Themes Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is known to generalize “The American Dream”. This dream is a complex thought because there are different points of views of it. In the Great Gatsby novel, Tom and Daisy are living the American dream which leads to Tom taking advantage of his opportunity and he derails which makes him the most despicable character while Nick appears the be the most admirable because of his different life perspective from other characters.

The American Dream, a long standing ideal embodies the hope that one can achieve financial success, political power, and everlasting love through dedication and hard work. During the Roaring 20s, people in America put up facades to mask who they truly were. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald conveys that the American Dream is simply an illusion, that is idealist and unreal. In the novel, Gatsby, a wealthy socialite pursues his dream, Daisy. In the process of pursuing Daisy, Gatsby betrays his morals and destroys himself. Through the eyes of the narrator, Nick,

The stress on materialism and mentioning money and material things wherever it is possible is a characteristic trait of people representing the time period of Fitzgerald’s “American dream”. Fitzgerald reveals how Gatsby almost fulfills the dream having all of its requirements: position, money and his unique perception of the world that “attracted” people. "So he invented the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end ."(29) He forms a new man, Jay Gatsby, and becomes successful in living his life. Yet, the last of the requirements: “ ideal love” was never achieved, and therefore the collapse of the “American Dream” started. Which love cannot be achieved with money, status, for Gatsby failed to realize. The reason he strived for all of this money was to achieve his dream; Gatsby knew that Daisy wanted to marry a rich man thus he considered this way to be the only way to unite him with his true love. The understanding of the dream by the characters in the book is misinterpreted, and that is the primary reason they fail to realize the true message of the dream.

The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald effectively portrays 1920’s America and its twisted, unsavory values. The novel has been called “the American masterwork,” by Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post, because of the novel’s characterization of the Jazz Age and all of it’s unsatisfactory glory. One critic has written, “The theme of Gatsby is the withering of the American dream.” Fitzgerald’s work validates this statement. The Great Gatsby wonderfully depicts the death of the American Dream through the loss of humility and rectitude. The American Dream is the ideal that anyone, regardless of race, class, or gender should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The death of this dream is demonstrated in the novel through rich symbolism as Fitzgerald uses extended metaphors and personification to portray the corruption of the Jazz Age. The American Dream is demonstrated through the color yellow, which symbolizes not only wealth but death. The American Dream is also demonstrated through characters Myrtle Wilson, George Wilson, and Jay Gatsby, as well as their tragic endings while trying to achieve the dream. Tom and Daisy Buchanan achieve money without having to work and the carelessness that results from it.

Using Daisy and Gatsby as illustrations, he implies that the world of the Roaring Twenties was really corrupt, careless, and harmful and that the American Dream is unreachable and unrealistic. Fitzgerald, through Nick Carraway, depicts the wealthy as having a “quality of distortion…beyond [the] eyes’ power of correction” (176). Fitzgerald expends his full opinion of America’s elite through Nick’s disillusionment with Daisy and Tom Buchanan, calling them “careless people….[smashing] up things and creatures and then [retreating] back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together” (179). Basically, Fitzgerald accuses them of being destructive, selfish, and careless, assuming they have the right to be such things because of their wealth and social status. They’re just as destructive and corrupt as anyone else—if not more so—but they have the option to retreat and “let other people clean up the mess they had made” (Fitzgerald, 179) because of their financial and social status. With Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows the unreality of the American Dream. Gatsby “had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it”—but “it was already behind him” (Fitzgerald, 180). Though Gatsby planned his future around his dream of Daisy, he died still living in the past. Fitzgerald asserts that the same outcome is destined for all who chase the American Dream. Although it seems so close that they can hardly fail to grasp it, the dream eludes them, receding year by year. They convince themselves that tomorrow they’ll “run faster, stretch out [their] arms father…and one fine morning” they’ll finally seize it—but they really never do (Fitzgerald, 180). Fitzgerald says it’s like “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”

The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a story of misguided love between a man and a woman. Fitzgerald takes his reader through the turbulence and trials of Jay Gatsby’s life and of his pining for the girl he met five years prior. The main theme of the novel, however, is not solely about the love shared between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The main purpose is to show the decline and decay of the American Dream in the 1920’s. The American Dream is the goal or idea which suggests that all people can succeed through hard work, and that all have the potential to live happy, successful lives. While on the surface, Gatsby

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.

