Comparing Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby And The American Dream

Gatsby and The American Dream. Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, is one of the most read books for its main idea of the American Dream and all its luxuries. According to Callahan; “It also stood for an American reality that, combined with “an extraordinary gift for hope” and a “romantic American reality that, combined with “an extraordinary gift for hope” and a romantic readiness.” The American dream is represented by several main characters such as Gatsby, Tom and Daisy and their status in the society they lived in. However, many argue that Gatsby is not truly living the American Dream. Gatsby is not truly living the American dream because he is striving for success and wealth for the wrong reasons and in the end, he was unable to achieve

In her mind the people with the new money of West Egg are classless in their wealth. They were irresponsible and lousy with their money. She believed they often wasted it by spending it on pointless items that didn’t fit the high-class society. Daisy already had her money so she didn’t go out looking for money like the people of the “new money” community did. Gatsby’s false hope of the American Dream is reflected through the manner in which he is rejected from the elite class. He reinvents himself as Jay Gatsby and consistently throws large extravagant parties in order to be accepted into the elite class. These gestures, however, do not make up for all of his misgiving and still do not make him fit into the upper class properly. This shows a distinctive system of materialism within the culture of that time. Characters who truly had grasps on the American Dream such as Tom and Daisy were “old money”. They had inherited their fortune therefore they did not have to work for the lifestyle they lived. Tom can give Daisy the true fairytale lifestyle while Gatsby’s wealth is never secure. Daisy is extremely materialistic, but in a very different way from Gatsby. She doesn’t strive for more money, but rather the extravagant and classy use of it. She wants to maintain her wealth instead of trying to increase it, as Gatsby does. Because of Gatsby’s status he does not have the same reputation or capabilities that Tom has nor does he have the same maturity with what to do with is money. “Gatsby’s vision is a crude, corrupted form of the American Dream” (Gross and Gross 5). His vision was based off of whether he had Daisy or not. The whole dream that he had begun with her and ended with her because she did not choose