Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby illustrates reaching the American Dream through Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is born to unsuccessful farmers as James “Jimmy” Gatz. One day, the teenager decides to create an alter ego that is wealthy and successful in life. As he grew older, he reaches his goal and the future that he had always planned for. The pattern of Gatsby’s transition from poor to wealthy demonstrates the theme that changes are necessary to reach the American Dream. Gatsby is determined to become wealthy but is unhappy that he is not reaching his goal as planned. Nick, the narrator, learns about Gatsby’s background,“An instinct toward his future glory had led him, some months before, to the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in southern Minnesota. He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself despising the janitor’s work with which he was to pay his way through” (Fitzgerald 75). Jay works as a janitor at a college. He feels that he is not moving forward towards his goal, which is to make a lot of money. In Parkinson’s essay, she …show more content…
During the argument between Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom, Tom says, “‘ He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That’s one of his little stunts I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn’t far wrong’” (Fitzgerald 102). Tom reveals that Gatsby is actually a bootlegger. This shows how Gatsby really got his money and how determined he was to get it even if it is very risky. Berman mentions how the magazines Nick saw never said anything about working hard in order to be successful and adds, “The tactics of day-to-day labor are familiar, but they seem no longer to be interesting”(Berman 82). He states that obtaining money in a way that is contrary to the law seems to be a quicker and easy method than working for it every