The American Dream What if you were told you will never achieve your dreams? Florence King once said, “People are so busy dreaming the American dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they’re all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the age of human error.” Humans have a tendency of wanting what they cannot have or being oblivious to what they do have at the moment. Many authors are aware of this blind-spot, an evident flaw in human nature, and use it to their advantage to write about characters that apply to their reader’s emotions. The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men all express this flaw in human nature, discreetly known as the “American Dream”. The Crucible conveys this …show more content…
Scott Fitzgerald, shows the American Dream in a slightly different outlook than The Crucible but, with the same negative connotation. Gatsby spent his whole life trying to be something great. He made something out of himself from nothing and never stopped trying to be the best. Gatsby was the epitome of living the “the American Dream”, in 1920’s terms, yet he was still not satisfied. He wanted more. He wanted Daisy. Daisy was a girl that Gatsby met at a time in his life that he couldn’t put a stop on. He had other obligations and when he was sent off, she found someone new but by no means at all, better. Daisy’s most famous line, “I’m glad she is a girl, I hope she is a fool, it’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool,” acknowledges the fact that her husband was cheating on her and she knew about it (Fitzgerald 21). All Daisy ever wanted was this extravagant life with a lot of money and expensive things, some people’s definition of the American dream. Daisy is wishing upon her daughter to be a fool so she will be oblivious to the things that could hurt her and focus on the more lush things of life. Meanwhile, Gatsby was trying to find his way back to Daisy. Nick Carraway, the narrator in The Great Gatsby, stated, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams-- not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion,” trying to explain the fault of …show more content…
He had everything he could ever want, he had the American dream, and he was still not content. In the short story “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson says, “Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit. To be great is to be misunderstood,” explains the greatness of being different from the rest of mankind (Emerson par.14). Gatsby was just another misunderstood being in a world filled with people who all wanted the same thing; The American dream. Gatsby understood that, he had that life, but he knew that living this so called “dream”, that was so broadly made viral, was never going to fulfill him. The saddest part of having all these high hopes for a better life is that people get trapped in their ideas and fail to realize their happiness will never come from living a lavish life. However different, the characters of the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, also came face-to-face with the tragedy of their dreams
The American Dream suggests that every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. One of the major ways that Fitzgerald portrays this is by alluding to outside events or works of literature specifically from that time period. Another major relationship that develops in The Great Gatsby is between Tom and Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to things such as the World’s Fair and “The Love Nest” to display the eventual dismantling of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Both of these separate plots consolidate under the idea of Gatsby trying to become the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through his strive for a “perfect life.”
Gatsby was someone who was considered to have actually accomplished the “American Dream.” However, even though he earned his fortune (through illicit ways) he was still unsatisfied because he wanted Daisy. In the end, he briefly had her and then proceeded to lose her and his life. Fitzgerald writes the tragic story of someone who ultimately achieved the “American Dream” to express his opinion that it was unrealistic and unfulfilling. In his search for money, Gatsby lost the one person he loved and did not see her again for almost five years.
Nonetheless, by the time he does indeed become rich, it is too late, as Daisy had already married the wealthy, Tom Buchanan. Society had told Gatsby and Daisy how important being rich was to the American Dream, as achieving riches meant happiness. When in reality, it is up to the individual to create and decide what his or her, American Dreams should be. For it is them who know what they truly desire. All Gatsby wanted to do was go back in time and have Daisy love him when he was poor, instead of her being told he must be rich before she can marry him.
How does F. Scott Fitzgerald explore the idea of the American dream in ‘The Great Gatsby’? ABSTRACT As many other American novels of the 20th century “The Great Gatsby” touches on the idea of the american dream, the perfect life that everybody is chasing after. The research question being investigated in this essay is ‘How does F. Scott Fitzgerald explore the idea of the american dream in “The Great Gatsby”?’
In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the reality of the American Dream. Throughout the novel, he uses Daisy to represent the American Dream. In chapter eight, after Daisy crashes the car, “she vanish[es] into her rich house… leaving Gatsby nothing” (149). Daisy is depicted as soulless; she is willing to let Gatsby take the fall for her faults. In order to remain the American Dream, Daisy must appear blameless to society; therefore, the common man must always take responsibility for her mistakes.
