Everyone in America has their own American Dream. These dreams may vary from having a family or becoming a rich business person. The American dream was strongest in our country during the start of the 1920's. America was just beginning to triumph over poverty. People were becoming more successful as a country. Carrie Latet once said, "May I never wake up from the American dream." Along with Carrie, this was the wish of the vast majority of America. In 1929, the Great Depression hit and many Americans did have to wake up from their dream of success.
The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerlad, took place during the Roaring Twenties. The main character of this novel was a man named Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald used Gatsby's life as a microcosm of America during the 1920's. Like most of America,
Gatsby had a dream. His dream was to become a part of the wealthy class of society. This dream that Gatsby had was realistic. Whenever a person dreams a dream, it can always be done if they go about it the correct way. However, Gatsby did not go about his dream the right way. He did become wealthy, but that made him lonely. Because of his wealth, he was not able to tell who his true friends were. People only pretended to be Gatsby's friend so that they would get invited to his extravagant parties. On the outside, it appears that Gatsby had accomplished his dream. If you look closer, you will realize that he did not truly accomplish his dream. If a person accomplishes their dream, but they are not happy with it, I don't think that counts as fulfilling a dream.
Growing up Gatsby was poor. Since he was a child, he would dream of being a member of the wealthy class. Young Gatsby swore to himself that someday he would be rich. S...
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...there was an explosion of this great country’s morale in the Roaring Twenties.
Geraldine Ferraro’s statement, “If you take advantage of everything America has to offer, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish,” is a vague but applicable description of Gatsby’s dream. He wanted to take advantage of everything there was in this great country, because he had been denied it his entire life. Americans wanted just the same. Prior to the end of World War one it was all for one and one for all, but during the 1920’s it seemed to be all for me and none for you. We all have our own dreams, whether they be to be rich, famous, own a business or to have a family, Gatsby had his dreams and we have ours. Sometimes, when we want something so badly we forget who we are and the morals and values we were raised upon. This happened to the American people in the 1920’s and to Jay Gatsby.
When reading The Great Gatsby, the audience must wonder at F. Scott Fitzgerald’s purpose for writing one of America’s most influential novels. Fitzgerald’s life drew remarkable similarities to that of Jay Gatsby. They both sacrificed and succeeded in the name of love, but were ultimately disappointed.
American clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger one said “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it 's possible to achieve the American dream.” This idea of the “American dream” has been around since the founding and had become a prominent part of American culture and identity. This same idea is what the raved about novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is based around. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist pursues this American dream through his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan and his need to be insanely rich. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to symbolize the American dream, and uses his rags to riches journey to convey to his readers that the American dream is an extremely dangerous thing to pursue and ultimately impossible
The book starts off with the narrator Nick Carraway. He is from Minnesota and in 1992 he moves to NYC in the summer. He starts by giving us advices that his father told him about not to make fun of people what so ever. Daisy Buchanan is Nick’s cousin; she is married to Tom Buchanan. Jordan Baker is Daisy’s close friend. Daisy Baker falls in love with Nick, and he loves her back. He goes to NYC to study about the bond business.
The Great Gatsby,a novel by F,Scott Fitzgerald,is about the American Dream,and the downfall of the people who try to reach it.The American Dream means something different to different people,but in The Great Gatsby,for Jay Gatsby,the subject of the book,the dream is that through acquiring wealth and power,one can also gain happiness.To reach his idea of what happiness is,Gatsby must go back in time and relive an old dream.To do this,he believes,he must first have wealth and power.
The early 1920’s were a time when the economy began to soar, and the notion of the American dream began to take effect. The American Dream is the idea that anyone can come from any background and no matter who they are, if they work hard and stay true to themselves, they can achieve their dreams. The Great Gatsby, set in the early twenties, displays that socio-economic power is obtained through inheritance, forming an aristocracy of power and wealth. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, demonstrates how geography and location dictate where the social-class level of an individual exists permanently in society. Furthermore, illusion and affectation portrayed in the novel to conceive the image of power and wealth in a way for someone to attempt to become something they are not, this goes against the idea of the American Dream. Even when the American Dream seems obtainable it is restricted by unruling variables. Therefore, the American Dream is simply, just a dream.
Gatsby’s goal of obtaining value, love and happiness in life from materialistic items is seen as naïve and fallacious for his ‘dream’ has become corrupted and influenced by the wealth of society and the cynical outlooks of those within his circle
Hectic and eventful as it was but it was very empty. He lived in the measure of mundane things, forgetting the fact that to live a true rich life one must fell it with meaningful experiences and people. Throughout the story examples reoccur in a disturbing pattern entailing an empty and vacant life that Gatsby lived. First, The girl who he fell in love with was very beautiful, and also very shallow. Just like any other expensive antique he owned, she represented to him status, money, beauty and nothing more. Secondly, He also lied about his heritage and family, to show the rest of the world he was inherently rich. But he did not enjoy the fact that he gained all of his money on his own. Because when we take in respect the opinion of the people he is trying to impress - the higher class- It's far more prestigious and also unsuspicious to tell people that he inherited all of his wealth instead of telling the truth. Forgetting the fact that the ideology that he is so submerged in which is capitalism encourages hard work in the result of gaining high profit. But this where the new meaning of the american dream comes in, instead of focusing on the true value of hard work and appreciating it, he prefers that he is percieved as someone who was born with a silver spoon. Finally, Jay Gatsby did not get an education in Oxford University but lied about going there just to get associated with a prestigious school like Oxford University , because thats what mattered the image of the Great Gatsby. I believe that it didn't really matter to him wether if he did get any sort of education, as long as it made him wealthy or at least appear like one. Every weekend he filled his house with numerous people , people from all paths of life. And did not get personal with not even one person of that crowd. Even Daisy the love of his life did not know him. Gatsby was an isolated man, materialism
The 1920’s was a time of great change to both the country lived in as well as the goals and ambitions that were sought after by the average person. During this time, priorities shifted from family and religion to success and spontaneous living. The American dream, itself, changed into a self centered and ongoing personal goal that was the leading priority in most people’s lives. This new age of carelessness and naivety encompasses much of what this earlier period is remembered for. In addition, this revolution transformed many of the great writers and authors of the time as well as their various works. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, perfectly symbolizes many emergent trends of the 1920’s. More importantly the character of Jay Gatsby is depicted as a man amongst his American dream and the trials he faces in the pursuit of its complete achievement. His drive for acquiring the girl of his dreams, Daisy Buchanan, through gaining status and wealth shows many aspects of the authors view on the American dream. Through this, one can hope to disassemble the complex picture that is Fitzgerald’s view of this through the novel. Fitzgerald believes, through his experiences during the 1920’s, that only fractions of the American Dream are attainable, and he demonstrates this through three distinct images in The Great Gastby.
