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Gatsby American Dream Life

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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 …show more content…

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

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In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald a man who orders his life around one desire to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby's quest leads him from poverty to wealth, into the arms of his beloved, and eventually to death. All the money in the world would not make Jay Gatsby happy for he lived to love Daisy Buchanan and died without her love. Money isn’t the way to be fulfilled with happiness to one's life. Jay Gatsby has a plan of winning Daisy Buchanan, which is Tom Buchanan’s wife.

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In the book Gatsby, a poor, hard-working man at the time, had fallen in love with Daisy, a careless, money-hungry woman. They met when they were younger instantly getting attached, Gatsby lying about his background saying he was wealthy, but when he left for war Daisy found another man named Tom Buchanan. Buchanan was very wealthy and was approved by Daisy’s parents, so they married. Long story short, Gatsby had given

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Tom spends his money in bold ways that he knew would impress Daisy, who simply cares about possessions. “He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars” (Fitzgerald 76). When Daisy goes to Gatsby’s house, she views his house and shirt collection and begins

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As time went on she realized that Wilson was actually just a poor man with a defeated attitude. This resentment grew more when she met Tom, a man who carried himself with authority and threw around money with no care in regards to whether or not he’d run out. Quickly she fell in love with him because he had money and acted the way she thought a man should act. Tom smothered her with gifts and she felt like a queen, but unlike Gatsby, she wasn’t trying to impress anyone. Gatsby wanted to have a lot of money so that he would be accepted by the society his love belonged to and lead Daisy to accept him too.

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After the unsettling times of World War I, people lost most of their faith in the government and society. Shortly afterward, the Modernist era emerged and took over literature as a response to how our country was greatly changed. By cause of this loss of faith, modernist literature displayed many variations of disillusionment. When one is disillusioned, one must recognize that their previous belief is now untrue, contrary to what many people may believe. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, the theme of disillusionment is represented through the use of narrator Nick Carraway who shows the disillusions of “the American Dream”, the upper class and their marriages become apparent to the reader.

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The view of the American Dream is different for everyone. The Epic Journey, by James Truslow Adams, views the American Dream as a dream of attaining one’s fullest stature regardless of one’s social status. Similarly, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s American Dream relates to Adam’s dream but limited to materialistic wealth- a dream that seeks for motor cars, higher wages, and to impress the people of high status. Both Adams and Gatsby believe that everyone has an equal chance of achieving their dream. Adams says “The dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”.

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"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and it that if you don 't compromise you may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes in this book. The American Dream that most people in this book obtains to have is wealth, statist, a fun social life, and someone to lust. It is the life we all strive to have until we obtain it and see it 's meaningless composure.

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Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream as a hoax or an illusion. It seems as if in order to even remotely reach the American Dream, one would have to be born into wealth instead of earning money. Although Tom and Gatsby are both ridiculously rich, Gatsby is totally different. He knows what it is like to be poor and want more. He went out and did something with his life, and just so happened to come into a lot of money, whereas Tom has grown up flaunting his money.

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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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Jay Gatsby was someone that went from rags to riches which happens more often in the 21st century. Gatsby was a pioneer of coming from poverty into millions of dollars. This shows the American Dream as advertised. Fitzgerald also shows the dark side of the American Dream as in Money’s power to corrupt people or how the rich escape mighty consequences such as Tom and Daisy destroying people’s lives and then falling back to their money. ―”He‘s a bootlegger…

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In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many important themes that help develop the meaning of the work as a whole. The most important and relevant theme throughout the novel would be the American dream. Jay Gatsby born as James Gatz came from a midwestern family that wasn't wealthy. Gatsby came into his own money which made him West Egg (pg. 98). When he was a soldier he met Daisy and that is when he wanted to be rich and have a lavish lifestyle because he liked Daisy and she was born into money.

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Gatsby spent their years apart motivated to win over Daisy by gaining wealth. In his eyes, gaining wealth became equivalent to getting Daisy. He stated, “her voice is full of money” (Fitzgerald, 2004, p.120). His life revolved around money and Daisy, who had symbolically chosen Tom’s pearls and wealth over Gatsby’s letter of love. He threw parties in order to attract her with his wealth.

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Fitzgerald focused on the shift in the American Dream - from being the idea of self-fulfillment, dignity and comfort that is achieved through hard work, to being equated with the pursuit of wealth and power, and identifying happiness with having money. The novel depicts the rise and fall of the concept and describes the causes of its decay. The downfall of the American Dream is most accurately shown through the main protagonist of the story – Jay Gatsby. To reiterate, the American Dream is the concept that anyone can achieve a better life and become self-fulfilled, if they put enough effort to it and make the most of their abilities.

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The Great Gatsby discusses and portrays various themes and ideas that tie into the American Dream. Fitzgerald develops several life-like characters that convey the reality of achieving the ideal every American dreams of. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the novel The Great Gatsby, illustrates the corruption behind aiming to achieve the American Dream through Gatsby’s

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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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