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Truth About The American Dream In 'The Great Gatsby'

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Tyra Ngoc Nguyen AP Lit Mrs. Paff 3/18/23 The Truth About The American Dream In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he illustrates Jay Gatsby’s American Dream of becoming wealthy to find happiness. Gatsby comes from a poor family who failed as farmers. He fantasizes about a better future and is driven to turn himself into a perfect man to erase his past and failures. Through his pursuit of a better life, he falls in love with Daisy, who is of a higher class, knowing she is someone he can not have. Losing Daisy’s love was the spark that caused Gatsby’s American dream to shift into focusing more on Daisy and how to impress her. Fitzgerald presents the American Dream as empty and corrupted, bringing a sobering reminder …show more content…

Even with Gastby’s lavish lifestyle, he had no one by his side in the end. His once full house now has “an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere, and the rooms were musty, as though they hadnot been aired for many days….” (147). Showing how even though Gatsby surrounded himself with people, no one was there to know him personally but there to immerse in Gatsby’s wealth. Therefore, exposing the moral corruption of the American dream. Gatsby’s death is disregarded because his passing means the loss of his wealth, making him less important. As Gatsby's dream was based on his past desires, Nick Carraway, the novel's narrator, concludes that we must “ … beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaelessly into the past '' (180). This illustrates how the American dream is about difficulties and obstacles. Highlighting that to achieve anything and move on in life, the past should be left in the past, ultimately the obstacle to the American dream. Nick also expresses how “Gatsby believed in the green light” (180). At the beginning of the novel, the image of the green light is also portrayed, “-he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a cutious way [...] Involuntarily I glanced searwar- and distinguished nothing except a single green light[...]” (20-21). The green light illustrates how Gatsby dreamed of something he could not have. It is clear that Dasiy ultimately would not end up with Gatsby, for she valued the stability of money and status. For her, going back to her husband would provide these needs. Therefore, the green light was Gatsby’s illusion of the American dream. Gatsby's death speaks to the human condition of striving for something better but ultimately being unable to escape the weight of the

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