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The Great Gatsby Quotes On The American Dream

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The American Dream is different for everyone, however, all will fight for it. They will struggle for their ideal of the American Dream. Fitzgerald shows this with all of his characters. He shows what all of them are willing to do to achieve their happiness, and what happens when it is taken away. Gatsby is a perfect example of what Fitzgerald shows as the American dream. He is rich and popular, however he is not happy. He wants to go back to a time when he believed he was truly happy. “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.” This quote shows what the …show more content…

Gatsby says “Her voice was full of money.” This shows that he associated his love with Daisy to his pursuit of wealth and power. He wants Daisy because of the wealth that she represents. Gatsby wanted Daisy more than anything else. He could not move on. If he did he would have been happy, however, it ended up leading to his downfall, even if it was not his fault. Daisy could not handle the dream that Gatsby tried to force upon her, and in the end, this made Daisy choose Tom. Gatsby’s green light was never something that he could reach, no matter how hard he struggled and fought. The people he wanted to include in his dream did not hold up to his high …show more content…

Tom and Daisy keep drifting apart then coming back together. "I never loved him," she said, with perceptible reluctance. "Not at Kapiolani?" demanded Tom suddenly. "No." From the ballroom beneath, muffled and suffocating chords were drifting up on hot waves of air.” This comes from a conversation that Daisy and Tom have. It describes perfectly how their relationship goes. Their marriage is dysfunctional, yet they have grown too complacent in to do anything about it. They began to drift apart more and more, that is until Gatsby forced them to confront their marriage when he asked Daisy to say she never loved Tom. This backfires when they began to grow close again. Then, when Daisy kills Myrtle and Tom gets Gatsby killed they run away together, as they always do. The quote, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made. . . .” shows how they are. They can never reach their ideal of the American dream. They are not happy, just content. Nick realizes this when he sees Tom again. “I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I say that what he had done was to him entirely justified.” Tom and Daisy cause chaos wherever they go. They just move on when it threatens to be too much for

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The reunion of Daisy and Gatsby sets all the following events into inevitable motion. Chapter seven reveals that the story of their romance reaches its climax and its tragic conclusion. The fact that Daisy invites Gatsby to her house, considering the fact that Tom is also there, was a very foolish move. The confrontation between Gatsby and Tom serves to reveal the major flaws and motivations of both characters. Tom’s conceitedness causes him to believe that his wife will never leave him because of his wealth and high social status.

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652 Words | 3 Pages

This rekindling of lost love pushed Daisy to realization that even though she does not currently love Tom, she is bound to be with him forever. Nick hides Jay and Daisy’s forbidden relationship, and does not command the integrity to tell Tom that his wife is seeing another

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In the book, Tom says, “And what's more, I love Daisy too. Once in a while I go off on a spree and make a fool of myself, but I always come back, and in my heart, I love her all the time” (Fitgerald 131). Their relationship isn’t close perfect and they both know that, but it fills them both with an odd sense of comfort. This sense of comfort is what causes Daisy to stay with him; therefore, she feels that if she leaves him she won’t feel that same comfort. Also, when Gatsby would plan things to do with Daisy, she usually did not act like it was as big of a deal as Gatsby acted.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

After all the disputes and accusations, Tom and Daisy stay together and move away back to the Midwest. Conservely Tom and Daisy’s relationship only stayed together because of the time period they lived in and the social rules they were obliged

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636 Words | 3 Pages

He would do anything for the happiness of others like Daisy. Next, before Gatsby became rich, he used to be in the military and he meets Daisy 5 years ago in Kentucky. There they fell in love, Gatsby took her out to give her a kiss, “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, this mind would never romp again like the mind of god” (Fitzgerald 110). This tells you that Gatsby is mad about Daisy and will do anything for her happiness. Even if he doesn’t get loved by Daisy, he wants to make her

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2213 Words | 9 Pages

Living the American Dream, a once in a lifetime experience. That’s how it’s depicted in The Great Gatsby, like in real life you must be lucky to live the American Dream. Yet, that experience can slip right out of your hands with today’s society. Fitzgerald’s vision of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby is similar to today’s ideals as it was influenced by American history, depicts the hardships, different ideas of the American Dream, lack of mobility, and inequalities in society. Like in real life, the character’s actions were influenced by historical events.

