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The Toxic American Dream In The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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The Toxic American Dream of The Great Gatsby The novel, The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, focuses on the American Dream. In the novel Gatsby, Daisy, and Myrtle strive for their idea of the American Dream. However, the dream they sought betrays them. In Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the American Dream, and its pursuit, poisons the characters and causes their downfall. Myrtle, trapped with a husband she loathes in The Valley of Ashes, dreams of a wealthy life. This results in her affair with Tom, Daisy’s husband, and her obsession with him. Myrtle longs for the life Daisy has, and her jealousy grows throughout the novel. Her American Dream is what she perceives Daisy’s life as. Toward the climax of The Great Gatsby, Myrtle’s …show more content…

Daisy dreams of a surplus of wealth where she doesn’t have to worry or do anything. This dream makes her leave Gatsby as, “she wanted her life shaped now, immediately — and the decision must be made by some force,” (Fitzgerald 151). Daisy’s obsession with the perfect life free from troubles and woes, lead her to a turbulent life full of troubles and woes. Her unfaithful husband, Tom, constantly mistreats her, slowly poisoning her mind, causing her to make an unfixable mistake and kill Myrtle. Her mistake was life caused by years of being willingly blind to Tom’s actions, allowing them to be forgiven and forgotten for the sake of the American Dream. In an article discussing the roles of the characters in The Great Gatsby, Hermanson states, "Daisy is one who lives for the moment, and for whom glimpses of tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that are terrifying lapses of a willful blindness to such matters" (Hermanson). In Daisy's desperate pursuit of the American Dream, she chooses to be blind to the future trouble it will cause her. When Daisy married Tom she knew it would only bring her misery, but she turned a blind eye to it. However, she bottled up everything, allowing it to wear her down and slowly drive her insane, showing how achieving the American Dream doesn’t guarantee happiness. In Samuel’s article, he argues, "Daisy...lack the inner resources to enjoy what their wealth can give them. They show the peculiar folly of the American dream" (Samuels). Daisy lacks what is needed to enjoy the "benefits" of the American Dream, showing the foolishness of it. Daisy always strives for more, never being satisfied with what her dream has given her. This lack of satisfaction and internal happiness keeps her from enjoying the American Dream. Daisy is in an unhappy marriage and no amount of wealth changes that. Without internal happiness, Daisy attempts to

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