Trying to achieve the American Dream is the equivalent of reaching for the stars, always trying to grasp something that you can never get. The American Dream is an illusion because, as shown in The Great Gatsby, if one spends their whole life chasing after their dream, they will realize that it is not the same as they believed it would be, and they eventually lose a piece of themselves. The American Dream is an illusion because Gatsby has spent his life trying to win back Daisy, his love from years ago, but she is married to Tom. Early in The Great Gatsby, the reader learns that Gatsby has loved Daisy since he first met her. However, toward the end of the book, Gatsby realizes that Daisy is going to choose Tom; the narrator, Nick, says, “...he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single …show more content…
He realizes that he has lived too long chasing a single dream and doesn’t know life without chasing Daisy since he has chased her for years. Along with that, it foreshadows the events that occur later in the book when he dies by mentioning “living too long with a single dream” because after he gives up his dream, he loses hope; although losing his dream is not the direct reason he dies, it is ironic that after he stops chasing his American Dream, he dies. Even though Gatsby achieved his American Dream for a short time before losing it, he eventually loses hope and does not know what to do with life; this idea is further shown in “Why Do We Keep Reading The Great Gatsby?” The longer that Gatsby is with Daisy, the more it is shown that he is dissatisfied, even after he gets close to achieving his American Dream. In the article “Why Do We Keep Reading The Great Gatsby?” Wesley Morris expresses his thoughts on the story and Gatsby’s American