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

William S. Burroughs once said, "Thanks for the American dream, to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through. Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind their own business". Burroughs is saying that the American Dream is a dream that misleads and refined people until it becomes realized and known by the person. He is an American writer and is considered a key figure of the Beat Generation and a postmodernist. Moreover, what is the American dream? The American dream is an idea created that gives people all over the world hope that they can achieve happiness and wealth by working hard regardless of race, class, and gender. The novella, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s depicts the American

This can be demonstrated through the novella for it's a story about Jay Gatsby who trails after Daisy. He does significantly more to have her back, he “picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.” (Fitzgerald, 180). Nick summarizes the life of Gatsby for he is so close to achieving his American dream of being with Daisy, yet he is far from being able to grasp it fully. Daisy represents the green light at the dock of her house that he's never able to reach. It became known that he will not be able to have her when she goes back to Tom by the end of the novella. He loves her so much that he risks his own life for Daisy, which Tom will never do. Not to mention, Gatsby spent half of his life dreaming of a future where he and Daisy are together. Daisy is a symbol of hope for Gatsby, but it turns out she is just a fatal poison. Gatsby’s love story is more pitiable than sad because he is always trying to reach for something he shall never have. Thus, he left this world without attaining true happiness, and his American dream. Nevertheless, Gatsby wasn’t the only character that was not able to achieve his American dream, but also the people of the Valley of Ashes, a group of people who are forgotten by the rich. The Valley of Ashes is first mentioned in chapter two when Nick and Tom Buchanan go there to meet up with Tom's mistress. Nick describes the place as “... a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.’ (Fitzgerald, 28). The valley of ashes represents the other side of America, it is the place that is