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Examples Of Upward Mobility In The Great Gatsby

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The American dream has inspired many people to make progress in life. Jim Cullen’s book, “The American Dream” talks about the American Dream throughout history. In Cullen’s book, The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation, the author claims that upward mobility doesn’t lead to the dream and that there are things that are outside of our control that henders upward mobility; these ideas about the American Dream are also seen in The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and The Egg, by Sherwood Anderson. Upward mobility is a movement from one social level to another. In Jim Cullen’s story he says that upward mobility don’t lead to the American Dream. It states that,” The values embodied in pickfair are a fraud, and we all know it, Fairbanks and Pickfair did not live happily ever after.” He also said that people are so selfish that they won’t get close to reaching the american dream. In The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, he doesn’t agree to what Cullen said. Fitzgerald showed that upward mobility will lead to getting to the American Dream because Gatsby started off poor when he was little, but when he ran away he started to get rich. In The Egg by Sherwood Anderson It’s a different story. Upward mobility didn’t …show more content…

A central idea from Cullen’s book says that there are things outside of our control that would get in the way of finding the American dream. The Egg can relate to what Cullen said because throughout the story chickens would die and it was nothing that hey could do about it. The chickens where how they made their money, and without money, there could be no American Dream. The story says, “ For ten years my father and mother struggled to make our chicken farm pay and then they gave up that struggle and began another.” The Egg compared to the book because things outside of their control hendered with the American

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