American Dream In The Great Gatsby And A Raisin In The Sun

The American Dream is a symbol of hope and opportunity inspiring people to pursue their dreams and become successful in America. This is a topic that was talked about in both books, “The Great Gatsby” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” Not everyone is able to achieve this dream. In the book, “The Great Gatsby” Gatsby tries to achieve his dream by becoming wealthy to win back his lost love, Daisy Buchanan. He throws parties and surrounds himself with luxury all to impress Daisy. However, that all led to a downfall. In the book “A Raisin in the Sun,” the family tries to achieve this dream by buying a house in a better neighborhood using an insurance check. They believe that more and better opportunities will come by living there. Despite the challenges

When they received their check, they were all flabbergasted with the reaction of “Travis! Is that the right amount of zeros?”(Hansberry 69). They couldn’t believe that they were holding ten thousand dollars. For a family that is poor and has a dream of becoming rich and successful, this was the heat for them. Mama had to make the hard decisions and split where that money was going since one wanted to invest and the other wanted it for school. Even though Walter was not working or having any source of income, Mama finds them a house on “Four o six Clybourne Street, Clybourne park”(Hansberry 93). The only downfall would be that no colored people live in that park. With lots of hope, they were able to put a down payment on that house and forever call it theirs. Even through the obstacles they went through, they met their goal and were finally able to purchase their dream

The way Gatsby was trying to achieve his American dream led to his downfall. He was so focused on achieving it that he didn’t realize what was actually important in life. In the book “The Great Gatsby, it states “I hope she’ll be a fool- that the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”(Fitzgerald 17). This shows that women had limited opportunities and men had more accessibility to the American dream. They were able to control what they wanted and what they did with their money. Whether it's for impressing the ladies or just having it and putting it towards good use. On the edge of Daisy’s dock was a green light. “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 - So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” (180). The green light represents Gatsby's dreams and hopes, especially reunited with his prior love, Daisy. Gatsby believed in the idea of the American dream but was unable to achieve his dream and instead was “borne back ceaselessly into the past” meaning that the American dream can be difficult to achieve no matter how hard you