The American Dream is something that everyone spends their life trying to achieve. According to James Truslow Adams, the American Dream is "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 Epic of America). In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, his characters do anything it takes to try and reach their American Dream. In Jay Gatsby's case however, his American Dream is incomplete.
The Great Gatsby is not just about the American Dream; it is about the failures of people who are attempting to reach it. Jay Gatsby's life revolves around Daisy after the moment he meets her for the very first time. She is the epiphany of his incomplete American Dream. He is so smitten with her, that he lies about his
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Scott Fitzgerald portrays the American Dream as a hoax or an illusion. It seems as if in order to even remotely reach the American Dream, one would have to be born into wealth instead of earning money. Although Tom and Gatsby are both ridiculously rich, Gatsby is totally different. He knows what it is like to be poor and want more. He went out and did something with his life, and just so happened to come into a lot of money, whereas Tom has grown up flaunting his money. In Gatsby's instance, his whole American Dream is Daisy. He has the money and luxurious items that others do not have, but he does not have Daisy and that is all he wants. No matter how hard he tries, something gets in his way of reaching her. Nick practically explains how the American Dream can never be reached when he says "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...and one fine morning–" (Fitzgerald 180). Chasing the American dream is like trying to catch a shadow; no matter how fast someone runs, the shadow is always one step