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The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

1398 Words6 Pages

As we grow up in American society we encounter the ideals that serve as the bricks that make up the very foundation of American patriotism and ideology: Endless admiration of success, commitment to convenient freedom, and the undefinable American dream. In the past, this American dream differed for every dreamy risk-taker, but it always had one thing in common: people wanted to rise above their station. This dream existed for many years before America, everyone wishes they could change their family’s station in one generation by working hard enough. The reason the dream became the American dream was that the New World (North America) provided land and fluid social classes that represented an opportunity for upward social and economic mobility …show more content…

It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!” and it abundantly clear that the New Money has not studied enough to fill their libraries and if Gatsby is any indication some have not studied formally at all. So naturally, people conclude that if Gatsby can go from his farm in the middle nowhere to becoming the most wasteful hedonist in New York then anyone can achieve the same thing. Yet, Gatsby was able to obtain his fortune almost entirely by luck. His birth happened at just the right time for him to go to war and become a war hero; then he was lucky to have met Meyer Wolfsheim after having crafted his oxford story. People make the same false conclusion about real-life characters like Bill Gates, Debbi Fields, and Abraham Lincoln. Similarly, none of these people have true stories about going from rags to riches. Bill Gates had wealthy parents that helped fund an expensive computer club at his school; Debbi Fields had a wealthy husband that provided the capital for her company and both had substantial business experience and education. Even Abraham Lincoln could not achieve the American Dream alone, he was supported by his entire community when he ran to be a Congressman. While each one including Gatsby achieved the new American Dream they all need support from one or more wealthy patrons. These kinds of relationships have almost no chance of forming for the most destitute of Americans as they live in separate places have no points of

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Many people today think that rapper Jay-Z is an example of this rags to riches type of story, he had began selling drugs and then ended up rapping to become the millionaire he is today. In the novel The Great Gatsby, author F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the idea of the american dream into one character, this character goes by the name Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby’s is idolised throughout the book for being very rich and throwing very magnificent parties but, what many people do not know about him how he has obtained this rich and wealthy status. Jay Gatsby or James Gatz was born into a poor family but still ended up becoming wealthy because he started bootlegging and making connections with gangsters which made him a fortune.

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They were not, as he was also fulfilling a dream for which he had tunnel vision and did not realize the difficulty or impossibility of it. Gatsby’s rapid succession of wealth does not help everyone around him, either. Everyone has a different interpretation of their dream. Many people’s life goals are to just splurge their money as Gatsby does. However, not everyone may want the same thing, and not everyone will earn their savings the same way.

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In the example of Gatsby, however, his wealth came from engaging in illegal activities. As Tyson describes it, the American dream “must be a corrupt one” (71) as the only way Gatsby could emerge from the lower class was through illegal activity, which “deflates the image of the honest, hardworking man that the dream is supposed to foster” (71). So while lower-class citizens are led to believe that if they work hard enough, they will be able to rise out of poverty, the people in the upper class who the lower class strive to become, really only got to their position through immorality and corruption. Tyson goes into more detail on the matter in describing the relationship between Gatsby and Meyer Wolfshiem. One of Wolfshiem’s most notable accomplishments is that he was able to “fix” the 1919 World Series.

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Jay Gatsby grew up as a poor child. He made fast money, legal or not, and was always throwing parties to please his fellow rich friends. Even though Gatsby financially was alike with his wealthy neighbors, he was unlike them in every other way. Gatsby tried to become rich to pursue the American Dream.

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These arguments are simply not valid. In the novel, The Great Gatsby , one of the protagonists, Jay Gatsby, was born into a poor family but became rich through shady circumstances. Even with his enormous wealth, he was still never integrated into the upper reaches of high societies. He threw enormous parties for extremely powerful and wealthy people, but

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True wealth is not measured in status or power. It is estimated in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the character Jay Gatsby to explore the American Dream and how its corrupting influence impacts the people who pursue it. Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, we see how Gatsby’s love for Daisy, Wealth, and social status ultimately leads to his downfall. And how other characters in the novel have similar experiences throughout the story.

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he cried triumphantly. ‘It’s a bonafide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph.

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This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism!" (45).

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Gatsby has a fortune, illegal albeit, but still a fortune. Gatsby was the son of a farmer and was inspired by Dan Cody to make a name for himself and achieve his dreams. However the American Dream lost its original meaning in the 1920s, thanks to bootlegging and the mob business that was becoming so popular on the east coast. Gatsby took advantage of this to make a shortcut of the American Dream. At this point Gatsby wasn't concerned with accomplishing anything as long as he felt accomplished.

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