What Is The American Dream Gattainable

The Deceiving Dream
The American Dream is a highly controversial topic as many think of it as a hoax or an unrealistic fantasy. The Dream itself refers to the fact that “every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative" (Google Dictionary). One may think that with hard work, determination and perseverance, anything is possible, but in a country like America where you need money in order to make money, this idea seems unrealistic. Things like university and college costs for the desired course makes this Dream seem out of reach as well. The Great Gatsby was written by F Scott. Fitzgerald is a great representation of how the American Dream has aged to the

Gatsby was born into a very poor family but worked his way up to success to gain a higher social status in the society. One may argue that because of his success, wealth and his estate, he has achieved the American Dream, but not all of his wealth was obtained by honest means. Gatsby was involved in bootlegging and other illegal activities as proven by "I found out what your ‘drug stores ' were. He turned to us and spoke rapidly. He and this Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here and in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter. That 's one of his little stunts. I picked him for a bootlegger the first time I saw him and I wasn 't far wrong." (Fitzgerald 141). This suggests that Gatsby was in fact involved in illegal activities as he never denied these accusations made by Tom Buchanan. The main reason Gatsby performed these illegal activities was so he could become rich and successful and impress Daisy. Moreover, the author is asserting that even with all the hard work and perseverance, one may not be able to achieve the Dream as Gatsby was a very honest man who was a fisher and eventually met Dan Cody and started to work with him, but he never really gained "exposure". When Dan Cody died, all of his inheritance money went to his wife even though Gatsby was promised a sum total of $25,000. He was so obsessed with wealth and luxury that he did, in

Daisy Buchanan is another example of a person who could not achieve the American Dream. Daisy was a very beautiful woman who was in love with Gatsby, but married Tom for his money as mentioned before. She married Tom in hopes to achieve the Dream and also because of pressure from her family. Tom used to be very caustic with Daisy, was cheating on her with Myrtle and also cheated on her with their maid when they were on their honeymoon as proven by “A week after I left Santa Barbara Tom ran into a wagon on the Ventura road one night and ripped a front wheel off his car. The girl who was with him got into the papers too, because her arm was broken – she was one of the chambermaids in the Santa Barbara Hotel.” (82). Daisy was basically Tom’s trophy that he was awarded for his success, so Daisy hypothetically achieved the Dream as she had everything but it was not really the right version of the Dream as happiness was lacking from her “perfect” life. Another point that proves why the American Dream is unattainable is the fact that Daisy had the chance to be with Gatsby and live her “perfect life” she found an easy way out and lost her chance of achieving the American Dream forever. This point is substantiated by “I called up Daisy half an hour after we found him, called her instinctively and without hesitation. But she and Tom had gone away early that afternoon, and taken baggage with them.” (172). Daisy never called Gatsby and when Nick called their residence to talk to her