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Destruction Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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Set in the Roaring Twenties, The Great Gatsby is a comprehensive reflection of what had developed into a lifestyle that is universally known as the American Dream. The American Dream is a set of ideals that argues each American is entitled to rights, freedom, and an equal opportunity to become successful and sow the seeds of prosperity through hard work and ambition. Although the American Dream played a large role in the culture of the 1920s, moral values began to decay when individuals became distracted by the idea of opulence instead of striving for something more idealistic. This ultimately results in failure because inequality destroys the illusion of the American Dream. Set in this excessively lavish era of glitz and glamour, The Great Gatsby manages to define and condemn this set of ideals as well as examine how the 1920s culture affected the collapse of the American Dream. Through the assistance of various symbols, motifs, and characters, this classic portrays the demise of the American Dream. For instance, the protagonist in this novel, Jay Gatsby, is a symbol of the idea of self-made success and the ethos of …show more content…

The protagonist embodies various fundamental aspects of American Dream. Gatsby is the epitome of the primary American ideal of self-made success. Essentially, he worked hard to escape from his penurious past and became remarkably prosperous. “He was content to be alone – he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and as far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward – and distinguished nothing except a single green light" (Fitzgerald 24). In the distance, Gatsby sees a green light shining from of Daisy Buchanan’s deck. The green light symbolizes the American Dream. Regardless of Gatsby’s excessive wealth and lavish lifestyle, Gatsby never achieves his dream and ends up happiness, which is

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In the beginning of the novel Fitzgerald suggests that Gatsby is very well mannered and that his life is “put together well.” As the novel progresses the reader can see that he begins to contradict his life story. Fitzgerald begins to imply the feeling that Gatsby is unsuccessfully trying to run from his past. The life he was trying achieve for himself was his “American Dream.”, which was to be wealthy and worthy of being with the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan. He was also trying to achieve the approval of the upper class of society.

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Gatsby is the epitome of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the American Dream through The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a story that tells a story. The main character, Jay Gatsby, relates to Fitzgerald as they both rose from poor financial hardship to wealth and fame. Through the eyes of Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby is an example of the American Dream, which is not possible. The themes present in Gatsby include the green light symbolism and the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby.

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In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby,” many of the characters is a prime example of someone who is blinded by the American Dream. Countless of them who view luxurious possessions as an indication of success. Fitzgerald demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream through the characters of “The Great Gatsby” Who

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The American Dream suggests that every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. One of the major ways that Fitzgerald portrays this is by alluding to outside events or works of literature specifically from that time period. Another major relationship that develops in The Great Gatsby is between Tom and Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to things such as the World’s Fair and “The Love Nest” to display the eventual dismantling of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Both of these separate plots consolidate under the idea of Gatsby trying to become the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through his strive for a “perfect life.”

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The Destruction of the American Dream The American Dream for many individuals, is a goal. Some achieve it, others result in failure. So what is the American Dream and why does it seem so appealing to the average person? The American Dream is the idea that anyone can work hard and achieve wealth and success in America.

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Francis Scott Fitzgerald once stated, “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart and all they can do is stare blankly.” Throughout his famous work, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrayed the American Dream. Contrary to the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” society, he described the American Dream as a delusion. People of the era focused on materialism in order to boost their wealth and status and forgot the importance of their relationships. Several characters within the novel sought to gain a higher status in society.

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Haley Smith AP English lll Garner February 9, 2023 Jay Gatsby’s Obsessive Dream The American Dream defined, is the ideal by which the equality of opportunity is available to any American, which allows the highest desires and goals to be achieved. This is the overarching theme of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

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The American Dream is a vision held by the working class of America: a dream in which one can achieve all that he desires through hard work and perseverance. The reader sees Gatsby as a self-made man: a man with everything you could possible want in life, a man who has achieved the American Dream to its fullest, and yet, this image is marred by his unhappiness. A barrier between the inherently wealthy and ‘new money’ blocks his ability to win back the girl he loves, placed there by by the embodiment of the upper class in America - Tom Buchanan. Tom never saw Gatsby as his equal because Gatsby was not born with money, calling him a “Mr. Nobody from Nowhere” (130). The working class sees this statement as an example of why the American Dream is not worth the effort.

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Everyone has a dream that they wish to pursue and achieve. For some, it is wealth, and for others, it is a life full of happiness. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald tells the story, through the character Nick Carraway, of a man whose end goal was to have the American Dream. While many believe the American Dream is to reach a high status and wealth, for Gatsby, his American Dream was to be with his true love, Daisy Buchanan. In the beginning, Gatsby and Daisy were lovers, but Gatsby went off to war.

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Gatsby was a man who came up from essentially nothing by gaining his money through bootlegging and other illegal acts in order to gain a reputation in society. Gatsby’s constant desire to accomplish more in his life demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream. It is evident that Gatsby has had a thirst for the American dream since a young age, this is shown when Gatsby’s father says: “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind?

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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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John A. Pidgeon says that, “The theme of Gatsby is the withering of the American Dream”(Pidgeon 179). The prime example of this is Gatsby, who “believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther” (Fitzgerald 180). The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s dream to be upper class with Daisy, but he can never reach it. Furthermore, it is frustrating for him that when he does attain wealth, Daisy is still out of his reach.

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1558 Words | 7 Pages

The American dream states that any individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, and/or religion simply by working hard. The 1920’s were a time of corruption and demise of moral values in society. The first World War had passed, and people were reveling in the materialism that came at the end of it, such as advanced technology and innovative inventions. The novel The Great Gatsby exploits the theme of the American Dream as it takes place in a corrupt period in history. Although the American Dream seemed more attainable than ever in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby demonstrates how materialism and the demise of moral values in society leads to the corruption and impossibility of the American Dream.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows how Jay Gatsby tries to fulfill the ideals of the American Dream. When Gatsby was young, he set goals and worked hard to improve. He pursued the typical American dream of gaining wealth, finding a companion, and being admired by others. Gatsby thought it was best to try and change everything about himself. He wears a thick mask of lies throughout the story, hiding his past, changing his name, suppressing his emotions, and even adapting his word choice.

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