As a species, we have always strived to attain our goals by any and all means possible. From our earliest knowledge of prehistory to our current understanding of how we have adapted to our surroundings as human beings, whether it be quenching our hunger or thirst or by getting a promotion to buying a new car, we have always been driven to achievement by the pursuit of a goal. The journey we take to pursue our goals has only become more diversified and complex, and the way in which we have documented our pursuits has evolved widely over time. From the first discovery of cave paintings that had depicted our ancestors hunting for their food all the way to our discovery of film and its impact of how we continue to tell of our pursuits. Our story as a species and the goals in which we have strived for are forever cemented into our history because of this discovery. Because of this medium, it opens the doors to our past history and the many ways it can be reinterpreted to serve as a guide to our future as a civilization. Most specifically is the history of the United States of America and what our founders had fought for. Our forefathers came from a country that was very different from our own philosophies today. It was a place where no man was considered equal, had been heavily structured by overruling social classes, and had repressed its peoples when they expressed their values and beliefs if they did not align with what was believed as acceptable by the ruling classes. In disagreeing with their superiors, and deciding that it was not what had been best for themselves and the many others who were also in concurrence, they founded a place that they had hoped would embody their dreams of equality and continue on to be a place where ev...
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...y, and in the ultimate attainment of that dream to Gatsby in the form of Daisy while being left for each of us to find our own interpretations. Though not everyone agrees that this is a sensible way of life or even a possible such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, it does not mean that it is not a dream worth dreaming. Through Luhrmann’s development of our modern day Gatsby through his use of mise-en-scène that brought to life the revival of what the American Dream truly is, being equality and prosperity for all who live by it.
Works Cited
Armstrong, Steven. “The Great Depression (1929-1939) for AP U.S. History.” Education.com. McGraw-Hill Professional, 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. "Chapter 9." The Great Gatsby. London: Penguin, 2013. 180. Print.
Rey, Lana Del. "Young and Beautiful." Rec. 23 Apr. 2013. Lana Del Rey. Rick Nowels, 2013. MP3.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers."The Great Depression." Teaching Eleanor Roosevelt, ed. by Allida Black, June Hopkins, et. al. (Hyde Park, New York: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, 2003). http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm [Accessed March 10, 2010].
Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald criticizes the American dream very elaborately and shows the idea of the American dream to be connected with the goal of achieving wealth. Fitzgerald does not praise wealth in the Great Gatsby but condemns it by drawing attention to the dreadful fall made by Gatsby. Fitzgerald finds the desire of wealth to be a corrupting impact on people. Throughout the novel, the characters with money contradict the idea of the American dream. They are portrayed to be very snobbish and unhappy people. The American dream in the novel is shown to be unachievable. For some time, the American dream has been focused upon material things that will gain people success.
The Great Depression America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine covers many topics of American history during the "Great Depression" through 1941. The topic that I have selected to compare to the text of American, Past and Present, written by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Frederickson and R. Hal Williams, is Herbert Hoover, the thirty-first president of the United States and America's president during the horrible "Great Depression".
Watkins, T.H. The Great Depression: America in the 1930's. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1993.
"Unit 11 The 1930s: The Great Depression." Welcome. New Jersey State Library, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .
The American Dream There is no set definition to be found anywhere of the true meaning of The American Dream. Any hope, dream, or goal pursued by anyone in the history of America is an American Dream. In modern times the accepted dream seems to be 2.5 children, a house with a white picket fence, and a perfect spouse. However, as it is shown throughout literature from the early days of America to contemporary times, the American Dream is not always so simple a concept. America was originally founded on the dream of freedom.
Watkins, T.H.. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993.
The American Dream is a powerful thing in the lives and hopes of its citizens, as shown in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. It is, and was, faith in individualism, expectation of progress, and mainly the belief in America as a land of opportunity. However, it also is differs from person to person. This plays a great part in Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby. His book took place in the 1920 's, which is also called the 'Roaring 20 's '. During this time, many Americans were freely spending. Moreover, the economy was doing extremely well and thus provided citizens with a sense of security and intense freedom. Many used that freedom and economic boom to become rich in business.
This represents the abstraction of the American Dream, area qualities of harder plan and appetite are shown. The atypical The Abundant Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald embodies abounding themes; about the a lot of cogent one relates to the bribery of the American dream. The American Dream is authentic as anyone starting low on the bread-and-butter or amusing level, and alive harder appear abundance and or abundance and fame. By accepting money, a car, a big house, nice clothes and a blessed ancestors symbolizes the American dream. This dream aswell represents that people, no amount who he or she is, can become acknowledged in activity by his or her own work. The admiration to strive for what one wants can be able if they plan harder enough. The
The freedom in self endowment has always been the fuel to the average American citizen and his drive toward success. In other words, Americans always strive to achieve the ever so revered American Dream. What is the American Dream? David Kamp describes the American Dream as "the idea rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."(Kamp). The dream lies deeply rooted in American society and the very mention of it lights a passionate fire in the hearts of American citizens everywhere. The idea behind the dream is that if an individual has sufficient willpower, he or she has a fair chance of achieving wealth as well as the freedom and happiness that come packaged with it. Essentially, it offers the opportunity of achieving spiritual and material fulfillment. It promises success at the cost of hard work and perseverance. Over time however, this idea of attaining success through hard work and perseverance has been skewed into one which exploits greed and carelessness and The Great Gatsby is an excellent affirmation of this. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald derides the gradual corruption of hard work and perseverance in the American Dream by utilizing the motif of driving and incorporating it with the the ideas of greed and carelessness.
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
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby”, is one of the few novels he wrote in 1925. The novel takes place during the 1920’s following the 1st World War. It is written about a young man named Nick, from the east he moved to the west to learn about the bond business. He ends up moving next to a mysterious man named Gatsby who ends up giving him the lesion of his life.
"Great Depression in the United States." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. CD-ROM. 2001 ed. Microsoft Corporation. 2001
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.
ideal is the way by which a man can feel a sense of involvement, a