Why Is The American Dream Important In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream, the hope that every single citizen of the United States has the equal right and opportunity to gain prosperity and success through hard work, integrity, and honest means. In the narrative The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he symbolizes the dying American Dream at the turn of the Century through the characters and plot of his novel. The book takes place in the 1920’s which was an era full of young, and innovative people taking every advantage of the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald shows this through setting, plot, and in particular one major character, Jay Gatsby.

When Gatsby first met Daisy, he was merely a poor boy with dreams much bigger than his wallet. Daisy was everything he could have possibly dreamed of: rich, beautiful and powerful. As his love for her grew, so did his ambition to give her whatever he could. When Gatsby acquired a lot of money by a chance encounter with a sailor, his first thought was of his heart. He had left it with Daisy. But, as seen in the book, love that is given yet not returned is poisonous. Although Daisy loved Gatsby, she was too obsessed with the American Dream to ever truly give him her heart. No matter how much Gatsby tried, part of Daisy would always belong to Tom and to

Jay Gatsby, a mysterious yet extremely wealthy man living in a lavish mansion in the West Egg, where no one knows how he go there, what he does, or how he makes his money. Since the first time Gatsby encountered Daisy he has never completely rid himself of her despite the fact she has started a life of her own. He’s known for throwing quite the party every week in hopes that Daisy would end up at one. He believes that if she sees him that she will go back to him like nothing has changed. Gatsby made his riches through criminal activity, because he was willing to do anything to gain the social stance in which he felt was

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 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.

Ultimately sacrificing her desire to pursue her relationship with Gatsby, someone with who she had fallen in love, Daisy chose to marry Tom, a wealthy and old-money aristocrat. Clearly still in love with Gatsby, on the night of the wedding, Daisy became “as drunk as a monkey” with a letter in hand telling Jordan that “Daisy’s change’ her mine!” (Fitzgerald 81). Yet, Daisy finally prioritizes wealth over love as “next day... she married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver” (Fitzgerald 81). The ultimate goal in the 1920s, according to Daisy, was to marry rich and lead a life full of lavishness and money, instead of pursuing love and in order to succeed in the 1920s, wealth was necessary. Daisy further represents the materialism evident in the 1920s when she is attracted to Gatsby due to the newfound wealth he has. When spotting the collection of shirts he had, she” began to cry stormily” and sobbed “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful shirts before” (Fitzgerald 98) expressing her superficial nature. Daisy’s response reveals that “she shows more emotion for Gatsby’s possessions than for Gatsby” (Posnock 208). Daisy even symbolizes money through her voice since Daisy’s voice is said to be “full of money” (Fitzgerald 127). Daisy’s voice symbolizes the reason why everyone like Gatsby

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.

Throughout the 1920’s, when F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby took place, everyone wanted to follow the American Dream. The characters in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Gatsby, Tom and Daisy Buchanan all search for what they believe to be the American Dream. The American Dream is where someone can come from nothing, but with effort and perseverance gain wealth and success. the American dream is being seeked, reached, and missed, showing hope, devastation, or happiness. Some get lucky and reach the dream, but others fall short.

Class and worth are strong themes in the novel, and they are ultimately what keep Gatsby and Daisy apart. To Tom, Daisy is worth $350,000 in pearls (around $4.7 million in today’s money). To Gatsby, she’s worth a whole lot more than that, but he, too, expects on a very basic level that her affection can be bought. They sure don’t grow ‘em like Daisy Fay in the North Dakota of James Gatz’s youth. And so the economics of supply and demand mean that a woman like Daisy—with her fine looks and breeding and her family wealth—can command quite a stratospheric price indeed.

