The Importance Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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.

The author Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a novel that talks about and covers American issues in the 1920s. He shows in the novel the carelessness and selfishness of everybody at the same time by portraying all of them in the location of west and east egg. Fitzgerald talks about a couple different topics throughout the novel. One of those is," the Attainment of a dream may be less satisfying than the pursuit of it" and the second one is"the American Dream is corrupted by the desire for wealth". He uses those themes to show how americans lived at a different time.

The American Dream, is an idea that all Americans are familiar with, no matter what age they are. It is the dream that everyone has an equal opportunity, to use hard work and integrity to achieve success. The American Dream is an integral aspect of Jay Gatsby’s life in the novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel follows Jay Gatsby, as told by Nick Carraway, through the trials and tribulations that correspond with newfound wealth and the quest to find true happiness in a cynical and testing environment. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald suggests that the American Dream has the power to corrupt individuals, through his depictions of wealth, materialism, and the consequences they inflict in the character’s lives.

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.

One of the most influential writers of the early 20th century was a man named F. Scott Fitzgerald. The biggest topic that he wrote about was the American Dream. Fitzgerald uses many different aspects of writing to get his opinion across, such as the outcome of stories like The Great Gatsby and “Winter Dreams”. He also uses the setting and to explain his beliefs. Based of his work, Fitzgerald believes the American dream is not only unrealistic, but also unattainable.

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.

The American Dream is the belief that anyone can be successful if they just work hard enough. It is about pursuing happiness through independence and integrity. Many individuals rely on the American Dream to give them a meaningful life, when in actuality it destroys one’s happiness. In reality, those who give no significance to the American Dream are the ones who are actually satisfied with their lives. Fitzgerald’s novel, ‘The Great Gatsby,’ shows that finding purpose in one’s life does not revolve around the American Dream. As a matter of fact, individuals are most content without trying to achieve that utmost success. The American Dream is a false prospect that people attempt to achieve, and as a result,

The American Dream is the result of possibilities and success. The term “American Dream” was been invented by James Truslow Adams in 1931: “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.” Another reference to the American Dream appears in the Declaration of Independence (1776). The author wrote that people are “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The question of the debate was: “Is the American Dream Still Alive and Well?”

The Great Gatsby is a wonderful novel that shows different lifestyles in an exciting way. Throughout the novel the author Fitzgerald shows different perspectives of the American dream. The theme of the American dream shapes the narrative, on one side you have the majority of people who want to get rich and live an extravagant materialistic life. These people want to be noticed by everyone. Then there are other people who just want to be happy and do not care about all of the unneeded objects in life. These two ideas play a key role in the novel and are portrayed throughout.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald highlights the idea of relationships between real and the Flawless during the 1920s. This limited structure of the text portrays the concept of the American Dream. What is the American Dream? America has advanced from a striving nation to become a world superpower through its unknown and unsteady economic growth. Driven by self-reliance, independence, and freedom, Americans have the opportunity to chase success. To many individuals, this is the American Dream. To others, such as Gatsby, Tom and Jordan, the American dream is more so happiness. These characters are driven by their dreams, seeking what they deem will make them happy. Gatsby and Tom seek happiness through love while Jordan seeks happiness through money. The belief that happiness, paradise, and peace are within their hands drives these characters. Yet the small fact that their dreams are unachievable makes them faulty. Without their dreams, Gatsby, Tom and Jordan lose their purpose in life. This makes the pursuit of the American dream a paradox. Achieving it is impossible, but without it, life will lose its purpose.

James Truslow Adams once stated in his book The Epic America a very important phrase that truly seem to represent what the American Dream is about after the Declaration of Independence. He wrote “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for earth according to the ability or achievement.” This phrase still illustrates what the Dream is about for some people nowadays; it is the right of freedom, prosperity, equality and pursuit of happiness through hard work. However, the American Dream is an ironic concept seeing as it is never fully attainable. Although it is supposed to represent progression, happiness, and success, most people find themselves indulged in materialism whilst pursuing it, thus forgetting their origins, morals, values, and never achieving the true notion of the American Dream. This can be clearly seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby where there are a variety of characters that are living or seeking the Dream, alas they all end up unhappy and lost in their lives. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald constantly tries to illustrate that the American Dream is completely corrupt and dead which is demonstrated through two of his characters Myrtle and Gatsby, who were both trying to achieve their own Dreams through immoral and corrupt actions.

The whole story of “The Great Gatsby” is showing the stigmatized version of the American dream. That it is so perfect and fun to be rich and if one is rich one is happy. F. Scott Fitzgerald tries to show the consequences of pursuing the american dream. He shows this through many different characters, most importantly being Jay Gatsby. Living the American Dream may seem like the life wanted from afar, but if one gets to close it just might eat him/her up.

Everyone has lived a different past and everyone has different views for their future.Your own American dream is a result of your previous life experiences. In the Great Gatsby, Nick attends his first Gatsby party and was the only one who was formally invited whereas everyone else simply showed up. In the first ten minutes Nick is there, he constantly hears everyone romanticizing Gatsby’s past. Despite the convincing arguments people had about him being a war hero, an oxford man and cousin to a German general, Nick’s face still lit up the second he was introduced to the famous Jay Gatsby. James Gatz formally known as Jay Gatsby was raised by a dirt poor family and slowly made his way into money but that’s not exactly what he tells people. His fake story is that he comes from wealth and his folks died when he was younger so he just inherited all his money which is completely false yet everyone believed him because he’s Gatsby. With the true knowledge of James’ childhood it becomes obvious why he became so wealthy and that is due to the fact that human nature states you want what you can’t have so with him being quite poor when he was young, all he wanted was money. It shows how his American dream is to maintain his wealth although he would sacrifice it all for Daisy if need be. Someone like Tom Buchanan on the other hand lives a very wealthy lifestyle and always has, coming from money and inheriting most of his wealth, he lives a different approach towards his American dream.

“We anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures by delightful forethought of them.” -John Tillotson. Men and women cling to the material possessions and desires of this world. They pin their hopes on this idea that, if they can just get this one thing, they will be satisfied and will never need anything else to make them happy. However, this train of thought is not correct. People appreciate whatever they don’t have because they see it as a prize to be won. Once this prize is won however, they clean the trophy and make sure it’s spotless for a few days , but then they put it on a shelf with the others to be forgotten. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, his characters are exactly like this. The people of the world he wrote about all want or desire more than the rare gems they already hold, such as wealth and prosperity, power, and love. They have these grand hopes and dreams and aspirations of owning it all, but “it all” is still not enough for them. Through his writing, Scott communicates to the reader that the extravagant life that comes with the American Dream is not as perfect as it appears.