“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to see it”, George Carlin. The American dream went from simply surviving and then to gaining freedom away from Great Britain, to starting a family and having a nice house with a white picket fence. Now if it really still exists, it’s all about money and riches, wanting to look perfect, buying things you don’t need just to impress. No one today is usually content with what they have and will always strive for more. The Great Gatsby, The Crucible, and April Morning, are all good examples from their time period of how the “American Dream” has changed over the years, maybe even if it doesn’t exist anymore. Starting with The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby strives for this ideal wealth, Daisy is the “golden girl” of his dream, but she’s only just a part of it. He seeks wealth and acceptance. As illustrated in the novel, …show more content…
It eluded us then, but that’s no matter- tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… and then one fine morning--- so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”,(The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald). Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy can be seen to symbolize the “American Dream”. The image of him alone, reaching out for the green light, shows him striving for the object of his dreams. Gatsby strives to win Daisy, who’s shallow and snobbish, reflects the corruption of the American Dream- it has become focused on the shallow pursuit of wealth. As stated, “There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving