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Why Is The American Dream Important In The Great Gatsby

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Great American Dreams The American dream can be viewed many different ways, it’s truly dependent on what in life one seeks to attain. For most it is a sense of financial security, perhaps happiness, and social importance through wealth. Throughout F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, many ideas are cast with the dominance of absolute wealth. Especially for Nick Carraway who is from the quiet Midwest with goals of fortune and prominence. However later into the story, Nick is delivered many valuable lessons. One of the more prominent lessons being that social status and wealth, truly can't buy everything. Nick caraway is more than a character, in my opinion he embellishes the dream of what many aspire to pursue in life. In the beginning, Nick leaves the quiet Midwest to seek a grand dream of wealth and social importance. However Nick was not brought up in need, he acknowledges his family is ‘prominent well-to-do people’ (ch:1). Nick expressed a longing for a location and career more relevant than the family business. Later giving depth to wanting …show more content…

Beginning when Daisy and Tom said to Nick “we heard you were engaged” (ch1). The response Nicks gives “its libel, im to poor” (ch:1) almost implies without wealth, he is not desired. Ties between wealth and relationships is something later viewed by Nick firsthand while with Tom as he meets Myrtle. The story casts George Wilson as the faithful loving husband to Myrtle, yet Myrtle seeks wealth and social importance over love, despite the abuse by Tom. During the party in the apartment Mrs.Mckee states to Nick “I almost made a mistake too” (ch:2), referring to almost marrying a man who was below her standard of wealth. Followed by the most prominent example, J.Gatsby, wealth brought people flocking to be in Gatsby's presence. This reinforces the idea to Nick that with wealth you are relevant in

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Nick still sees the class in him he believes he has that “natural decencies” that most classy rich folk have lost due to their sight of money. 3. “we shook hands and I started away. Just before I reached the hedge I remember something and turned around. “they’re a rotten crowd”, I shouted across the lawn “you’re worth the whole damn bunch put together”.”

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From the reading I know that Hobo Nick wants to leave his home and everything because of how he feels about life. In paragraph 4 it also says, “Nick had a comfortable life. He had a good income, a house, a new car, and a new motorcycle. He was moving forward with his life. By society’s standards he should have been happy, but he wasn’t”.

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Myrtle uses her position as Tom’s mistress to fund her expensive desires. Myrtle even takes on the persona of the wealthy when referring to a hotel maid, “These people! You have to keep after them all the time” (Fitzgerald 32). Myrtle sees herself as above her own class structure when around Tom Buchanan, do to his money. This view of the wealthy is completely upside down in Nickel and

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His constant attempt to find fulfillment through others reveals a bitter truth about him: he will never be fulfilled. Due to his indecisiveness, Nick’s life is constantly at an impasse. Originally from a “well-to-do” (6) family, his life would have been comfortable, a clear path set before

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Nick is extremely aware of this comparative righteousness – as he says “every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues” (59). Through both his own overly flattering view of himself and his circumstances, Nick comes to firmly believe in his own

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F.Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist and a short story writer. He is the author of the famous novel “ The Great Gatsby”, which is written in the 1920’s. The period of the 1920’s is well known as the roaring twenties due to lack of morales and the lowering of standards and expectations, people intended just to have a good time not caring about the outcomes of their and how they will effect their lives. Fitzgerald wants to prove in his novel the death of “The American Dream” it’s just a myth. The author of this novel shows the death of the american dream through the events surrounding Gatsby, and Daisy.

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The view of the American Dream is different for everyone. The Epic Journey, by James Truslow Adams, views the American Dream as a dream of attaining one’s fullest stature regardless of one’s social status. Similarly, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s American Dream relates to Adam’s dream but limited to materialistic wealth- a dream that seeks for motor cars, higher wages, and to impress the people of high status. Both Adams and Gatsby believe that everyone has an equal chance of achieving their dream. Adams says “The dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”.

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1007 Words | 5 Pages

He stopped caring about his strong abhor with the wealthy East Egg crowd because Gatsby was West Egg and new money. He did not hold the general arrogance that those of Old Money did. At this point, Nick is devout to Gatsby and determined to protect his legacy. The once seemingly impartial narrator has now seen Gatsby in a brighter light than he has

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It doesn’t matter how we are or what we have because we can always find a way to find a purpose to live. Like Nathaniel did, even though he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he kept on doing what he loved to do and always had a shopping cart “Little Walt Disney Concert Hall – Beethoven” with him, which was all he needed to be happy. He did not need a big house or new clothes to demonstrate how happy he was and the potential he had to play music with his imperfect instruments. Also, this novel teaches us that friendship is something that is hard to find, but when we find it, it does not matter where, when, and who the person is. Steve found Nathaniel as he was going back to work and he saw potential in him, which lead him to construct a relationship with Nathaniel that then became a good

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Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich once stated that "The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches – with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone – was once at the core of the American Dream. " Reich defined the American Dream as the ability for anyone, no matter the background, to achieve wealth with hard work. However, his use of the word "once" suggests that this definition may not be entirely true, or that the American Dream itself no longer holds true to this definition. Similarly, author F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the definition of the American Dream in his novel "The Great Gatsby." In his book, he employs the contrast between the East and West Eggs to warn that despite any sacrifices made in its pursuit,

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self .

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Just like Daisy, Myrtle chooses money over love. She cheats on her husband George with Tom. Myrtle was a woman from the lower class who desired to be a part of the higher class. Tom spoiled Myrtle and gave her the lifestyle she always wanted. She belittles her husband and talk bad about him because he is not at the top of the social ladder where Tom is.

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Getting out of the lower class becomes unattainable to him as he says, “I could see the road ahead of me. I was poor, and I was going to stay poor” (Bukowski, 2008, p.192). While he initially fantasised of becoming a stardom, he lowers his expectations and desires to be a dishwasher as he notes that he had no interest in anything and no way to escape (Bukowski, 2008, p.174). He is reduced to a shell of his dreamer self and believe to be a failure for the entire life. His thoughts of despair and desperations are seemed to be remedied by his escapism approach.

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660 Words | 3 Pages

This made him appreciate the things he had. Everything that Nick gained he soon gave away to someone who really needed it. This shows that when, and if you gain something it is never too late, to change who you really are as long as it affects you as a person. In another story called “Walk two Moons” This novel is about a girl named Sal who had just moved from Kentucky to Ohio. She had to bring everything, that belonged to her.

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Without even considering Nick’s insight, Gatsby immediately dismisses what Nick has to say. Again, Gatsby is making an attempt to separate himself from Nick on the basis that he belongs to an elite social class while Nick does not. In both of these quotes, Gatsby speaks to Nick in a snobby, patronizing way. Gatsby’s constant need to reaffirm his own position regarding affluence shows that he, himself, does not entirely believe in his high social standing.

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