American Dream in The Great Gatsby and Childish Gambino's This Is America Essay Example

‘The nature of the American Dream is about human aspirations and possibilities for self-actualisation.' How do the texts we have studied reflect and challenge this dominant narrative that shapes the American psyche? In your response, demonstrate your understanding of Scott Fitzgerald's Modernist novella 'The Great Gatsby' and Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' (and Elia Kazan's Expressionist film 'A Streetcar Named Desire' is optional).

Literature, as products of their respective contexts, have the ability to reflect and challenge contextual values highlighting the aspirations and uncertainties of their society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modernist novella ‘The Great Gatsby’(1925) and Childish Gambino’s contemporary music video ‘This Is America’ (2019) are two complementing narratives that reflect different approaches to the overall futility of the American Dream. Both texts offer compelling critiques of their society through subversions of central values and social class issues.

The traditional ideals of human aspirations and possibilities for self-actualisation are challenged in ‘The Great Gatsby’ where society thrives around consumerism as a result of post-WW1 materialistic excess. The Roaring Twenties, driven by the desire for pleasure and wealth, reflects the society’s inability to appreciate idealistic love as social class is seen to determine true happiness. Fitzgerald embodies the pursuit of happiness and human aspirations as an idea of the American Dream through Gatsby’s persistence in obtaining Daisy. However, his lack of ‘respectable’ connections refrains him from attaining this ‘dream’.FSF creates ambiguity around the idea of Daisy overruling actual love for Daisy through the falling metaphor, “There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams - not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. It had gone beyond her, beyond everything”. Gatsby’s long-anticipated reunion with Daisy is implied as ultimately disappointing as he is left “standing there in the moonlight watching over nothing”. The low modality suggests the inability of love to overrule value of the social hierarchy. Gatsby’s longing for the past and his naivety in what wealth and status will bring him ensures that the American Dream will never be achievable for him. Gatsby’s inner conflict is implied when Nick describes that “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy”. Suggesting that Gatsby’s investment in his plan does not come from solely loving Daisy in the present time, but in how he remembers Daisy and his younger self. This naivety in the characterisation of Gatsby challenges the American Dream and reflects its failure to offer fulfillment as a result of the superficial societal values of the 1920s.

The dominant narrative of the American Dream is discussed in both ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘This Is America’, in which every American has an equal opportunity where prosperity and success are achievable through hard work and ambition. Gambino’s music video explores the confronting racial discrimination and its long lasting existence, predominantly in American society. The failure of the American Dream to provide for all Americans is depicted through the shocking imagery and lyrics presented that conveys a restrictive society in which African Americans are unable to enjoy the same freedoms as non-African Americans as a result of structural racism. The historical allusion through the stance of ‘Jim Crow’, a racist caricature, Gambino executes the man, alongside the contrasting music of South African choral and trap abruptly confronts the audience and reflects the racism that has been prevalent for hundreds of years. Juxtaposition of the foreground and the cognitive dissonance of the background where Gambino is dancing with the school children amid the violence links to hopes and aspirations of the American Dream undercut by racially motivated violence. Through this, Gambino challenges the notion of the American Dream being a means of success for all Americans when in reality, racial barriers make these dreams unachievable and unrealistic. 

The nature of the American Dream is built upon the aspirations of self-actualisation and individualism however Fitzgerald reflects the Roaring Twenties as being a time of unprecedented prosperity and material access. The fragmented non-linear narrative allows the reader to gain insight into Gatsby’s past and understand the promised life of the American Dream, regardless of the circumstances of one’s birth, is unachievable in a society of selfish materialist culture. The contrasting setting of ‘East  Egg’ and ‘The Valley of Ashes’ fails to reflect the ideals of the American Dream as social status divides people that come from ‘old money’ and ‘new money’. The bleak description of ‘The Valley of Ashes’ the wasteland, “of ash-grey men, who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” accentuates its poverty and highlights the obvious differences between the two settings  through its poetic dissonance. Daisy Buchanan symbolises the upper class in this society through her careless and hollow personality, her odd bleakness apparent when she says, “the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool”. Myrtle Wilson symbolises the lower class in this society through her aspirations for success and her perceivance of Tom as a means to escape poverty. Her desire to buy a puppy without considering the underlying responsibilities reflects her dual lifestyle when she is with Tom. This implies that she is playing this domestic role to escape her reality but ironically cannot care for the dog reflecting a bleak appreciation for materialism. The description of her apartment filled with “furniture entirely too large for it’ makes a comment on Myrtle’s aspirations and expectations being too large for her circumstance and foreshadows her tragic death alongside the motif of foul dust “...her life violently extinguished, knelt in the road and mingled her thick, dark blood with the dust”. The established contrast between Tom’s women is disrupted through the discovery that they are both bound by patriarchy, neither having autonomy or independence. Through the distinctive separation of the social classes, Fitzgerald reveals the unrealistic notion of the American Dream proving a lack of equal opportunity for all Americans. 

Ideals of the American Dream are rooted in the Declaration of Independence, claiming that “all men are created equal” with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Fitzgerald discusses the unattainable American Dream as a result of social class whereas Gambino addresses racial inequalities. Repetition of “this is America” and “don’t catch you slipping up” reflects the lack of freedom and opportunity as African Americans are presented with barriers and expectations set by white Americans. The biblical allusion of a man riding a pale white horse as ‘death’ while being followed by hell which represents the police, makes a comment on police brutality. According to scripture, the horseman signifies the oncoming destruction and downfall. The historical allusion of Gambino gunning down the enthusiastic Choir references the 2015 Charleston shooting where a white supremacist murdered nine  African Americans in a church. Through this, Gambino draws attention to racial violence against African Americans and their inability to practice the same freedoms as the American Dream states.

‘This Is America’ reveals the barriers that prevent African Americans from seeking self-actualisation, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness and highlights the failure of the American Dream in offering equal opportunities to all  Americans.  

As the realities and illusions of happiness and fulfillment are explored, both texts comparatively challenge the veracity of the narrative of the American Dream and its construction within their contexts. Fitzgerald condemns the American dream, expressing that such aspirations cannot be achieved in a materialistic society concerned with superficial values whereas Gambino addresses the inability of the American Dream to exist in a racially segregated violent society.