The Great Gatsby American Dream Essay

In America, success is built upon the dreams of wealth and want. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby shows the success and tragedy of those dreams through the main protagonist Jay Gatsby. Gatsby grew up in the poverty of North Dakota with his family. At a young age, Gatsby left home to pursue his wish of wealth. As he pursues his vision, he comes along a young girl named Daisy, and it is this moment that changes his path and leads him to his demise. As Gatsby pursues his dream, the reader sees the American dream is unachievable, as it was built through the false hope that was given to Gatsby through Daisy. Fitzgerald wants to express that the American dream is unattainable because even through hard work Gatsby’s dream will never be enough

“There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams.”(95). After Gatsby’s date with the new Daisy her new maturity inevitably shows she is no longer what he dreams of. He attempts to recreate the past which is impossible. Throughout his love for Daisy this twist of change isn’t what he anticipated showing his failure for his vision and desire. No matter what Gatsby does to change Daisy he will never reach his hope for his life. After Gatsby’s death Nick had gone through his own feelings of Gatsby, “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. He did not know that it was already behind him”(180). Gatsby had spent most of his life chasing after Daisy that when they finally met again after five years all the excitement and dreams, that he never realized Daisy was out of reach. From the beginning of their reunion Daisy was never going to leave Tom but Gatsby could never see that he believed so much in his love for Daisy that even to his death he thought Daisy would return to him. This loss even to his death he still believed in his American dream he never realized that it was