In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is shown as a false ideal through many of its characters, including the two main characters. This is shown through Jay Gatsby whose riches fail to lead him the happiness, and Daisy Buchannon who thought a family would make her happy but is left unsatisfied and broken. Word Count: 57 Jay Gatsby had achieved the American dream by going from the average life to extreme wealth by working for it, but it just proved that ideal wrong by not granting him happiness. For example, when Nick looks back at Gatsby at the end of the novel and he says, “He had come a long way to the 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). …show more content…
Even with all his amassed riches, the happiness that he was promised escapes his grasp and heightens his failure. In addition, when Nick is reflecting on his stay in New York he says, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eludes us then, but that’s no matter, tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms farther”(189). This symbolizes Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy and his dreams, which come close but leave him behind. Despite the money Gatsby has, he is unable to attain happiness, trapping him in his discontent. Furthermore, when talking about his past with Nick, and being shut down, Gatsby says, “Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course, you can!”(106). Gatsby still believes that his power can recreate the time he was content with life, blinding him with his pride. It is however a bad attempt as it makes him overconfident in his plans and leads to new false dreams. Gatsby, going to extreme opulence from nothing, highlights the lies of the U.S. ideal that was given to