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Comparing The American Dream In The Great Gatsby And Everything I Never Told You

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In a world where hard work is often glorified as the key to success, both The Great Gatsby and Everything I Never Told You peels back the facade to reveal a harsh reality: the American dream can be a treacherous path riddled with challenges and societal constraints. As these two literary works delve into the complexities of ambition and aspiration, they offer distinct perspectives on the elusive nature of success and the intricate dynamics that shape individuals' pursuit of the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows the devastating reality that hard work does not guarantee success. But Everything I Never told you better portrays the challenges of the American Dream because it depicts the societal constraints on a hard-working family. Even though …show more content…

This quote presents a profound insight into the complex relationship between pursuing the American Dream and the vulnerability of happiness. It reflects the common belief that the American Dream promises a path to lasting happiness and fulfillment through the attainment of material success and social stability. In the context of the American Dream, this quote highlights the potential pitfalls and challenges that individuals may encounter along their journey. It implies that the pursuit of material wealth and societal expectations can overshadow the importance of emotional well-being and personal fulfillment. James and Marylin, as parents, have their own aspirations and expectations for Lydia, which are deeply rooted in societal ideals and the pursuit of material success. Their desire for Lydia to fulfill the American Dream, as defined by them, can be seen as an attempt to prioritize external markers of achievement and societal expectations over Lydia's emotional well-being and personal fulfillment. It suggests that James and Marylin's focus on external achievements and societal expectation lead to the fragile and easily shattered version of happiness for …show more content…

Gatsby is different not because of his appearance but because of his background. The Lee’s difference is not only their background but their appearance as well. This quote is from when Lydia and Jack were talking in his car. “You and Nath, you're practically the only Chinese people in the whole of Middlewood” (192 Ng). This quote reflects the theme of racial and cultural identity within the context of the American Dream. It highlights Lydia and her Nath’s unique position as Chinese individuals in the predominantly non-Chinese community of Middlewood. The American Dream often celebrates diversity and inclusivity as foundational principles. However, the quote exposes the reality that marginalized communities, such as the Chinese population in Middlewood, can still experience a sense of otherness and lack representation within the larger society. The limited presence of Chinese individuals in Middlewood suggests a potential barrier to fully realizing the promises of the American Dream for these marginalized groups. As stated in this quote James is telling Marylin abouthow he feels about his differences. “You’ve never been in a room where no one else looked like you. Youve never had people mock you to your face. You’ve never been

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The American Dream is the enduring ideal that anyone can come from nothing, and through hard work and dedication, make something of themselves. The American Dream promises that regardless of your background, race or gender, if you work hard you can achieve greatness, however this is not always the case, and to those who are discriminated against, the American Dream remains just that - a dream. It is this discussion concerning the viability of the American Dream which both ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and ‘Hidden Figures’ by Theodore Melfi draw inspiration from. Written and set in 1920’s America, ‘The Great Gatsby’ utilises narrator Nick Carraway to tell the story of mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his journey to reunite

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Jeannette’s parents are comfortable with the way they live. They don’t really care that there is no: clean water, fresh food, and complete shelter. Both Rex and Rose Mary have flaws, nevertheless, I believe they would define their life as living the American dream also. They are content with how they live their lives. “It’s the Joshua tree’s struggle that gives it its beauty.”

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However, there is a condescending view of the American dream, which is why the reader may believe that the American dream isn’t alive. For some like Gatsby and the Buchannans it works well, but more honest people like Wilson, this ideology fails. The idea that for many poor people their dreams fail is why the face of Eckleburg frowns on the

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Does happiness come from people, money, drugs, or within the mind? The truth is, it is all up to the individual and what they value. The “American Dream” prioritizes the idea of happiness and well-being developing from great wealth and working hard. This goes without saying other ideas of well-being. The Great Gatsby, written in the 1920s, is a book that depicts the dream.

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This conversation speaks to the impossibility of the dream. Even if they were able to obtain their land, the structural inequalities that exist in society would still be present. Curley’s wife, perhaps the most tragic character in the novel, also speaks of her version of the American Dream. She tells Lennie, “I coulda been in the movies, and had nice clothes—all them nice clothes as they wear… An’ I coulda sat in them big hotels, an’ had pitchers of ice water…”

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The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun are two works of literature that explore the complexities of the American Dream and the challenges of achieving it. Despite their differences in setting, time, and plot, these two works share several similarities in terms of their thematic content and characters. Gatsby and The Younger family both explore the American Dream as a driving force for their actions, but while the former highlights the corruption and superficiality of the pursuit, the latter emphasizes the resilience and determination of the characters to overcome social and economic barriers to achieve their dreams making them similar rather than different. In both A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby, the American Dream serves as a

