisy because he is willing to do anything to win her back.

“He wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’ ” (Fitzgerald Chapter 6). This is when it is very clear what Gatsby is trying to accomplish, his goal is to get Daisy to abolish all the experiences she’s had with Tom. Gatsby wants Daisy to follow his ideals and to try and spark their past together. Although Daisy is stuck between choosing Tom and Gatsby, she realizes that the past cannot be relieved, because she has experienced too much with Tom, and that Tom also has a major influence in her

“The Great Gatsby” follows Nick’s perspective on Jay Gatsby’s desperate attempt to get to be with his only love, and only desire in life, Daisy Buchanan. Life has not been kind to Gatsby as he worked his way up the social ladder, the only thing keeping him together being the obsessive need to get Daisy to leave all else to be with him. Gatsby wrote many letters to Daisy, most of which he never sent, both before and after he found out she married another man. I was most eager to read these letters, so this will be what I think may have been written in one of Gatsby’s many un-sent letters to Daisy – after he found out that she had married another man. To the best of my ability I will mimic the language Gatsby used when talking to and about Daisy. With this I hope to achieve that desperate and delusional tone of voice that he has.

The American dream is an ideology, a vision that’s form varies from individual to individual, based upon one’s own experiences. Although the one thing that remains constant in every single definition is that this ideology, just as the name states, is only a dream. It is meant to merely drive people to unlock their hidden potential and become their best self, for the sole purpose of living one’s out one’s own definition of success. In “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is Jay Gatsby’s inspiration and his opportunity, however, as the book progresses it becomes more evident that not all people share the same opportunity.

Gatsby dedicates his entire life to Daisy. Without hesitation he devotes his own self towards her. When Gatsby realizes Daisy wanted money he immediately made as much as he could and flaunted his wealth to attract her attention. All of his actions are executed specifically for Daisy, and after all of that dedication Gatsby expects for Daisy to recuperate this unyielding love. The issue is that Daisy is married, she is not the perfect person Gatsby has imagined her to be, she has faults and over the years she’s changed. Gatsby is baffled at Daisy’s inability to “understand,” he wants her to be the same girl she was five years ago, and cannot comprehend that Daisy has changed (109). Nick persuades Gatsby “not to ask too much of her,” Gatsby disregards this claiming that she can always become who she once was (110). Gatsby choses to ignore the real world for the romantic fantasy he has of Daisy and in the end this drives her away. This internal conflict drives Gatsby throughout his life, and after five years of devotion towards Daisy he creates an unrealistic, romantic world he expects Daisy to fit in. The issue is that she is no longer the girl she once was, and now Gatsby must learn how to battle the internal conflict between his dream of Daisy and her