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Negative Effects Of The Great Gatsby

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“The American Dream” is a double sided coin of both hope and faith that looks to the fulfillment of human wishes and desires. This idea started ages before with the existence of the puritans in Massachusetts "city upon a hill" in 1630, but it were never expressed as THE AMERICAN DREAM. Later on, this idea has been strengthened by Thomas Jefferson with the declaration of independence. In 1876 the writer Horatio Alger introduced for the first time (The American Dream) in his book titled Ragged Dick, It was a tale of a poor orphan boy in New York City who saved his pennies and worked hard so eventually became rich. It became as a model that through honesty, hard working and strong determination that anyone can make realize his dream in America. The American Dream can be viewed from two different sides, positive and negative, in various domains _Economy, Society, Education, Literature_. Most of the critics viewed it as positive as motivational to America, and only some of them examined its bad consequences such as Robert Ringer. …show more content…

Therefore, many novels were written to point out the negative effects of the American dream. Parisa Ghangizi and Parvin Ghasemi took Great Gatsby as an example in their article, Degeneration of American Dream in F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby to explain how the degenerated vision of the American Dream was strongly presented in Great Gatsby’s theme, and the deterioration of the concept of American Dream changed from the pursuit of happiness to the pursuit of money. In this novel the main character great Gatsby represents the category of people who became more and more obsessed with money and materials gains. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock symbolizes what Gatsby longs for the American Dream; this green light signifies the green color of the dollar bills. Daisy cannot bring happiness to Gatsby which means Money itself cannot buy

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The American Dream is the idea that Americans can achieve anything they want, starting from any distance, as long as they work for it. One symbol, present in chapter 1, is the green light. “Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock” (Fitzgerald 152). The green light symbolizes that Gatsby always wanted more, even when he had everything he wanted. A green light for Gatsby was Daisy, the woman he had wanted to be with for a long time.

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I. Introduction: The dream of having Money, a nice car, big house, nice clothes, and a happy life all symbolizes the American dream, but all this causes destruction. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he validates his theme of the fatalness of the American Dream through the use of a green light to symbolize Gatsby’s goals and dreams of having a happy life with the love of his life, Daisy, through Myrtle to show how the American Dream causes destruction, and the hope for happiness can destroy happiness. II. Thesis Point one: A. Topic Sentence: The unreachable bright green light is an important part of this novel. B. First Assertion Statement: 1.The green light is seen as impossible to reach.

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The Significance of Symbols in the Great Gatsby In holding with the ideal of the American Dream, almost every child grows up with his or her parents wanting him or her to be better than they are and they long for their child to achieve and have more. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay Gatsby wants better for himself. In this novel Gatsby longs to rekindle his relationship with Daisy Buchanan. Colors are used in the novel to represent some form of the American dream and show how corruption leads to destruction.

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Firstly, The Great Gatsby proves the corruption of the American Dream through the green light. The green light symbolizes the American Dream; specifically society’s desire for wealth. The fact that the green light ‘coincidentally’ “burns ... at the end of [Daisy’s] dock” (Fitzgerald 92), suggests that Daisy really is only the face behind Gatsby’s pursuit of wealth.

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Gatsby was once poor, and later in his life, he earned a large amount of money through illegal businesses to earn the love of Daisy, whom he lost five years ago. However, Gatsby dies in the end, and Daisy never accepts Gatsby’s love. This affects the validity of money, proving happiness in any way. Moreover, Daisy’s personification as a character is a model of someone who is born into the American Dream due to the fact that she was born in America and therefore has high status and opportunities for money. However, Daisy ends up unhappy since she has no dream to strive for.

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The green light is across the lake from Gatsby’s house at the end of Daisy and Tom’s deck. Despite its proximity to Gatsby and the actuality of him never obtaining it, expresses the idea that people waste their time and effort -like Gatsby did with daisy throughout the book- but never reach their goal of the American Dream. So why all the commotion for such an unachievable dream? Why all the false hope? The author sees this dilemma and uses the book to show that not only is the American Dream unattainable, but it also accentuates the idea that if the American dream is ever actually achieved it loses its glossed over beauty, as shown by Gatsby’s despair (Ch 6.

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Since the beginning of time in the United States, the idea of the American Dream has had a heavy influence on society. According to Document C, American Dream is defined as earning enough money to be happy, obtaining a worry-free lifestyle, and running in a high social circle. While working Americans still hold on to the hope of the American Dream, individuals from other countries often move to the United States with the hope that they too may have a piece of the pie. Despite the novelty and allure of the American Dream, it is nothing more than false hope.

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This, however, leads to an unfillable void of longing. This is represented through one of the most famous literary symbols of all time, the green light. The green light sits across the bay from Gatsby’s house on Buchanan's dock representing all that Gatsby cannot achieve. He dreams of fulfilling the American dream, and to be with Daisy. Miriam Webster defines the American Dream as, “a happy way of living that is thought of by many Americans as something that can be achieved by anyone in the U.S. especially by working hard and becoming successful.”

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To Gatsby, the green light was one of his most prized possessions. It meant so much to him on so many levels. When Gatsby finally came into contact with Daisy, all of the significance suddenly went away. All of the fantasy suddenly went into reality and it wasn’t as much of a fairytale as he had presumed. This can also correlate with “The American Dream”.

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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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It was scary and uncertain, but it was all worth chasing after in order to grasp that final result of accomplishment. Nonetheless, according to Fitzgerald, our dreams are constantly in front of us and we continue to chase after them, therefore elucidating the impression that the green light is a symbol of the American dream to which Gatsby is reaching out for. Furthermore, at this point after Gatsby’s death, the light has ceased and completely has disappeared. His goals can no longer be accomplished and there is nothing left for him to reach out for. His desire for greed, the longing for Daisy, and the aspiration for the American Dream has also died with Gatsby alongside

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John A. Pidgeon says that, “The theme of Gatsby is the withering of the American Dream”(Pidgeon 179). The prime example of this is Gatsby, who “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” (Fitzgerald 180). The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s dream to be upper class with Daisy, but he can never reach it. Furthermore, it is frustrating for him that when he does attain wealth, Daisy is still out of his reach.

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The Problem with the American Dream According to the history books, the widely-known expression “the American Dream” was originally coined by James Truslow Adams in 1931. It was first described in Adams’s book “The Epic of America” as “...not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.” Over the years, America has become more egalitarian, but much must be done until there is true equality. Although the concept of the American Dream has always been believed to be open to everyone, throughout American history it has only been continuously accessible to the upper-class majority.

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