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Although the interpretation of the American Dream tends to vary from person to person, it is most frequently regarded as one 's standards of “the good life”(Hochschild). The general values constituting the American Dream have evolved throughout recent years leading to a decline in “the role of family”(Hochschild), and an increase in ,“the importance of having money”(Hochschild) in America 's ideal of “the good life”(Hochschild). For example, while pertaining to completely different age groups, Ellen a young woman in her early thirties and a senior Amerco Executive share the capitalistic ideology of prioritizing wealth over family. While Ellen admitted to the statement, “I do my e-mail during the calls, I’m not really paying to [my conversions with my grandparents]”(Turkle), the Amerco Executive admitted to not regretting prioritizing work over time with his daughters, stating, “put it this way, I’m pleased with how they turned out”(Hochschild). Both Ellen and the Amerco Executive, are subjects to, “a constellation of pressures [that are progressively] pushing [American] men and women further into the world of workplace and mall”(Hochschild).

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567 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel “The Revelation of Louisa May” by Michaela MacColl, the main character Louisa finds a runaway slave by the name George and considering her family was not like the typical people in their city the narrator states, “even the threat of arrest wouldn't keep them from helping George and those like him” (MacColl 15). As the narrator states how Louisa’s family had taken in many other slaves it highlights how they lived out their own American Dream by going against America's stigma towards housing slaves. This is significant because it was more convenient for them to help George than report him and return him to his owner. The American Dream during that time was to be land and slave owners and Lousia’s family went against the American Dream and helped be a change in their community. In other words, the American Dream isn't a worthy pursuit because helping others is more important and accessible.

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The appeal of the American Dream is that each person has an equal opportunity to succeed through hard work and determination. The idea that “anyone” can achieve success holds Gatsby in a chokehold, due to his accomplished success, he believes his origins do not matter. What Gatsby could not grasp was that the American Dream is a facade, the truth is that his origins do matter and his wealth could not mask the real Gatsby: “He was never quite still; there was always a tapping foot somewhere or the impatient opening and closing of a hand. He saw me looking with admiration at his car. “It’s pretty, isn’t it, old sport?””

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In the novel “Revolutionary Road” written by Richard Yates, it states that the American Dream can result in the "betrayal of the true self" (Yates, 41). In this quote you can see the sacrifices individuals make, sacrificing their passions, relationships, and personal well-being in the pursuit of success. Focusing on materialistic items can lead to significant unhappiness, strained relationships, and a sense of emptiness. The sacrifices made to achieve the American Dream can ultimately lead to the destruction of personal happiness and

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660 Words | 3 Pages

The novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitz Gerald embodies many themes. A major in the story is the pursuit of can be labelled the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. By having money, a car, a big house, nice clothes and a happy family symbolizes the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons.

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The American Dream of wanting less material goods in order to live a more fulfilling life that is indulged in the natural beauty of the world was the American Dream that McCandless was seeking. Christopher McCandless rejected the American Dream, as it’s traditionally defined in pursuit of a more emotionally and spiritually fulfilling existence free from the social pressures of our materialistic society in the Alaskan wilderness. The irony of McCandless's rejection of the traditional American dream is that he lived such a perfect life. a life many would want to live and achieve as a part of their own American Dream and yet he wanted to remove himself from society's standards. An important part of the traditional American dream is the “perfect American family” which is essentially the family that McCandless grew up in.

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1037 Words | 5 Pages

America in the 1920s is notorious for the wild parties thrown by the extremely wealthy and top one percent of people. These parties would often last the entire weekend and sometimes went even longer. Nothing symbolizes this roaring 1920s lifestyle more than the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald in which follows a man named Jay Gatsby who is a very wealthy man with a very vague story about how he came into his wealth. Even though Gatsby has all of these materialistic possessions he is still chasing after his love from many years ago, he became stuck in the past after pining after this love and he ultimately began a chain of events which resulted in his own death. In Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is biggest contributor

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590 Words | 3 Pages

Judith Ortiz Cofer, the author, uses symbolism, setting, and imagery to show the lifestyle of living the American Dream. Cofer creates symbolism through the little girl’s point of view towards her dreams and with her mother at the end of the story. Her dream was about wanting to fly, “So I would stay in my bed recalling my dreams of flight, perhaps planning my next flight” (Cofer 197). The flying in her dreams resembles her urge to wanting to be free and live the American Dream. While the daughter is asleep, the mother and father have time together before they wake her.

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Overall, this story shows that even if you have money and success you may not necessarily have everything you need to have your American dream because everyone needs human interaction and love to be happy. In comparison, in The Boys’ Ambition, success seems like the only important thing in obtaining the American dream and that happiness doesn’t really play a role (Twain

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