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The American Dream Unattainable Essay

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The American Dream: the hopes and dreams to be successful through hard work and determination, yet not always as straightforward as it may seem. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it displays the truth about the American Dream and the pursuit of the unattainable. Nick Carraway, the narrator, moves to New York into a newly rich neighborhood named West Egg, where he attempts to gain wealth by selling bonds. He lives next door to a millionaire, Jay Gatsby, a mysterious man who is in love with Nick’s cousin Daisy, despite the fact she is married to Tom. Daisy and Tom live across the bay in an “old money” West Egg mansion. Nick is drawn into the wealthy lifestyle while being dragged through others journeys to gain their American Dream. …show more content…

Gatsby, although gaining large amounts of success and financial achievements, was missing the one thing he needed to complete his version of the American Dream, Daisy’s love. The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock shows his pursuit for her love and how his dream seems so realistic, yet just out of reach. Nick realizes after his late dinner with the Buchanan’s that Gatsby was standing on his dock looking over the bay as “he stretched out his arm towards the dark waters in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling” (Fitzgerald, 20). Gatsby's only desire left is to be with Daisy, and the burning green light that he reaches for at the end of her dock is a constant reminder of how it will always be unachievable. Furthermore, Gatsby went to extreme lengths trying to win over Daisy’s love, she influenced every decision he made and fueled his desires to be successful. Not only did Gatsby buy his mansion just to be close to Daisy but his whole persona is to win her over. He is known for hosting the most magnificent parties due to his wealth, yet Jordan explains that “he half expected her to wander into one of his parties, some night” (79). Gatsby’s only purpose of throwing these massive parties along with most of the decisions he makes …show more content…

Initially, Nick came with a clear goal in mind, but seeing how one of the wealthiest in the city, Gatsby, gained his money Nick’s dream became obscured. Once Tom exposed Gatsby’s lies by saying “He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug-stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (133). From learning the truth about Gatsby's wealth, Nick’s dream became more unrealistic due to his faith in someone who he thought to be a honest, hardworking man, who gained substantial wealth did not do so legally, which tarnished his faith. Not only Gatsby, but Meyer Wolfsheim showed that the American Dream is unattainable through hard work. Nick recognizes this through Wolfshiem fixing the World Series, “The idea staggered me. I remembered, of course, that the World's Series had been fixed in 1919, but if I had thought of it at all I would have thought of it as a thing that merely happened, the end of some inevitable chain. It never occurred to me that one man could start to play with the faith of fifty million people” (73). Nick begins to understand that the American Dream is nothing more than a dream. As he associated more with high society it is shown that nothing is fair, proving the American Dream is an illusion created by the wealthy. Finally, Nick

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The American Dream is something which almost every American is familiar with, but it also is unattainable for the vast majority of Americans, something which F. Scott Fitzgerald demonstrates with his acclaimed novel, The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby covers the story of Nick, an all around average man who is thrust into the lives of both the ultra wealthy and the aspiring-to-be wealthy when he moves to New York. He meets his nextdoor neighbor, Gatsby, who owns an extravagant mansion which Nick finds out to be purchased with money of questionable background, and owned by an ever increasingly strange and dubious man. Over the course of the novel, different characters all chase their own goals - some want love, some want power, almost everyone

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“There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.” The Great Gatsby was written by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and published in 1925, it is a novel about the dangers of excess and the disintegration of the American Dream. The American Dream is, that with enough work and determination, anyone, from any background, can achieve anything they want. This is shown in the story through the lives of three characters, Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Myrtle Wilson, as they deal with love and the ramifications of the past among the wealthy of Long Island. The American Dream is connected to The Great Gatsby through the characters of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Myrtle Wilson, as they all pursue their similar, yet differing versions of the American Dream.

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Gatsby was so infatuated with Daisy that he bought the house directly across from her. Nick describes a night where he saw “Gatsby genuflecting to the light on Daisy's dock, ‘the bellows of the earth have blown the frogs full of life,’ and there is a sound of ‘wings beating in the trees. ’”7 Gatsby would watch the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, longing for her to be his. His attempts to “recapture Daisy's love are [also] vain attempts to ‘repeat the past,’ an ambition to which Gatsby devotes all his energies.

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“Boom”. George Wilson’s revolver releases a bullet that flies straight into the heart of Jay Gatsby, killing him. Seven years later, another “boom” is heard in the real world on October 29th 1929, as the stock market crashes, solidifying the death of a concept that has been a foundation of this country since Colonial times. In its purest form the American Dream is the notion that any man can earn prosperity, economic security, and, respect in their community through hard, honest work. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby is often associated as being the American Dream.

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His constant attempt to find fulfillment through others reveals a bitter truth about him: he will never be fulfilled. Due to his indecisiveness, Nick’s life is constantly at an impasse. Originally from a “well-to-do” (6) family, his life would have been comfortable, a clear path set before

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What happens when the very dream you are pursuing turns out to be a merciless illusion? Shattering the lives and hope of its pursuers, the American Dream is like a double-edged sword cutting deep into the lives of everyone who tries to pursue it. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the ways in which obtaining the American dream drives the behavior and actions of characters such as Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson, leading them to prioritize their own desires and ambitions above all else, ultimately resulting in tragic consequences. However, if you recognize the American Dream as a facade like Nick, you can in turn live a much more gratifying life. The disastrous outcomes for Gatsby and Myrtle as well as the fulfilled life

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