Compare And Contrast The American Dream And The Pursuit Of Happiness

When the founding fathers founded America under the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, freedom and equality are all major tenets in America. In fact, people believed in the American dream, a dream of success and fulfillment. As James Truslow Adams puts it in his book, Epic of America, “ [the American Dream] is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order where each [person can] attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable,”. The notion of an American Dream started off on a high pitch. But as the 1920s roars by, it became corrupted, shifting from a “pursuit of happiness” to a pursuit for wealth, luxury, and sex. The American Dream is the driving factor behind all of

The Buchanans, considered to be the “old money”, are bored with their own lives. To find something interesting to fulfill their days, Tom and Daisy both engage themselves in adulterous affairs. Coincidence or not, Tom has a history of cheating on his wife. Once, Tom is found in an car accident with a “chambermaid in the hotel” (pg.77) on his honeymoon. Later, he engages in a long term affair with Myrtle Wilson, the wife to George Wilson. Compared to Tom, Daisy is not a single bit better. While marrying Tom on one hand, she also gives her heart to Gatsby as she says, “even alone I can’t say I never loved Tom…, but I loved you too,” (pg. 133). She desires both of them, but is stuck in making the decision. In some way, these materialistic desires also lead to the decay of moralistic and ethical values. The 1920s epitomizes an age where corruption, dishonesty, and materialism take over the society. Every single character, including Nick Carraway, is moralistically corrupt in one way or another: Nick sets up a meeting between her married cousin and Gatsby, party goers crash Gatsby’s parties for illegal alcohol, and Daisy ran over a woman without feeling remorse or taking any responsibility. Fitzgerald criticizes this form of life where people lost touch with the last piece of morality and where

But it becomes obvious, later into the book, that Gatsby is a man of corruption: a bootlegger, a criminal, and a killer. Since young, Gatsby despises poverty and dreams of illustrious wealth and reputation. So instead of completing College, he takes the shortcut to affluence through illegal activities—bootlegging. His love towards Daisy motivates him to gain all the wealth; in fact, he promised Daisy that he would return from the War and marry her. Gatsby associates his American dream with Daisy and only Daisy. The gaudy mansion, the ostentatious parties, and his lavish lifestyle are all means to get Daisy back. Despite all obstacles, he imagines himself marrying Daisy, living the life of idealized perfection; he even engages in criminal activities if it means a step closer to his American Dream. At the end however, his hopes are broken as he was shot dead by Wilson. As Nick Carraway recounts, “his dreams must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it,” (pg. 180). Gatsby’s American Dream fails not because he lacks the wealth to attract Daisy, but because that his end justifies the means for him. Instead of hard work and sweat, Gatsby chooses the easy way in—he has achieved so much, yet wealth still can’t bring him happiness. As it turns out, death is his price for not letting go of his over-idealized