The Great Gatsby American Dream Essay Example

📌Category: American dream, Books, Philosophy, The Great Gatsby
📌Words: 847
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 24 June 2022

The author of The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald uses positives and negatives from Gatsby’s life to portray to the reader the reality of the American dream. The American dream is not all glory and glamor but downfall and demise. Gatsby is an example of someone who i trying to achieve the American dream to its fullest.

The American dream is the process of coming from known wealth to having success and generating wealth. Some people are more fortunate than others and are born into great wealth and do not have to work hard to succeed but for most people this is not the case. Majority of people are not born wealthy and many are born in poverty so the American dream is something that people chase but very few accomplish it. In the novel  the author uses  the valley of ashes as a symbol for the people that do not achieve the American dream. This literary criticism backs this up F.S Fitzgerald describes the people of the valley of ashes as people who work there their entire lives and never make it out. This goes against the principle idea of The American Dream by implying that people who came from a low socioeconomic status are unable to move their way up and are stuck with their current status despite their best efforts to move up in the world.

Gatsby was able to achieve great wealth through hard work. He did not achieve his wealth honestly; he did this illegally but was still  able to achieve part of the American dream. For example the reader becomes aware of how Gatsby made his money from this passage in the novel, “ I found out what your drug stores were. He turned to us and spoke rapidly. He and Wolfsheim bought up a lot of side-street drug stores here in Chicago and sold grain alcohol over the counter” (133). Another positive from Gatsby chasing wealth in the American Dream is he was able to buy a huge mansion with a lot of land as described in this quote.  “ The lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run.”(6)

Gatsby did not do the right thing when parts of his business went downhill as seen in this quote, “ And you left him in the lurch, didn’t you? You let him go to jail for a month in New Jersey.” (134). Another negative of the American dream is Gatsby was never truly happy he always was chasing something or someone in this case Daisy. He could never be happy until she was with him again. Before Gatsby had gone off to war he was in love with Daisy. The problem was he was going to war and was not wealthy so at the time  wealth mattered in a marriage so Daisy found someone else but she always loved Gatsby. This scene is Gatsby reuniting with Daisy “Daisy’s face was smeared with tears, and when I came in she jumped and began wiping at it with her hand”(89) This scene shows Daisy still loves Gatsby but she is still loyal to Tom. Another negative in Gatsby’s chase of the American dream is he felt he had to change himself in order to fit in with the society of having money as seen in this criticism. “Gatsby refashions himself by changing his name from the ethnic-sounding James Gatz to JayGatsby, claiming he is Oxford-educated, speaking in a staged British accent, and addressing everyone as "old sport."

Gatsby couldn’t get the idea of Daisy out of his head; it seemed to drive him crazy. Gatsby was so fixated on Daisy he told Tom who was Daisy’s husband that she didn’t love him anymore. “Your wife doesn’t love you “ said Gatsby she’s never loved you. She loves me.”(130) After this Gatsby storms out with Daisy and they drive home on the way while Daisy is driving she runs over Myrtle, the woman Tom is having an affair with. They do not even stop, they just keep driving. Later on when Tom finds out Daisy killed Myrtle he tells Wilson what happened, Myrtle’s husband. He tells her that Gatsby killed Myrtle. Wilson then goes on to try and find Gatsby and kill him “ By half past two he was in West Egg, where he asked some one the way to Gatsby’s house. So by that time he knew Gatsby’s name”(160) This quote led to Gatsby’s inevitable death from chasing the American dream to the fullest. Gatsby got caught up in the American dream; he didn't realize everything could be taken from him at once. This quote from a literary criticism explains what Gatsby’s death meant “Gatsby’s death at the end of the novel is meant to portray the futile nature of the pursuit the American Dream possesses.”

Gatsby’s journey of life in his chase for the American dream went through positives and negatives. He generated tons of wealth and was able to live a flashy lifestyle. He was not able to achieve his main goal of being with Daisy again. The American dream is not achievable in its full entity; there are parts of glory and parts of demise which ultimately led to Gatsby’s death.

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