Daisy chooses money over love. Even though she loved Gatsby, she married Tom for his wealth. When Tom speaks about Gatsby’s background and wealth, it effects Daisy and she ends up choosing Tom once again. She is not capable of freeing herself from a wealthy society. For a wedding gift Tom gave her a string of pearls that cost three hundred and fifty dollars. She is corrupt by greed and chooses the comfort and security of money over real love. The only reason she ever went for Gatsby the first time was because he lied about his background of being from a wealthy family. She chose to marry Tom because his family promised her a wealthy lifestyle. She is greedy because she let Gatsby take the blame for killing Myrtle when she did it herself, and instead of attending Gatsby’s funeral, her and Tom moved away and didn’t leave an address. On page 137, Gatsby tells tom that Daisy never loved him, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me. It was a terrible mistake, but in her heart she never loved anyone except

Gatsby worked so hard to get himself from Jay Gatsby to The Great Gatsby. Everything that Gatsby did and still will do is for the sake to get Daisy back and it proves it when he waits for five years to buy a mansion, “He had waited five years and bought a mansion where he dispensed starlight to casual...to a stranger’s garden”. He Got money for her and try to impress her with his house, “I think he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some… went on Jordan.”. Tried to impress her with the money, “They’re such beautiful shirts”, she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds. “It makes me sad because I’ve never seen such beautiful shirts before”. Although Gatsby went to war, trusting that he would get back and get married to Daisy, instead he got tricked and Daisy went off and married Tom. After all that Gatsby did for Daisy’s love, that’s how she repays him. So she got married to a wealthy guy called Tom and got a daughter from him. Daisy loved money and loved Tom which is materialistic and so she prefered money than the true love that she had. In chapter one, Nick visits Daisy because he didn’t see her for several years, and he sees the awkward love between Daisy and Tom, Tom was away from the table and so Nick tries to cheer up Daisy and asks her about her girl. Daisy becomes even more sad than before, “she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face as if she had asserted her

For him, the money was a tool, not an end. Even a mansion does not mean anything to him without the love of Daisy” (Nagel 117). Despite the fact of Gatsby’s original dream of becoming extremely successful was complete, he later realized that the only thing that mattered to him was being with Daisy. Gatsby’s original strategy to win back Daisy was to use all of his money and high social status, Gatsby thought that all of his money and success could buy him anything he wanted and that included true happiness, but sadly for him, love does not work like that. So with that, Gatsby did get Daisy interested in him again, but only for a very short period of time.

While geographic locations of the East Egg and the West Egg show clear separation of classes, they would make an exception for parties. Fitzgerald portrays the newly rich individuals as vulgar, spoiled, cocky, and gaudy. Old money symbolized old fashioned Americans full of taste, grace, and sophistication. Gatsby envisioned his dream by hosting the most elaborate parties for everyone to come. He used his charm and knowledge to purchase the house right across the lake from Daisy. “Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves, of the freshness of many clothes, and of Daisy, gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor.”

The lyrics “ Will you still love me when I’m not longer beautiful? ”(11). To me is the theme of The Great Gatsby novel. Everyone lives in such a grand life with all the riches, the perfect American Dream. The American Dream is one of the main themes in The Great Gatsby. No one actually truly loves each other for personality just off of looks and wealth. Daisy being the main character, this quote describes her the most. The quote shows that she does not actually care about love, more about her looks as she gets older. In the Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, the song played “ Young and Beautiful” has taken an extremely romantic and passionate depressed tone towards the idea of love and beauty. Lana Del Ray sings in very low tones, quietly and passionate to display how seriously Daisy feels about how she looks rather than her personality or love itself. Since she is very insecure about how she looks, she spends a lot of the time being self conscious about her personality and covers her ability to socialize with her good looks.

The American dream is the idea that an individual can become successful through hard work, determination, and initiative. While it does take individual initiative to accomplish the American dream, American dreams also take a collective group to accomplish and protect it. Groups have worked together to protect the American dream in many circumstances. For example, in Reagan’s speech, he talks about how people were willing to risk their lives to sign the declaration of independence. One of these men said “If my hands were freezing in death, I would sign that parchment with my last ounce of strength.