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881 Words | 4 Pages

The American dream is a dream of land in which life should be better and richer for everyone. It’s a land where people succeed to accomplish their ambition of a better life. Most of the people have a different way of defining this American Dream. Unfortunately, for some, it could mean wealth,status,or power whereas for others it could mean companionship, good morals,love,and amity. According to our Declaration of Independence, it entitles every man and woman the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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1352 Words | 6 Pages

The American Dream suggests that every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. One of the major ways that Fitzgerald portrays this is by alluding to outside events or works of literature specifically from that time period. Another major relationship that develops in The Great Gatsby is between Tom and Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to things such as the World’s Fair and “The Love Nest” to display the eventual dismantling of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Both of these separate plots consolidate under the idea of Gatsby trying to become the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through his strive for a “perfect life.”

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

Beginning with becoming rich and buying the house across the Bay he developed an obsession with her. Unable to live his life, searching the papers everyday hoping to catch just a glimpse of her name to see what she was up to, Gatsby was setting himself up for failure. He never opened up to the idea that things could change and that Daisy could love someone else. Daisy pushed Gatsby away in the end because of the person Tom had made him out to be. She saw Gatsby as damaged which only damaged him more, leaving him to feel unloved by the person he loved

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Fitzgerald makes it apparent throughout the novel that Gatsby does everything in hopes to compete against Tom and impress Daisy. For example, Gatsby throws lavish parties every weekend with the hope that Daisy will stumble in, and then they will be reunited and return to their old ways. Additionally, when Gatsby moves to the West Egg, he purposefully purchases an extravagant mansion near the Buchanan’s mansion where he can view their emerald light on his dock. Throughout the duration of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby noticeably envies Tom Buchanan, Daisy’s husband, for seizing the life that Gatsby was not able to achieve. Gatsby longs to return to the passionate relationship they had five years prior and maybe even create a family similar to the family Daisy has with Tom.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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1141 Words | 5 Pages

The Failure of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby In an era of greed and corruption, the American dream became less important in the 1920’s as social values decayed in people 's lives. Materialism became most important in society, resulting in selfishness and carelessness. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby shows this reckless behavior with Tom and Daisy Buchanan, a spoiled couple married for the wealth. The failure of the American dream is represented in The Great Gatsby with the upper class’s overindulgence and recklessness with material objects . F. Scott Fitzgerald emphasizes the difference between old money and new money in The Great Gatsby with the East and West Eggs and the residents who live there.

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923 Words | 4 Pages

The Great Gatsby discusses and portrays various themes and ideas that tie into the American Dream. Fitzgerald develops several life-like characters that convey the reality of achieving the ideal every American dreams of. F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the novel The Great Gatsby, illustrates the corruption behind aiming to achieve the American Dream through Gatsby’s

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Gatsby fails to accomplish the American Dream by being too greedy on wanting love. He works hard in life in order to be the man that Daisy wants him to be. The moment Gatsby meets Daisy again; she has a husband already. Although Gatsby knows that she marries Tom, he still wants to be with her. He does not care about the consequences and he has secret affairs with her.

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1262 Words | 6 Pages

Evan Olmstead English II - 6th Mr. Davidson 2/16/18 AMDG The Great American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby portrays many themes, however the most significant theme relates to man 's unsuccessful attempts at the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows how not one by many characters fail at achieving their American dream. The American Dream as defined by James Truslow Adams in 1921, "life should be better, richer, and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each regardless of social class or circumstances of birth”. The desire to strive for what one wants can be achieved if one is willing to work hard enough.

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