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Negative Effects Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream Maya Lin once said. “The American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.” Having this in mind, everyone’s personal dream is very different as no two people are driven by the same things. With that, a huge controversy amongst our modern world is whether or not the American Dream is in fact dead or not. This speculation is instead ludicrous though as there is evidence to support that the American Dream has always only been a dream. Based on the evidence found in The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men, it can be concluded that the American Dream has a negative effect amongst the people of the world.
The American Dream is a negative …show more content…

The whole story was about Jay Gatsby, a motivated man whose life goal was about reviving his love with Daisy. When talking about her he announced, “When I first met her I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there’d be room for her to stay” (Fitzgerald 64). With that, his American Dream was all about her and one day making it possible for them to be together. The first struggle of this was Daisy was only involved in things for the money. This meant if Gatsby really loved her, he must make something out of himself before he could pursue her once again. He of course did and was able to rekindle his relationship with Daisy. They actually loved each other once again and had plans of running away together. Eventually the day came where Gatsby told her to explain to her husband that she did not ever love him but she cried out, “Oh you want to much... I loved you now isn’t that enough? I can’t help what’s past” (Fitzgerald 126). Gatsby had a tantrum and did not represent his worth. He lost his one chance with Daisy to a new rule that declined the belief of the American Dream: Old Money being way better than New Money. As described by an analysis on …show more content…

In The Crucible, each character wanted to be respected, but due to gossip and the situations in the community, their dream fell through. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s only goal was to get Daisy. His goal was denied though due to the fact he could not control his natural habits and idea that he was new money. Finally, in Of Mice and Men, each character’s dreams were diminished due to the idea that the strong constantly feed on the weak, never allowing them to break from the constant cycle or stereotypes associated with them. Keeping all this in mind, as a reader, people should now caution themselves when it comes to dreaming. Many times, dreaming leads to failure and are things that were never obtainable. With that being said, are your goals something you can actually accomplish or something that will ultimately lead to your

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Gatsby has spent his whole life trying to prove to Daisy and everyone around him that he is worthy of her. The only way to be on the same social level as her is to turn himself into new money. Since this is not possible, he has to try to convince to others that he truly is old money. To do this, he becomes rich, and lies about his past, but the only way for him to complete this idea is if he is with Daisy. She is the final piece in his American dream.

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Gatsby then tries to be with her as himself, which later leads to his own death. If he had never shown Daisy his true self or tried to be with her openly and honestly like he did, he never would have lost her. This shows how quickly the American Dream can fail when it is in reality instead of under lies and falsehoods. Gatsby keeps everyone he knows at a distance, which alienates his relationships and prevents everyone from getting close to him. It works for a time, but when his American Dream is achieved Gatsby should not have let go of that strategy, because once he did he lost the one person that was his whole life, his whole goal, his whole

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Over the course of the novel The Great Gatsby, the main character James Gatz, more commonly known as Jay Gatsby, lives the American Dream. Gatsby's life is filled with large- lavish parties, beautiful cars, and an enormous mansion on the Sound. Gatsby worked for this lifestyle by following his dream to better himself. This dream leads Gatsby to become corrupt. But Gatsby's American Dream has become corrupted because of a lack of reality.

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Daisy however, very heartbroken and anxious to start a family, failed to wait for Gatsby while he was at war and she vulnerably fell in love with Tom and his money. Throughout the time Gatsby was away she grew and developed mentally, leaving him to love someone that no longer existed. When Gatsby says “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”(Fitzgerald 110)it shows how his imagination has affected his sense of reality. He became lost in the idea that he could get Daisy back and things would automatically return to how they were before he went away.

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As American business man, Richard M. Devos, once said, “Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.” In the novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott, Fitzgerald, Daisy, an elite socialite, is blinded by dollar signs and makes multiple decisions based on class, ultimately leading to the destruction of those who she claims to love, and without a doubt love and idolize her. Jay Gatsby has been in love with Daisy for five years, and supposedly she is with him, but she’s too impatient to wait for Gatsby while he is at war and decides to marry an arrogant, racist, and rude former college football star, Tom Buchanan, for money. Daisy is a self-absorbed, vacuous socialite whose decisions lead to the destruction of Gatsby.

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