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What Is The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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“The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it’s possible to achieve the American Dream.” - Tommy Hilfiger. In the book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the major theme of the book is the downfall of the American Dream. People believe America is the country with the best chance to succeed. That is no longer the case, people believe what they desire most is success; however, people desire more, love. In the beginning of “The Great Gatsby”, the main character feels the need for success rather than to have love. Today it is common among young people to want money more than anything, but this concept is not original “Daisy married Tom, and when Gatsby returned to the states, he decided to devote his life to becoming rich” (Heather 2). Gatsby gets back to America to find out his love interest got married. He is not accepting of this; however, continues on with his life and makes it his mission to get as rich as possible. Gatsby sees his future as being successful. Fitzgerald develops this idea with “the green light” which represents his hopes for the future. …show more content…

He lives a crazy independent lifestyle, but desires more “Gatsby is a rich mega-rich, and throws crazy parties every weekend… Gatsby holds a dark secret about his past and how he became so great, a deep lust that will eventually lead to his demise” (The Pink Elephant 2). After Gatsby Achieved success, he needed more. He had achieved the American Dream, but in the end died. The theme of the story is shifting from success to love. Gatsby is beginning to have regret, and be sentimental “He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God” (Fitzgerald 110). Gatsby is trying his best to focus on love to truly get the happiness he

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He is disillusioned by the hustle and bustle of the city and hopes to find what he’s missing in life. The reason he becomes so invested in Gatsby’s quest for love is that he’s looking for the same thing as him, only in a different way. He later realizes the superficiality of his new lifestyle and feels alienated from his wealthier counterparts. This can be seen when he says, "Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction—Gatsby who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn." (Fitzgerald

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The temptation of wealth and love drives him to chase unrealistic and misguided dreams: “He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” (Fitzgerald 180). The more Gatsby tries to recapture his past, the further he is taken away from what is real. Throughout The Great Gatsby he moves further into this dreamland he has created of his perfect life with Daisy, trying to escape the social class he was born to that once separated them. There is also irony in that Gatsby continuously tries to distance himself from his past and the lower class lifestyle, yet he spends the entirety of his life trying to rewrite his past with Daisy until he sees that she isn’t someone truly worth his love.

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Gatsby American Dream Quotes

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“Gatsby’s dream of reviving the love he once shared with Daisy Fay, (Eble 88) The only way he thought he could achieve this dream was through money. If he was respected and high up in society Daisy would think the same as everyone else. While Gatsby spent his whole life

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As Gatsby came back to New York and achieved what he believed was his dream through bootlegging and gangs, he rose above the other people in society. His rise became an obsession in his life and took over his mind, actions, and beliefs. His obsession with wealth was aimed only to win Daisy’s affection (“The Great Gatsby”). This contributes to Gatsby’s fall, after losing Daisy to Tom. Gatsby spent the rest of his short life wanting to live up to Daisy’s wealth and status when he ultimately could not.

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The desire for love and companionship has the ability to help shape one’s sense of self, but Gatsby’s drive to fulfill that longing in Daisy became his sole focus in life and distracted him from reality. Instead of enhancing his true character, he completely lost his identity in an attempt to pursue Daisy, changing his entire life when he left “James Gatz” behind and put on the persona of Jay Gatsby. Refusing to accept his past, he lost his identity, and his sense of self was reduced to a “career” trying to be someone else (Fitzgerald 98). He spent his whole life trying to acquire money simply to fulfill the desire for Daisy’s love, since he knew “he had no real right to touch her hand” as a “penniless young man without a past” (Fitzgerald 149). Gatsby’s aspiration for love took over everything he did, as the text notes he “took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously” to try to become wealthy and satisfy his desire for love (Fitzgerald 149).

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