Hard Work In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream is a concept that has been very prevalent throughout the history of American literature. This idea has been shaped and tossed around with the changes that occur as humans and technology progress and sometimes is less thought of. F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a piece that uses this concept of hard work. Though the book does not emphasize it as much as it had been in the past, similar to how the idea was shrinking during the 1920s as new problems in America arise. Some characters can be characterized as subjects to the changes of the 1920s and can think of their dreams in their life differently. Some even rose to fame and status as many others did during the 20s, which is known as a prosperous decade, also called

The idea of wealth in the 20s can be shown through rapid success, rather than gradual gains. While some people, such as Nick, gradually obtained their wealth, many people of the wealthy class such as Gatsby gained theirs secretly or unnaturally quickly. Some may be actors, who became more popular and rich as film gained

They were not, as he was also fulfilling a dream for which he had tunnel vision and did not realize the difficulty or impossibility of it. Gatsby’s rapid succession of wealth does not help everyone around him, either. Everyone has a different interpretation of their dream. Many people’s life goals are to just splurge their money as Gatsby does. However, not everyone may want the same thing, and not everyone will earn their savings the same way. The book fails altogether to show the other side of life, the non-party lifestyle which many people settled for. Gatsby led himself to his own downfall by living his life off of mainly parties. He did not focus on the other aspects of life. The fulfillment of one’s dream is also necessary to keep such alive. Gatsby’s dream was to love and marry Daisy, which had been cut short. Gatsby then tries to fix his relationship with Daisy. Nick tries to calm Gatsby down by stating, “I wouldn’t ask too much of her,” I ventured. “You can’t repeat the past.” “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously. “Why of course you can!”(pg. 85) Gatsby then goes on to state that he will change everything to how it was before, reinforcing the idea that fulfilling his “dream” with Daisy and gaining all his wealth was not for the better of everyone around him, or even himself. The greatness of Gatsby and his wealth comes into question when presenting how his dreams and