Compare And Contrast Soldiers Home And The Great Gatsby

The concept of the American dream has had a massive presence within our culture. The American Dream represents high social class and economic success achieved by an individual not born into it. Although the American Dream has a positive connotation and seems like a very attainable thing that is not always the case. Despite the American Dream's large presence throughout literature during this time period the “American Nightmare” also was a prominent theme in American literature that explores the negative effects that can come from the American Dream. Authors Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels “Soldiers Home” and “ The Great Gatsby” both display how the American Dream can cause immorality and corruption within one's self, emphasizing

In the novel Gatsby is in pursuit of the American dream and he arguably achieved it despite how he may have gotten there. However, his own ambitions are what ultimately set him up for failure. Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy is the reason he decided to try to achieve this dream in the first place. Having Daisy would be the cherry on top for Gatsby and is what he ultimately believes would make his dream complete. Oddly enough the same motivation for Gatsby to achieve these things ultimately ends up being his downfall. Nick says “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” This is true for Gatsby because no matter how hard he tries to achieve wealth and status and escape his old way of life it is inescapable for him. Which is similar to how a boat is pushed back to land by a current. This drastic motivation for Gatsby's lifestyle change begins after he returns home from World War l. In an article titled Gatsby’s Self-Invention: A Tale of the American Dream, author Leila Christenbury argues that this abrupt self-reinvention of Gatsby is a response to his trauma from the war and his struggle to find a place in society after the war. Gatsby's attempt to fit into the upper class only worsens this trauma as he is deemed as “new

The Valley of Ashes represents the moral and social decay that comes from the self-centered pursuit of wealth. Likewise, the green light at the end of Daisy's Dock also symbolizes unfulfillment in life despite having many material assets. In the story it says “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way…and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 21). This not only shows how Gatsby is very close to his dream of Daisy but yet so far away. A physical longing is displayed as he literally reaches for the light. This green light at the end of the dock shows up continuously throughout the novel. In an article titled The Green Light of Daisy’s Dock: A New Significance in the Great Gatsby author Annette Trefzer highlights how the green light is also in the novel to help illuminate the central themes of the novel. On the outside, the green light seems like a symbol of hope but is really just a reminder of the unattainability of the American