The Great Gatsby: False Prophet Of The American Dream

For hundreds of years, American women have faced generations of societal oppression. From the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s to women’s suffrage in the 1800s, women have been shut down by the patriarchal society. From the early foundations of American society, women have not been offered the same opportunities as their male counterparts. The American Dream and its promises were not directed towards women, even if not directly stated. The American Dream is hypocritical by not providing equal opportunities for women and men to achieve the great promised lifestyle. Women are still not able to say they have achieved the American Dream, as they have not been written into the foundation of it. The American Dream has been structured around women’s

The inspirational factors of the American Dream are often catered towards the male working class. During the prime of the American Dream, the working class consisted primarily of men, while women stayed home and cared for children, cooking, and the house. This did not give women the same opportunity to achieve the American Dream as the men did. In “The American Dream: The American Perception of Class,” Vanneman, Reeve, and Cannon write, “The roots of the American Dream can be found in colonial America(.) But it was especially during the rise of industrialization in the late nineteenth century that the imagery of upward mobility came to dominate America’s discussions of itself.” (Vanneman, Reeve, Cannon 257). Gerda Lerner claims in “Women’s Rights and American Feminism,” “In the United States these conditions prevailed generally in the colonies, except for a few cities, and later in the frontier region. It is noteworthy that during this time period there was no women's rights movement.” (Lerner