Great Gatsby - Seeking the Unattainable Dream
What is the American Dream? America has evolved from an infant, struggling, nation to become a world power through its unprecedented economic growth. Driven by the tenets of independence, self reliance, and freedom, Americans have had the opportunity to pursue economic success. To many, this is the American Dream; to have freedom and the opportunity to pursue financial freedom. To others, such as Gatsby, Walter, and Jake, the American dream is happiness. They are driven by their dreams, seeking what they believe will make them happy. Gatsby and Jake seek happiness through love while Walter seeks happiness through money. The belief that bliss, utopia, and tranquility are within their grasps drives these characters. Yet the mere fact that their dreams are unattainable makes them flawed. Without dreams, Gatsby, Walter, and Jake lose their sense of purpose in life. Thus the pursuit of the American dream is a paradox. Achieving it is impossible, but without it, life will lose its purpose. Gatsby, Walter, and Jake are representations of the American dream because the love and happiness they seek are impossible to obtain.
The birth of the desire for the happiness and love of the American dream in Gatsby occurred when he met a man named Dan Cody. After his disgust with college, Gatsby sought a new life. He found the promise of his fame and fortune in Dan Cody's yacht. "To young Gatz, resting on his oars and looking up at the railed deck, that yacht represented all the beauty and glamour in the world" (Fitzgerald 106). As soon as he borrowed the row boat that transported him to the yacht, Gatsby was no longer James Gatz, he had became Gatsby, instilling in himself a naïve view on life that paved the road for his blind adherence to his later pursuit of Daisy.
With the row boat symbolizing his decision and the name change symbolizing the change of identity that Gatsby sought, the American dream was born within him. As he discarded his name and roots, Gatsby lost his grip on reality. "Gatsby conforms to an ideal of himself that transforms reality into possibility. This audacity and disregard for ties binding him to his own past is his apprenticeship for loving Daisy" (Hermanson 2) Consequently, Gatsby lived in a dream world that was dominated by illusions. For Gatsby, the importance of money had been planted, and later on it would grow, as Gatsby's disillusionment brings him to pursue Daisy in vain. Thus the desire for happiness and love inherent in the American dream was defined. Gatsby would spend his life pursuing Daisy, an impossible goal because of Gatsby's identity and his adherence to the creed that money can make up for time.
After Cody's death, Gatsby fell in love with Daisy. From then on Gatsby resolutely decides that he would spend the rest of his life proving that he is worthy of Daisy through financial success. Yet, even though Gatsby succeeded in proving himself worthy financially of Daisy, Gatsby couldn't be successful in his pursuit of Daisy. Gatsby believed that money could substitute for time: " `Can't repeat the past?...Why of course you can...I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before...She'll see'" (Fitzgerald 117) Although Gatsby could recreate the past environment with money, he couldn't recreate the past feelings that had been killed by time. For example, Gatsby threw lavish parties for the sole purpose of attracting Daisy. Furthermore, Gatsby carefully watched and analyzed Daisy's reactions during her tour of his house and her attendance of his party to modify his life according to Daisy's preferences. "'You make me feel uncivilized, Daisy,' he confesses (13), but this is precisely the function of the new national leisure class, whose vocation is to display a condition beyond such anxiety and gaucherie, to conduct lives of literally inimitable elegance levels: "gleaming like silver, safe and proud above the hot struggles of the poor"" (Fitter 9) Daisy was unaccustomed to the extravagance of the inimitable elegance levels of the national leisure class, the West Egg society. The truth of the matter was that Daisy couldn't fit into the West Egg society and into Gatsby's world, and Gatsby couldn't fit into the East Egg society or Daisy's world. This was evinced by Daisy's reaction and discomfort at one of Gatsby's parties, and Gatsby's apparent lack of class when "invited" for dinner.
As Gatsby's dream became shattered by reality, Gatsby lost his purpose in life.
"He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...." (Fitzgerald 162) Gatsby became a paragon for the American dream. Although he couldn't obtain his dreams, Gatsby needed them in order to have a purpose in life. Without his dream, Gatsby's life became filled with material without substance, and with roving ghosts that breathed evanescent dreams.
Just like how Gatsby believed obtaining Daisy could bring him happiness, Jake sought the happiness and love of the American dream through Brett. Through Jake's eyes, Brett represented the happiness and love in the American dream. But Brett, a person who hurt the one that loved her the most, was afraid of love. She spent most of her time with those she cared little for. And as a result of Jake's impotence, Jake could feel love, but he couldn't express it or consummate it. He was helplessly tortured as he saw his love have affairs with Mike, Cohn, and Pedro. Yet despite the torture and pain that Brett inflicts on Jake, Jake cannot dissipate his desire to be with Brett. Because Brett couldn't be satisfied with the empathy that Jake offered, and because Jake's impotence prevented him from giving Brett what she desired, Jake's pursuit of his dream was hopeless. Yet despite the impossibility of Jake's dream, Jake cannot give it up because Brett gave him a purpose in life.
In addition, Walter pursued an unobtainable dream much similar those dreams of Gatsby and Jake. Yet unlike Gatsby and Jake, Walter sought the happiness of the American dream through money. "You wouldn't understand yet, son, but your daddy's gonna make a transaction ... a business transaction that's going to change our lives ... Just tell me, what it is you want to be--and you'll be it.... You just name it, son ... and I hand you the world!" (Hansberry 94) Walter believed that the principal reason that the unhappiness in his life was his poverty. In doing so, Walter was disillusioned in his dreams. He believed that he could quadruple his investment, precariously oversimplifying the problems that he might meet. In addition, Walter didn't consider the fact that more money also brings more problems, and that a utopia of happiness cannot be created with just money. Although it is possible for Walter to obtain financial success, he cannot do so in his stubborn state of mind.
But despite the impossibility, Walter's desire of money gave him a purpose in life. However unlike Jake and Gatsby, Walter realized the disillusionment in his dream and altered it. While Jake and Gatsby never fully realized the impossibility of their dream, Walter did, as indicated by his maturing at the end of the play. Walter decided not sell to Mr. Linder the Younger's house at any price, indicating a change from prior goals and values.
Even today we can still see the desire for love and happiness of the American dream, and the impossibility of it. For instance, take a look at Mission San Jose High. Many of the students seek the happiness of the American dream through their education. In addition to the cut-throat competition environment, the students are deluded into taking AP classes, getting good grades, getting into a good college, and climbing the corporate ladder. "Restlessness, in this frenetically competitive success society" (Fitter 8). But the students need to take a step back and look at what they are pursuing. Will it truly make them happy?
Furthermore, the student's current oversimplified view on life renders their dream impossible. Some people can find fulfillment through an education at an Ivy League school and a high paying job, but life is not that simple. A good education and money do not necessarily lead to happiness. "But excited monetary pursuit, Fitzgerald shows, goes hand in hand with personal anxiety: under the strain of competition, social life has become a medium of unease" (Fitter 8). The students of Mission should follow Walter's example and realize that their dream is oversimplified and flawed. They need to mature and realize that there are many pitfalls and problems that are created by money, and that they can find happiness through other things besides money such as family, religion, and love.
Gatsby, Walter, and Jake are a representation of the American dream because the love and happiness they seek is impossible to obtain. Despite the impossibility, human beings need a dream in order to have a purpose in life. Without dreams life will become aimless, drying up like a raisin in the sun.
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