What Is The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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 definition of the American Dream is something that is defined by a person, and in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s case the American Dream is defined as unreal. Fitzgerald’s lived in the roaring twenties and the time of the party and fun, and the time that caused the stock market crash and depression. The pessimistic thought process of Fitzgerald rubs off on his novel, The Great Gatsby, a story entangled with love triangles, drama, and death. In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald’s poor life leads to his belief that the American Dream is not achievable, as seen through the literary devices of Characterization of Jay Gatsby, Nick carraway, and Myrtle Wilson.

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.

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

The author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald had a hard life. When he was in his younger years, his lover left him because he wasn’t wealthy enough for her. In the book, there are five main characters: Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway, Jordan Baker, and Jay Gatsby. Daisy and Tom are married and live in a large mansion on Long Island. Nick is the narrator who has just moved to Long Island in hopes of finding a new, honest lifestyle. Jordan is Daisy’s cousin, and Gatsby is a mystery man. The book looks at the American Dream and how one accomplishes it while keeping (or not keeping) moral values. In the book The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald through symbolism, anthropomorphism, and characterization, shows us that in order to achieve the American Dream, you must be willing to stab each other in the back.

When people think of the word American Dream they think that if you're wealthy you will be happy, but that's not the true meaning of the American dream. The American dream doesn't exist in the novel "The Great Gatsby by f. Scott Fitzgerald” a man named Nick Caraway narrates the story from his point of view. In the beginning of the story, the reader finds out Nick is cousins with Daisy Buchanan, she is married to Tom Buchanan. Nick finds out that Gatsby, his next door neighbor has been in love with a woman named Daisy for five years. Daisy admits she is also in love with Gatsby although she is married to Tom Buchanan but he is also in love with another woman named Myrtle. Tom cheats on daisy but he makes sure Daisy is clueless about his affair. Eventually, Daisy has to choose a man to spend the rest of her life with and she ends up picking Tom. However, Gatsby was never able to find out who she picked because he was killed. In the novel, the characters misinterpreted the American Dream; the hope for

The American dream, an ideal that motivates and entices many. A beautiful yet extremely flawed concept according to Fitzgerald. The idea is that every citizen has an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work. However, we will see in The Great Gatsby that no one is truly equal, and as one rises another falls. “We speak of equality and unlimited possibilities, but in reality both are illusions” (Hearne, 191). The American dream offers hope, hope to achieve anything, wealth, large house, fancy cars, or power. To achieve success, difficult decisions have to be made, and these decisions may in turn hurt the ones we love. For most readers, Gatsby represents the American dream itself. Fitzgerald purposely does this to emphasize the corruption and flaws in the American dream. The American Dream, once a pure dream, was distorted during the 1920’s to be focused on the wealth and possessions one had. The Great Gatsby is about the corruption of the American dream during a time when it was at its most brilliant high. This novel, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, focuses on the characters’ struggles and tragedies while they attempt to obtain the illusionary goal that is the American Dream.

In the book The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is portrayed in many different ways. The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. Fitzgerald represents the American Dream by representing the East and West Egg, and the green light. Fitzgerald's main character, Gatsby, reaches for the American Dream but doesn’t succeed. Fitzgerald attacks the American Dream by creating characters from new money, old money, and working class, who all fail in happiness.

When America was founded, the definition of the American Dream was to better one’s circumstances; however, Fitzgerald shows through his novel The Great Gatsby that the definition of the American Dream has changed: it became the desire to make it big as fast as possible.

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows a theme of the American Dream. Gatsby is a dreamer and will do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals.

The American Dream is the ideal for American life that has been sought by both Americans and immigrants for almost a century. Its requirements differ from person to person and generation to generation based on the significant values of society. So, what is the American Dream? Its meaning has revolved around three specific themes in the 20th and early 21st centuries. These include owning a house, car, and family (the “whole package”); achieving fame and fortune; and having the freedom to pursue one’s goals.

When the sounding of America occured, the definition of the American Dream was a possible way to better one’s circumstances; however, Fitzgerald shows through his novel The Great Gatsby that the definition and attainableness of the American Dream has changed: it became an unachievable dream that focused on making it big. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby focused on the American Dream and mainly reflected how Fitzgerald himself felt about it. It showed how the 1920’s changed the dream and turned it into a fantasy rather than a reality. Fitzgerald’s opinion of the American Dream was that it was an unattainable dream that left behind the notion of hard work and embraced improving one’s life; however, there are parts of Fitzgerald’s work that support the concept of an obtainable dream and the importance of hard work.

In a classic American tale, F. Scott Fitzgerald defined the American dream through a symbolic narrative. He personified its essence in a green light, a shining symbol of hope in the darkest of times, and he warned of the dangers that accompany it in his depictions of the upper-class. While Fitzgerald likely did not imagine the ways in which this dream has evolved, it is important to consider his foundation before defining what the American dream means today.

Fitzgerald gained inspiration to write The Great Gatsby from his own life. Fitzgerald, an army second lieutenant, was stationed at Camp Sheridan, in Montgomery, Alabama. There he met and fell in love with a wild beauty named Zelda Sayre. Zelda agreed to marry Fitzgerald, only if he could gain wealth and public status. With the publication of This Side of Paradise in 1920, Fitzgerald became a literary sensation, earning enough money and fame to convince Zelda to marry him. In the end, Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was moved away from Fitzgerald. Shortly thereafter, Fitzgerald died suddenly of a heart attack while believing himself to be a failure. Zelda was burnt to a crisp in a fire at her hospital. The Great Gatsby is a highly symbolic meditation on 1920s America as a whole, in particular, the disintegration of the American dream in an era of unprecedented prosperity and material excess. Fitzgerald conveys many themes in The Great Gatsby, but Myrtle’s role of mistress and a materialistic woman assist to expound Fitzgerald’s purpose in showcasing money does not always get a person happiness.

Enabling the American people to gather that the impossible is possible, American literature epitomizes the deceptive nature of the American dream. The American dream produces a skewed sense of reality within individuals, a running theme than can be seen through many pieces of American literature. Perfectly manifesting this idea most accurately, this theme is most prominent in American author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning——”(Fitzgerald,193). Moreover,Fitzgerald relates the almost fanciful ideals of Gatsby regarding his relationship with Daisy to the false sense of the unimaginable being attainable, generated by the American dream. The belief that Americans had about the American dream led to beliefs that to the individuals seemed attainable, but in reality, were completely impossible. Applying the misleading disposition of the American dream according to Fitzgerald to immigrants (those who leave their country to live permanently in another country) of the country American piece Kaddish, by Allen Ginsberg encompasses the feelings of those coming to America. According to Ginsberg, individuals who vacate their country in hope for a better life in America are brutally disappointed when they arrive to the land where the American dream is only possible for