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Great Gatsby Thesis

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Giovanna Carbone Ms Sullivan English II Honors 1PM 23 March 2023 Great Gatsby Essay Most people identify the American Dream as being largely about pursuing wealth and social standing as a path to happiness and fulfillment. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s idea of the American Dream is to accumulate enough wealth and social standing to win over Daisy. At some point in American history, the idea of the American Dream was born. The idea that everyone can achieve success no matter their starting point gave hope to many. In Kristen Scott’s article, “Changing Values Among Generations: Investigating the American Dream” Scott explains that the American Dream can cause indulgent behavior, and a goal of financial success can …show more content…

The American Dream became an ambition for many, especially Gatsby. He worked his way up, illegally, from an unstable household to wealth in order to impress Daisy. In Adams’ book The Epic of America, the author explains the dominance of this economic motivation and the power it has among the people of America. It deeply affected people’s mindsets and aspirations, especially those who were a part of the Great Migration. It can also cause people to seek wealth over all else, like Gatsby. Although he successfully achieved the American Dream, he did not achieve happiness. Fitzgerald reveals that materialistic things like fancy cars and nice houses can not guarantee happiness. By contrasting wealth accumulation and the pursuit of social standing with general …show more content…

(Fitzgerald 110) The ladder symbolizes the climb to high class, high rank, and success like reaching the finish line of the American Dream. Despite all of Gatsby’s climbing, he doesn’t win over Daisy. In Fitzgerald’s opinion, even after achieving immense wealth and high rank, you will never grasp true fulfillment without happiness. Gatsby was the author’s interpretation of the corrupted reality the American Dream holds. Daisy was the end of Gatsby’s American dream. He never achieved it and with more symbolism Fitzgerald may hint that Gatsby was chasing the unattainable all along: I thought of Gatsby’s wonder where he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity behind the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

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