Similarities Between The Great Gatsby And The American Dream

Kelsey Lewis Wolfson English II E May 31, 2024 The American Dream: A Myth or Reality? From what feels like the beginning of time, Americans and people from across the globe have been taught to chase that American dream—nice cars, big houses, a perfect family, and the list goes on. This notion was first mentioned in James Truslow Adams’ novel, titled The Epic of America. However, in Adams’ work, he perceived the term American dream differently than we do today. To Adams, it meant “a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Adams). Ironically,

While the topic of racism was not explicitly mentioned, its absence made the theme more evident. It was not a coincidence that the only successful people of West and East Egg were white people who had no problem achieving this “American Dream.” Put into words perfectly by author Adam Meehan of Repitition, race, and desire in The Great Gatsby, “the novel’s symbolic structure is haunted by a latent desire to reconstitute Gatsby’s ambiguous socially-projected racial makeup as only figuratively white” (Meehan 1). The novel addresses the social constructs of race and the figurative whiteness projected onto Gatsby because he is a rich man with accomplishments not commonly seen in the black community at this time. In both The Great Gatsby and A Raisin in the Sun, the women in the stories are completely different, however, they both get devalued and undermined at least one significant time in the story. Daisy Buchanan is seen as nothing more than a money-hungry woman who continuously catches the blame for Gatsby’s lust. On the other hand, Beneatha was still belittled for being a woman with a dream of becoming a

However, Gatsby manages to climb his way out and become a well-known millionaire, getting what many imagine to be the “American dream.” When compared to the Younger family, Gatsby is portrayed as, “a self-made man—a social climber who has reinvented himself and who embodies the American ideal of democracy” (Stocks 2). From an outside perspective, the term “social climber” seems to be the perfect way to describe Gabbsy. He somehow managed to pivot from being a boy raised by low class parents in North Dakota to a wealthy man living in West Egg. It is also clear throughout the novel that despite the dramatic rumors about Gatsby, he tries his best to come off as a positive man who believes that, “anyone can achieve ‘greatness’. However, as Gatsby seems to realise, it is not that simple, and money alone does not bring with it the same status as inherited wealth. That is why Gatsby cannot remain as James Gatz. and has to become Jay Gatsby” (Stocks 2). Once again, this proves that social climber and rumoured bootlicker, Jay Gatsby, is a prime example of the American Dream being