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The Great Gatsby Research Paper

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Jacob Aki Mr, Hubbard English 11/ P. 2 5, April 2024 The American Dream The Great Gatsby is a novel that represents what it was like to live the American Dream in the “Roaring 20’s”. In the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald really shows us many characters living a wealthy and luxurious life where they have no worries. We can take the American dream one step further than wealth though and see how they live and their emotions throughout the story. We see Gatsby use the wealth he earned to persuade his past lover back, which you could say ended in the success of getting to see her back in his life. But, Gatsby also towards the end of the book lost sight of his dreams and you could say that he had everything at his fingertips but didn't quite succeed in the end. I believe that Gatsby represents the achievement of the American Dream, but it was a short lived dream. The American Dream is when you are able to achieve what you want in life. Some can achieve their dreams …show more content…

For Tom, we see when Fitzgerald says “he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest, it was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.” which shows us the kinds of unseen wealth he had. Tom acted as if he ruled the world, and nothing would stop him. We see Tom do things like have affairs which shows us he felt happy and atop the world. For Nick, we see him achieve the American Dream by living his life and becoming a person who enjoys the small setback life where he could help others all the time. For Daisy, we see her get to live the wealthy life without worry. She finds the man she had hoped to make a future with (Gatsby) and begins to rekindle a relationship where she becomes happy and experiences her true American dream. So I feel like many characters in The book The Great Gatsby can be seen as a success on how they went on and achieved their fame/

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Initially enticed by the allure of wealth and extravagance, Nick gradually becomes disillusioned as he witnesses the moral decay and shallowness prevalent among the upper-class society. In a moment of reflection, Nick remarks, "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they recklessly destroyed things and lives, and then retreated back into their money or their immense indifference" (Fitzgerald 3). This astute observation underscores the destructive consequences of wealth detached from moral responsibility and genuine human connections, intensifying the portrayal of the American Dream's corruption. It highlights the emptiness and superficiality that result from pursuing wealth and social status without considering the consequences, reinforcing the theme of the corrupted American

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F.S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby contains many people and events that triggered the death of the protagonist, Jay Gatsby. The death of Jay Gatsby is like a snowball because it keeps adding up and eventually it took Jay. However, Daisy was the biggest contributor to the snowball. On the other hand, George is the one who murdered Gatsby. Although George is the one who physically Gatsby, it was Daisy who could not choose between Gatsby and Tom, and Daisy who ran over Myrtle that led to Gatsby’s death.

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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

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Whether it be the old money Buchanans, relatively middle class Nick, or even the new money Gatsby himself the readers are exposed to the different lives each character leads. However it is Gatsby’s story that holds the reader throughout the novel, either the typical love story he leads or his rise to fame. Gatsby remains the American ideal through his ability to come to a new place with nothing and work his way to the top where he became wealthy and influential in his community. Gatsby came from a poor family out West before his came to the East and made his fun to fame. His father accurately depicts how much Gatsby had accomplished, “If he’d lived , he’d of been a great man.

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