The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Throughout the history of the United States, the American Dream has inspired people to work hard and strive for success. This is true for Jay Gatsby, a newly wealthy businessman in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The story follows Gatsby as he and other characters attempt to achieve their greatness and lifetime goals in New York City; Gatsby’s goal is to once again be reunited with his love, Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby goes to extremes to try and be with her by purchasing a house directly across the bay from hers. Through the character of Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals that the American Dream is a false hope, and in the end, is unobtainable. In the novel, Jay Gatsby throws lavish parties and his name spreads like wildfire across

Daisy is so overwhelmed with emotions that when Jay shows her his closet full of expensive shirts, she “[begins] to cry stormily” claiming she has “never seen such… beautiful shirts before” (92). At this moment in the story, it seems as though Gatsby’s American Dream has been achieved as he finds out that Daisy still loves him based on her emotional instability after seeing the shirts. Even though they love each other, Daisy still is a married woman, and leaving her husband was not a simple task; Daisy’s husband Tom was a man of great power who inherited his money unlike Jay who had to acquire it. When Tom confronts Jay and Daisy’s affair, Daisy cannot articulate her feelings towards the two men, and eventually “[cannot] stand” for the situation she has been placed in and has “to get out” once she finds out that Jay accumulated his wealth through the illegal sales of alcohol (133). Gatsby’s dream of being with Daisy is destroyed once she decides that she still “loves” Tom and cannot be with Gatsby. The relationship that Gatsby fantasized for years and drove him to be wealthy, was a false hope throughout the novel and Jay pursued it unknowingly that it was not