In the beginning, Gatsby was a poor army boy who fell in love with a rich girl named Daisy. Knowing from their different circumstances, he could not marry her. So Gatsby left to accumulate a lot of money. Daisy, not being able to wait for Gatsby, marries a rich man named Tom. Tom believes that it is okay for a man to be unfaithful but it is not okay for the woman to be. This caused a lot of conflict in their marriage and caused Daisy to be very unhappy. Gatsby’s dream is to be with Daisy, and since he has accumulated a lot of money, he had his mind set on getting her back. Throughout the novel, Gatsby shows his need to attain The American Dream of love and shows his determination to achieve it. You can tell that Gatsby has a clear vision of what he wants when Nick says, “..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. Involuntarily I gla...
Up until now, the term American Dream is still a popular concept on how Americans or people who come to America should live their lives and in a way it becomes a kind of life goal. However, the definitions of the term itself is somehow absurd and everyone has their own definition of it. The historian James Tuslow defines American Dream as written in his book titled “The Epic of America” in 1931 as “...dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” The root of the term American Dream is actually can be traced from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 which stated “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
Gatsby’s poor childhood greatly influenced his admirable dream to want a better life for himself. Growing up, Gatsby was very poor. “His parents were shiftless unsuccessful farm people-his imagination never really accepted them as his parents at all.” (pg. 98) Growing up, he hated his parents for the fact that they were poor as well as their lifestyle. When he was a teenager, he left his home to pursue a more prosperous life. After Gatsby left, he saw a yacht that belonged to a wealthy man, Dan Cody. This represented the rich lifestyle that he longed for. His ambitions to be a part of the upper class grew. Gatsby worked on the yacht for Dan Cody until Cody died. After this period of time, he began to act “rich” and took on this new persona. Gatsby had to completely change who he was. He even changed his name. The name he was born with was James Gatz, When Daisy and Gatsby met, they fell in love. She was from a very wealthy family. Gatsby knew that obtaining her would prove that he had embraced the upper class lifestyle. They couldn’t marry because he was not from a well-known family. Gatsby though...
...cut the pages” (Fitzgerald 46). This shows that Gatsby’s life was only to please his long lost love, Daisy, to bring her back to him. What Gatsby deosnt realise is she is long gone, She was happily married and with a daughter. Gatsby’s dream was no longer destined to come true Nick says “He did not know that it his dream, life with Daisy was already behind him” (Fitzgerald 171). “the American myth of belonging through wealth” (Giltrow, Janet, and David Stouck) Gatsby too belived in the American myth, he tried to achieve his dream with a mask of wealth on himself. Both Macbeth and Gatsby were seeking dreams beyond their abilities which only resulted in more greed and a lustful desire to achieve what they wanted rather than, true hard work with determination.
Starting at a young age Gatsby strives to become someone of wealth and power, leading him to create a façade of success built by lies in order to reach his unrealistic dream. The way Gatsby’s perceives himself is made clear as Nick explains: “The truth was Jay Gatsby of West Egg, Long Island, sprang his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God… he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty” (Fitzgerald 98). From the beginning Gatsby puts himself beside God, believing he is capable of achieving the impossible and being what he sees as great. Gatsby blinds himself of reality by idolizing this valueless way of life, ultimately guiding him to a corrupt lifestyle. While driving, Nick observes Gatsby curiously: “He hurried the phrase ‘educated at Oxford,’ or swallowed it, or choked on it, as though it had bothered him before. And with this doubt, his whole statement fell to pieces…” (Fitzgerald 65). To fulfill his aspirations Gatsby desires to be seen an admirable and affluent man in society wh...
Gatsby is a dreamer, he dreams that one day he and Daisy will be able to be together once again. To achieve this dream Gatsby has made himself a rich man. He knows that in order to win Daisy back he must be wealthy and of high social stature. Gatsby becomes rich, has a beautiful mansion, nice things, things like shirts “They’re such beautiful shirts. . . it makes me sad because I’ve never seen such-such beautiful clothes” (pg.98).Gatsby believes his dream will come true because of all the money and nice things he has. The way that Gatsby becomes rich is in a way the demise of his dream. Gatsby becomes wealthy by participating in organized crime, including distributing illegal alcohol and trading in stolen securities. Daisy eventually learns about this and it is one of the reasons she will never again be with Gatsby. The other reason is Daisy a...
The Great Gatsby is an example of a few certain people who had dreams to become wealthy and have a better life which is what the American dream is all about.