Comparing The American Dream In The Great Gatsby And Freedom Writers

The simplified definition of the American Dream has been the ability to succeed from the given opportunities that America offers. The Great Gatsby, Middlesex, and Freedom Writers all have characters that struggle in means of financial success but ultimately have to succeed in having satisfaction in their lives. These works support the idea that the American Dream does incorporate money, but is ultimately about the opportunities to make their decision.

The Great Gatsby revolves around the concept of the American Dream, and Fitzgerald focuses on Gatsby’s reckless journey to obtain such dreams. Daisy was Gatsby’s American dream because she represented wealth, freedom, and whatever else that she represented to him. He associated her with the

As the eldest child, sister, and wife to Lefty, she takes on the most demanding job that consumes her soul, guilt. Despite, having children with Lefty and then doing multiple things to atone for her sin. Desdemona in various ways is the typical immigrant to the United States and the one that is currently living the “American Dream”, having overcome many obstacles. Although, her husband Lefty makes it seem that Desdemona does not have the credit that she deserves. On the way to the United States, Desdemona becomes a helpless child that does not have the will to pursue anything. The exact opposite of someone changing their dream. Desdemona focuses on the little details like her “silkworms, sensitive to human emotion, [and] stopped spinning cocoons.”(18). Despite the fact that Desdemona does not have the determination that would have allowed her to pursue her own America Dream. She does live it due to her husband, Lefty. The American Dream compared in Middlesex and The Great Gatsby, are not very alike. Both build on the idea that ultimately the American Dream is the ability to make decisions, yet happiness depends on the person as it is their choice to be

Like Middlesex, the Freedom Writers, have characters that come from various places and are considered to have lived in the ghetto. They are the poverty, that struggle to survive every day. The Freedom Writers celebrates a class of people that were able to follow the beaten path and obtain the privilege of having a voice without using money as their primary tool. When the students come to Mrs. Erin Gruwell for the first time, Mrs. G is unable to understand why her students lack the motivation to strive. It isn’t until Marcus voices, “ Lady, I’m lucky If I make it to 18. We in a war. We’re graduating every day we live”. Mrs. G is unable to understand what that meant because she does not face the problems they did when she was a child. She later takes it upon herself to become the reason that her students strive for more than just “graduating every day (they) live”. She exposes the inner desire of each of her students and what is wrong in their life. Indeed, the American Dream is born from these kinds of people. People that weren’t born into a life that they wanted, but people that have been born into a society that have an inner desire to have a better life than they are living. Money, or wealth, or status did not open their eyes to what was truly needed in their life. It was the desire born from the circumstance that defines the