The American Dream In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

With glitz and glamor, parties and patrons, and champagne and cheers, the American dream is distinctly depicted within the media as a lavish life, surrounded by striking success and heartwarming happiness. However, this illustration is wildly inaccurate, as many people who are striving towards the dream struggle and ultimately get crushed by the demeaning, corporate nine-to-five life. The issue at hand is that people all around the world have been sold an unrealistic American dream, that they can achieve success no matter the circumstances, and that riches are the bridge to happiness. The American Dream that Fitzgerald cruelly depicts in The Great Gatsby is similar to today’s ideals of the American dream because people are still striving for

To begin with, the driving factor in everyone’s desire to pursue the American dream is their greed for wealth, and people may try to achieve it through extreme means. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby is depicted as a man with a lavish life and with everything that anyone could ever want, but he grew up in an impoverished family. He was unlike the other East Egg residents because he made his wealth through his life of crime such as bootlegging alcohol. This means that the American Dream cannot be achieved through sheer hard work, as Gatsby tried that route by working for Dan Cody, but his inheritance was taken by Dan’s greedy wife in the end. This shows that hard work can be unrewarded and that the last resort for some people is to participate in

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy rejects Gatsby because he was not able to provide her with financial comfort and instead ran into the arms of Tom Buchanan. This means that Daisy was willing to reject her one true love because she desired the comfort of wealth rather than her happiness. “The only people talking about the American dream are politicians. The rest of us are busting our asses, dealing with shrinking paychecks and rising costs.” (Source C) This means that people still strive to achieve the American dream no matter what, even though they know that there might not be a good payoff in the future. They want the financial comfort that comes with the American dream and are willing to sacrifice everything, even their livelihoods to achieve it in the end. “The only people talking about the American dream are politicians. The rest of us are busting our asses, dealing with shrinking paychecks and rising costs.” (Source C) Some may say that the American dream is only accessible to the rich and powerful, but the United States gives almost everybody equal opportunities to reach their dreams. The American dream is a depiction of people’s desire for financial comfort, and it also is extremely hard to achieve in today’s