The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream, something so profound, yet seemingly so shallow. All have thought about working towards it, but only some attempt. Risking it all, they will throw all on the line to find fame, happiness and wealth. But only a few succeed. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway tells the tragic love story of Gatsby, a man driven to find and marry his love, Daisy. Starting with next to nothing, Gatsby builds himself up from the lowest of the low to become one of the richest men in New York, all in order to win over Daisy and fulfill his version of the American dream. But in the process, Gatsby not only loses Daisy, but gets murdered. Based off of the voice and tone that Nick uses throughout the novel, Nick writes this story in order

“Gatsby believed in the green light,” claimed Nick, “the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.” All of humanity strives for this dream, the American dream. In Gatsby’s case he chases Daisy obsessively, his lovely incarnation of that American dream. Sadly though as time goes on that dream fades farther away. People have deceived themselves saying,”it eluded us then, but that’s no matter-tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . .” Convincing themselves that the impossible is possible, everyone chases after a dream unattainable, and even if one “attained” it, the happiness proves fake and superficial. Nick considers how Gatsby never realized that his dream “was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city.” Yet Gatsby hunted down his dream, sacrificing morals and precious time to attain it. At the end of the day all he had to show for his efforts, was money and an illusion of joy and satisfaction. As Nick so appropriately conclude all people in search of the American dream “beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the