In The Great Gatsby, the American dream was accomplished by a man named Jay Gatsby. He achieved being wealthy in order to accomplish another dream, the love of a woman with a very dramatic life, Daisy Buchanan. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald presents the idea that the American dream changes peoples’ lives, takes over your life, and how you do things once you have accomplished the dream.
The people that have already achieved the American dream live a life differently from others that have not accomplished it. Unlike Tom, Jay Gatsby had to work for his American dream which was wealth and later on in the book, Daisy Buchanan’s love. Jay Gatsby, born James Gatz, didn’t grow up wealthy. His parents were “… unsuccessful farm people- his
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In The Great Gatsby, accomplishing the American Dream of being wealthy affects your life because money ends up taking control of you and your life. Jay Gatsby shows us this when he “bought that house so that Daisy would just be across the bay (85).” Once Gatsby was wealthy enough, he bought an enormous house across Daisy Buchanan’s house, just to be close to her and to take good care of her. Everything in his life revolved or had to do with money. Tom Buchanan’s life also revolved around money. Tom “came down with a hundred people in four private cars (82)” for his wedding day and bought Daisy a “string of pearls valued at three hundred thousand fifty dollars (82).” Tom took advantage of having money to make his wedding a memorable day and unique wedding and to make Daisy be more attracted to him since she seemed to be attracted to wealthy men. Both Tom and Gatsby’s lives revolved around money and the money took control of them. This also shows us that love makes people do crazy things. Once Tom and Gatsby accomplished the American dream of love, in this case Daisy’s love, they both did whatever was possible, like waste money, to be close to her, and keep her love. Gatsby bought a house to be near her and made parties to find her where he wasted lots of money. He also made things look good and fancy enough for her to like it. Tom bought her a necklace for their wedding and did whatever was possible to stay with her after she knew that he was having an affair. Achieving the