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The Negative Side Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and that if a person doesn’t compromise they may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes present. The American Dream that most people in this book hope to have involves wealth, status, a fun social life, and someone to lust after. It is the life they all strive to have until they obtain it and see its meaningless composure. The era of decayed social and moral values, evident in its overall cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The character Jay Gatsby is …show more content…

Just as the American Dream- the pursuit of happiness- has degenerated into a quest for more wealth, Gatsby’s powerful dream of happiness with Daisy has become the motivation for lavish excess and criminal activities. He used his dream to escape from his past, but then was stuck on hold for when he lost Daisy the only part of the dream he really cared for. Gatsby made a dream just for Daisy so she could be apart of his, but saw the meaningless of it when she didn’t choose him in the end. "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning— So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (Pg. 182). Dreams tie to places or people previously in everyone’s lives, or tirelessly enduring optimism that blinds and obscures the truth. However, Gatsby shows that although these qualities may hold people back, it is one’s past that shapes their future. Through the love, heartbreak, money, fame, liquor, and revelry, Gatsby keeps hope for his future with Daisy. It is the disconnect between dreams and reality that causes the wishes of the past to swell up like waves on the bay and threaten to capsize the vessel of hope bearing the emblem of

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