What Makes The American Dream Unattainable
At the peak of Gatsby’s life, when he reconnects with Daisy, the green light changes: “Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one.” (93) The green light is a real tangible object that represents Gatsby’s sheer desire for Daisy. Gatsby also uses his extreme wealth to lure daisy in the form of extravagant parties.
The Great Gatsby and The American Dream “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.” -Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby. This quote from the book, The Great Gatsby relates to the American Dream in a powerful way.
In a book about a tragic love story, one would not expect to find a deeper meaning behind the dangers of jealousy or peril of lust. However, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a deeper meaning beyond jealousy and love. In The Great Gatsby, the author uses an empathetic storyline as a symbol to unwittingly give a complex depiction of the nuisance that people create that not only destroy our world but our society and gives warning to what will occur if we continue the path of destruction. With this intention, the brilliant opinionated writer, expressed his opinion through symbols such as the characters he uses, the setting the story takes place in, and the objects he uses in the book.
The green light is a symbol of his dream because Gatsby was reaching for Daisy's green light, and Daisy is his dream.
The green light is used to represent multiple things. The first thing it represents is Gatsby’s desire, his dream which is Daisy. To win Daisy would help Gatsby accomplish his American dream. The first time the green light is seen in the novel is when Nick sees Gatsby for the first time, Fitzgerald describes it as, "he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling.
The American Dream is different for everyone, however, all will fight for it. They will struggle for their ideal of the American Dream. Fitzgerald shows this with all of his characters. He shows what all of them are willing to do to achieve their happiness, and what happens when it is taken away.
(Fitzgerald 98). One obvious literary device Fitzgerald uses to describe Nick’s view of how Gatsby is close to reaching his American dream by using a simile, comparing how stars are close to the moon as Gatsby is to Daisy’s dock. The green light on Daisy’s dock is a symbol representing Gatsby’s American dream, and how he is trying to reach and grab it once again. However, that American dream slipped right through his fingers in the past. Gatsby turned his life around so that he would have a chance at getting back
The green light in Gatsby 's case, is his hopes to charm Daisy and be with her forever. Nick had referred to it as being a hopeless future that is possible only in our dreams, which drifts further every day. People are coerced into thinking that they will have a better tomorrow, fighting for a better future but it is hopeless. They will continue their struggles and face all the hardships of reality, against everything life puts them through, only to end up close to where they started. No matter what they do to convince themselves that they can change for a better life, in the end, their pasts are going to decree what they do in life and there is no other way about it.
Resolution of the story The Great Gatsby starts at chapter 9, after the tragic incident has ended. The chapter opens where Nick has moved back to the west and is reflecting back to the day of the incident. It also unfolds Gatsby’s past through acquaintance with Gatsby’s father, Gatz. After Gatsby’s death, no one else wanted to arrange Gatsby’s funeral and as Nick was the only “real” friend, he decided to take care of the funeral. Many can be seen from chapter 9 that relates to the text such as the green light.
Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald continuously references a green light that Gatsby keeps on reaching for. The green light was significant by representing the theme of greed, being a symbol of Gatsby’s desire for Daisy, and serves as a motif for the American Dream. The color green in itself already illustrates the idea of greed and money. Gatsby already has everything anyone could dream for counting a house in West Egg, fame, and fortune, but still he is chasing after this light or in other words, chasing after the love of his life, Daisy. The light is a literary metaphor for Daisy since during the novel, once Gatsby reunites with Daisy the light begins to fade and reframes from reaching out for it.
The image of Gatsby reaching out towards the green light conveys the American Dream & the pursuit of wealth which resulted in Gatsby being blinded by his dangerous desire to win over Daisy through the things he owned and the reputation he had built for himself in the hopes of being
To the Buchanan’s, the only meaning of this light is to allow boats to see at night, but to Gatsby, the green light is there to symbolize his distance from Daisy and his jealousy of her husband and their old money (Fitzgerald 93). Gatsby is the only person who perceives the light in this way, and because of this it is clear that “his dream of Daisy and the life she represents...is an absurd and vulgar illusion” (Way). The delusions, however, go even further than that; Gatsby convinces himself for certain that Daisy will end her marriage with Tom Buchanan to be with him, and even persuades himself into believing that she never loved her husband, but has always loved only him
John A. Pidgeon says that, “The theme of Gatsby is the withering of the American Dream”(Pidgeon 179). The prime example of this is Gatsby, who “believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther” (Fitzgerald 180). The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s dream to be upper class with Daisy, but he can never reach it. Furthermore, it is frustrating for him that when he does attain wealth, Daisy is still out of his reach.
Fitzgerald focused on the shift in the American Dream - from being the idea of self-fulfillment, dignity and comfort that is achieved through hard work, to being equated with the pursuit of wealth and power, and identifying happiness with having money. The novel depicts the rise and fall of the concept and describes the causes of its decay. The downfall of the American Dream is most accurately shown through the main protagonist of the story – Jay Gatsby. To reiterate, the American Dream is the concept that anyone can achieve a better life and become self-fulfilled, if they put enough effort to it and make the most of their abilities.
Fitzgerald uses color to add mod and symbolize different things throughout the novel. The novel uses many different colors to provide imagery for the readers to understand and to live as if they are truly in the novel. The color blue represents Gatsby’s illusions his deeply romantic dreams of unreality. 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.”
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