For centuries in this country people have believed that through hard work, talent and ambition anyone can acquire great wealth and success regardless of their social class and background, a concept later named “The American Dream” in 1931. However, people have been questioning whether this idea of rags to riches really is attainable to all who work for it, or if it is merely a fantasy and a myth. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses symbolism to illustrate the death of the American Dream.

The notion of the ‘American Dream’ is one of the repeated aspects portrayed in this book, since Gatsby’s entire life is dedicated to achieving this. The ‘American Dream’ comprises of grand opulence, social equality, wealth; more specifically, a big house with a big garden, the newest model cars, the most fashionable attire, and a traditional four-peopled ‘happy’ family. To Fitzgerald, the ‘American Dream’ itself is a positive, admirable pursuit. We can see this when Fitzgerald uses personification, “flowers”, to background positive connotations behind the idea of the ‘American Dream’. In regard to Gatsby, he achieves the wealth aspect of this ‘dream’, “he had come a long way to this blue lawn”; however, he was yet to be satisfied because he did not have Daisy. Ever since the very beginning of the story, Gatsby always associated Daisy with magnificent affluence, the white house, and the grand quality of being rich. Gatsby wanted everything ever since he was first introduced to the higher status. But Gatsby felt incomplete and unfulfilled even after getting everything he dreamt of, so he sourced this emptiness as not having Daisy, where in reality, “he neither understood or desired” the motives he thought he once had.

-Throughout the novel, there is a constant reference to the “American Dream.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, even appears to mock the naivety and oblivion that comes with this false reality. Characters like Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby attempt to hold onto the idea of what a perfect and happy life is. They attempt to envision a better and brighter day. They attempt to “start over”, Tom with his mistress, Daisy with her affair with Gatsby, and Gatsby with his affair with Daisy. However, Fitzgerald proves that the notions of a “perfect” tomorrow are flawed, and he does so by having all of their lives (Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby) end with some type of tragedy.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, the author, F Scott Fitzgerald, expresses the reality of the ‘American Dream’ through a series of unfavorable events set in the 1920s. The American Dream is to work hard young and retire early while being rich and in love. The character Jay Gatsby is chasing this dream throughout the novel. Gatsby has almost everything to complete the dream, he is rich, young, and in love but, the girl he loves, Daisy, is married to another man. Daisy’s husband, Tom, is rich and young the problem in their relationship is that they do not love each other. The two lovers, Daisy and Gatsby become reunited through a mutual acquaintance named Nick. Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor, Daisy’s cousin and the narrator in this novel.

out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was

People were also affected by the pursuit for the American Dream as it brought people’s desire for love. An example of this is Gatsby’s American Dream as it included acquiring Daisy and her love which has taken over his entire life. The American Dream is reaching whatever your dream is through hard work and Daisy is Gatsby’s one dream. His intense desire for love with Daisy affects Gatsby by blinding him from the fact that Daisy does not deserve his admiration as she is selfish, shallow and hurtful person. Even though other characters such as Nick clearly see this, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” (Fitzgerald 262). Gatsby also dedicated everything in his life to acquiring Daisy’s such as hosting large, extravagant parties in hopes she would come and buying the mansion directly across the bay from her house. "It was a strange coincidence," I said. "But it wasn 't a coincidence at all.” "Why not?” "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.” (Fitzgerald 114). Secondly, another example of how the desire for love in the novel affects the characters is how George Wilson is

Fitzgerald lived in the time after WWI where the novel takes place; American life had major changes, the people started to become more materialistic, women obtained the right to vote, parties became a typical routine, but most importantly the desire for the American Dream was in full swing. In the Roaring 20’s, people wanted to obtain money by any means assuming it would bring them inconsiderable amount of joy. Fitzgerald portrays this time period through character traits and symbols, to exhibit the impossibility of the American Dream. After the WW1 the American people got a different prospective from American dream opposed their traditional lifestyle and behavior. Firstly, people become more concerned with themselves rather than anyone else, which is evident in the behavior and relationships between Daisy and Tom, they would cause multiple problems among others and simply return back to their finances if all else fails. Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby with his own inept social ambition as a dream achiever, with Daisy as his dream. He grew up dreaming about becoming rich and changing how the world viewed him, in turn he left his family and

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby has been one of the uppermost legendary works of modernization. The tone of this movement was he American literature in the old days and the present days. F. Scott Fitzgerald sets the great Gatsby in the jazz age to show the decline in the 1920s, about how wealth does not bring happiness and those with unrealistic dreams are unsuccessful and dishonestly can ruin relationships.