Society is constantly under the criticism of authors. Many writers seek to expose certain aspects of American society and their scorn of it. Edith Wharton and F. Scott Fitzgerald are renowned for their work on this subject. In The Great Gatsby and The Age of Innocence, Fitzgerald and Wharton reveal their cynicism of the societal elite; they find the elite as a severe detriment to American society. Through symbolism and the characterization of their main characters, Wharton and Fitzgerald similarly depict the societal elite as depriving American society from a promising future by refusing to let go of the past.
In both The Great Gatsby and The Crucible, the themes used in both books compared quite closely. Adultery, Reputation, and Desire were all used very heavily. Both authors saw that in these time periods these particular themes were quite popular. First with Adultery, in The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald clearly made his point about the amount of Adultery during his time period.
Gatsby could go for any girl that is considered old money, but he only has eyes for Daisy because that’s the only girl he has ever gone for. While he was in the war, Daisy was the only girl he had ever loved, therefore, she was the only girl that he has ever tried to be with. Due to this, he has consumed his life around her and does not want to change his ways. “‘ Her voice is full of money,’ he said suddenly.” (The Great Gatsby page 120).
The Facade of the American Dream The American Dream is the opportunity for all Americans to live a life of personal happiness and material comfort, but is it actually achievable? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a story of characters working hard to achieve the American Dream, but ultimately they are unable to ever realize their perfect life. The novel makes a strong naturalism argument about the rigid class system in society and the disillusionment of the American Dream.
Author Zig Ziglar once said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” His words perfectly embody what Jay Gatsby ignores in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The author spends the whole novel setting up and describing the American Dream and their effect on the characters, especially Gatsby’s corrupted version of that dream. Fitzgerald, however, writes his opinions of this idea from a pessimistic point of view. These negative ideals have led to his powerful message of his novel which is that attempting to achieve one’s unrealistic goals will lead to failure in life because it causes them to forget about the reality of their lives.
We all like to believe that hard work and persistence pays off. The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that includes many themes such as wealth, love, dissatisfaction, and most importantly, the American dream, and how it’s really only a dream. The characters, especially Gatsby, are trying to achieve this dream of a perfect life throughout the entire book. It becomes apparent that instead of reaching the success they desire from the hard work that they put in, they destroy their entire lives and relationships with one another in the process. Unfortunately, this story is not too far off from something that could happen today.
The Great Gatsby presents its characters as having living the American Dream. However, it is only a belief; the behaviors they have and decisions they take only leave them with a false perception of life and lifestyle. The Great Gatsby relates to the corruption of the American Dream for those materialistic people who were after money. Fitzgerald reveals the idea of corruption in the American Dream through conditions such as wealth and materialism, power and social status, and relationships involving family and affairs. He uses examples of this corruption to show the reader that people are willing to lie, betray others, and commit crime to be able to live a ‘better and fuller’ life.
The American Dream involves putting all your effort and hopes into accomplishing an impractical but meaningful goal. The novel The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald explores the American Dream through the eyes of James Gatsby. The novel The Great Gatsby, by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about a wealthy man named James Gatz,also known as Gatsby, who tries to win back his love Daisy, who has married another man named Tom. Gatsby throws huge parties to try to show off his wealth and lifestyle to catch Daisy’s eye, however, after Daisy and Gatsby finally reunite, an accident that occurs while the two are in Gatsby’s car ultimately results in Gatsby’s death. Fitzgerald uses symbolism, simile, and metaphor throughout his novel to express how Gatsby’s dream was mainly materialistic and he wasn’t able to fully achieve his dream or find fulfillment.
Like most Americans, Gatsby’s hope is accomplishing his lifelong dream, earning Daisy’s love. Fitzgerald showcases this expectation throughout the novel through the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. Gatsby had always loved Daisy; however, Gatsby was never able to accept that she had loved and married Tom as he states, “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 any one except me"(Fitzgerald Chapter 7)! Based on Gatsby’s remarks, he feels that the only reason why Daisy left him was because she wanted to maintain the social class she was born in and continue to be spoiled with the luxuries that an ordinary human being may not be able to enjoy; as a result, Gatsby made it his goal to amass a large amount of wealth and earn the love of Daisy once again.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .