Aspirations And Greatness In The Great Gatsby

Aspirations and Greatness; The Case of Gatsby

Dedication and tenacity are examples of traits that achieve a societal label for the amount of effort shown towards attaining goals and dreams. Through his work, The Great Gatsby, F.Scott Fitzgerald uses the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, to demonstrate the American Dream and greatness. Gatsby is a mysterious character, commonly mistaken as a mere criminal; but actually he is a victim of his perseverance and the American Dream. In spite of his criminal activities, the book portrays Gatsby as much more than a thug, an individual stopping at nothing to obtain his dream. While Jay Gatsby never fully achieves the American Dream, his marked determination towards it earns him the appropriate title, The Great

Gatsby made himself from nothing and dedicated his life to achieving his dreams, “If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life…. an extraordinary gift for hope…. I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again”(Fitzgerald,67). It is not what Gatsby did or would be willing to do to achieve his dreams, but the drive and hope he embodied in his fulfillment of those dreams that makes him great, “For Nick, Gatsby 's lies, his pretensions, and his corruption are "no matter"; nor is his failure to win back Daisy; what matters is the sustaining hope and belief in the value of striving for a "wondrous" object, not its inevitable disappearance and meaninglessness”(Will). The fire that drives Gatsby defines him, an individual who would sacrifice his life for his dreams. “Jay Gatsby is the embodiment of the American Dream. He is shown to us with an insecure grasp of social and human values, a lack of cultural intelligence and self-knowledge, a blindness to or unconcern for the pitfalls that surround him”(Pidgeon). The greatest foe of the story is not George Wilson, who kills him, but Gatsby’s own persistence and desire to be accepted as something he will never be,“Old Money”. Gatsby works so hard expecting to be accepted by the Old Money social wealthy class, not knowing due to “lack of cultural intelligence” that it can never be achieved. The greatest hope Gatsby has is that over the five years it took him to build his materialistic legacy is that he could simply “repeat the past” with Daisy. Gatsby is shown throughout the novel of having overwhelming pertinacity and hope, this earns him the title and defines what makes him