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Racial And Income Inequality In The Great Gatsby

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According to James Truslow Adams’ book The Epic Of America, the American Dream was traditionally known as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement... a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain... regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (P.214-215) Books, such as The Great Gatsby by Scott F. Fitzgerald, convey the message that the American Dream is no longer about upward mobility and labor, but materialism and greed(use characters actions paragraph). Due to obstructions like ---- along with racial and income inequality, lead my generation to believe that the American Dream …show more content…

According to CNN’s Jack Cafferty, “[i]n 2010 the median household net worth for whites was about $111,000 compared to less than $5,000 for blacks.” Being in the lower half of the social classes, there are less opportunities and chances to move up the economic ladder. This proves that the black population, among other minorities, has less chance of upward mobility than the white population, this relates back to the American Dream being an invalid aspiration because minorities believe that they will never achieve the dream with being stuck in the social class they were born in, which tends to be the low-middle class. Many African American students come to find that they tend to be enrolled in underfunded schools, in a HuffPost Politics article, a study by the Center for American Progress reveals that “schools with 90 percent or more students of color spend a full $733 less per student per year than schools with 90 percent or more white students.” Completing a full 16 years of schooling is considered crucial in the U.S. for upward mobility, when most under-privileged minority students don’t receive the opportunity for higher education they are left feeling forlorn. The American Dream seems impossible to accomplish when there are gaps in wealth and education preventing people of all racial backgrounds from reaching the

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The theme for the first 5 chapters are things are not always as they seem. In chapter 1 we originally thought that Mrs. Dodds was a regular teacher, but know we know she is a bird like figure. In the text it says, “Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald embodies the American Dream in a sense where it shows the way that the concept had been twisted by greed, self-satisfaction and near or full obsession. No one in The Great Gatsby ever truly obtains the “American Dream” as it is a fantasy- never having been a dream but more of a name for the failure of so many that try to better their lives but wind up making it worse. Dreams are unattainable and, though for a moment, it might seem one has grasped the dream, no one truly holds onto it. Jay Gatsby takes the American Dream as it is, a warped sense of self-improvement in one's life, and twists it further in a way that better exposes that the “American Dream” is just that – a dream. Greed is a seed of destruction

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The American dream in accordance to Jim Cullen is that if you stay in school and become successful and work hard, you will be able to achieve the american dream as well move up in socal classes. The elements that is demonstrated in cullen american dream is social mobility which is the moving up in socal classes and the second element demonstrated work ethics. Work ethic is the ability to work hard so you can become successful. These two elements of the American dream reflects in the Great Gatsby and other non-fiction text because this is attainable, and has been already accomplish. This is important in modern day because everything is about money and power.

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he American Dream is the ideal that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity, however they see fit. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is portrayed through Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Even though Gatsby and Mr. Buchanan are exceedingly different for many reasons, they both are trying to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream does not have a single, universal definition, but is instead the interpretation of success and prosperity by the individual hoping to achieve it. Gatsby is trying to achieve the American Dream through becoming rich, throwing parties, and trying to win back his longtime love, Daisy; whereas Mr. Buchanan is trying to achieve the American

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Intro: The American dream, something that has been a craze in American society. Everyone from all different backgrounds pursue it and have discussed it at least once in there lives, whether it be through a simple conversation to speeches and novels. In fact there is one novel that centers around the American dream, this novel is The Great Gatsby. According to the author F.Scott Fitzgerald the American dream is life,liberty,and the pursuit of happiness and it is achievable.

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The American Dream is similar to the ideals of The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, because today we do not have steady employment, it is unrealistic to those with different circumstances, the dream can be reachable through hard work, and the dream varies for people. People still struggle to find opportunities of employment and

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The American Dream started back in the early 1900’s when James Truslow was referring to “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” The American Dream has always been associated with social mobility, the dream that anybody no matter how poor could become millionaire or the President of the U.S. Back then, it was not easy to achieve the American Dream, people struggled hard to achieve it and some might have even failed at it. Throughout The Great Gatsby, Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Myrtle lived the American Dream but not everybody has a good start. For example, in the beginning Gatsby explains how he got his money by saying that he inherited

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Scott Fitzgerald would say that the American dream is a concept that you can achieve greatness or better circumstances by any means that you can. Also, the real dream is not riches because then people would become reckless, but the real goal is to reach ultimate happiness. He would say this because when people desire for something they are not, they go to measures the affect others and the outcomes are not often positive. The novel and Gatsby’s story show that the failure of achieving his dreams proves the the foolishness of short-cutting the dream by corruption without hard work, integrity, or real love. Fitzgerald’s version of the American dream would say that all have the ability to gain more success with hard work and being true to yourself.

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The American Dream is the idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. In other words, an individual who has money, a vehicle, a place of residence, formal clothes, and a happy family is living the American Dream. The novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the theme :the decline of the American Dream. With that being said the essay “Moral Perfection” by Benjamin Franklin and the art piece “Immigrants Arriving at Ellis Island” further my understanding of the theme portrayed in The Great Gatsby. Furthermore, The Great Gatsby is a novel that demonstrates/gives the reader a more detailed explanation and vivid picture

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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 American Dream is the reason millions of people aspires to move to the United States. It signifies equal opportunity and prosperity for every US citizen willing to work hard enough. The American Dream was in effect during the 1700s for the European settlers, but as you can see in The Great Gatsby the American Dream is no longer a reality. F. Scott Fitzgerald displays this corruption of the American Dream in characters materialism, the green light, and Gatsby’s life and death.

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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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The American Dream is the idea that being a citizen in America means individuals who can rely on themselves, can prosper with the opportunities and progress that America promises them. However, actions will always contain more meaning than words. Throughout the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald explores this idea through the perspective of the excessively wealthy, high-class citizens of America. Using evidence from The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is unattainable because financial success does not equal fulfillment in life, and the lower classes are given little to improve the rough situations and decaying economy that society leaves behind; however, attaining the image of the Dream that others see from an outside perspective, is achievable. When the American Dream is discussed, the concept is focused

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First off, the American dream isn’t accessible to impoverished families in the U.S. The American dream involves having money to occasionally blow on entertainment or extra purchases. But for 50 million Americans, according to the Huffington Post,

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False Illusions "For many the American Dream has become a nightmare. " These words of Bernie Sanders are accurate to an extent. The American Dream is the idea that anyone, with enough resolve and determination, can climb the economic ladder, regardless of where they start in life. It is called the American Dream because the United States is depicted as the greatest nation in the world, that offers the most opportunity and freedom to achieve upward mobility in society. However, many people attach themselves too much to the hope of achieving this dream that they fail to realize the inequalities that take place in front of their own faces, which are the factors that are hampering them from this illusion.

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