Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald analyses the high class of the 1920s and reveals that the American Dream has been distorted from a pure ideal of security into a convoluted scheme of materialistic power. Fitzgerald incorporates the aspects of both the Òold dreamÓ & the Ònew dreamÓ in his tragic story to depicts how the inflexible dream has been corrupted and lost forever. Fitzgerald illustrates in The Great Gatsby that the qualities of the original dream are perseverance and hope. The most glorified of these characteristics is that of success against all odd. The ethic of hard work can be found in the life of the young James Gatz.
The novel “The Great Gatsby” reveals the reader the failure of the American dream values and the consequences when living that kind of life. The reader can see that the money and wealth are the synonyms of the happiness in this novel. However, it is a veracious fact that people cannot buy happiness for money. James Gatz, who made himself in pursuit of stability in wealth, is the example of a crash of the American dream canons. Gatsby, this name he took to conquer the world, had “something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life” (Fitzgerald 2).
Sinclair uses the struggles of a family of working class Lithuanian immigrants to expose the hypocrisy of the American Dream and early American capitalism. Comparing the stark differences between the Epic of America by Adams and The Jungle by Sinclair, we fine that there is a great difference between the portrayals of the American Dream. Upton Sinclair uses the evils of capitalism as the main theme of The Jungle. He uses this piece of work to show how socialism can solve the unjust, brutal, and violent problems caused by capitalism. Socialism is introduced as benefiting everyone whereas capitalism destroys the many to the benefit of the few.
In fact, this notion is “the prospect born out of the Declaration of Independence: the freedom of all men to pursue their dreams and goals in life with the only strings attached is that they are willing to work for it” (Excelsior). However, even though the American Dream did actually exist, this concept only included the rich and powerful. For the majority of the population who eagerly migrated to the United States in order to experience this concept, the American Dream was nothing but a lie (Ditchfield). The harsh reality of this dream was stunning. These facts concerned the immigrants who sought to realize their dreams in America: The unwanted consequence of their careless pursuit of wealth and happiness was caused by the lofty hopes of the American Dream.
The Great Gatsby: A Tarnished American Dream Thesis: In his influential book The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald recognizes and describes many of the less alluring characteristics of the 1920's and the pursuit of the American Dream including dysfunctional relationships, materialism and classism. The American dream states that people can work themselves up "from rags to riches" by hard work.1 For this reason, the new society has developed dreams of the blind pursuit of material, wealth, and economic success. F. Scott Fitzgerald realizes this big change in society, and considering the fact that he is a fighter for the old values, this novelist tries to warn people not to continue this wrong way. The ideal of the American Dream is based on the fantasy that an individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, or religion simply by working hard enough. Dysfunctional relationships, according to Fitzgerald's way of writing, are based on infidelity, carelessness, and loveless couples.
Looking at Death Of A Salesman through Karl Marx’s viewpoint can help shed light to Miller’s commentary and possible rejection of American capitalism during the late 1940’s. The protagonist, Willy Loman shows an insatiable struggle to fit into the right part of society and his desperation to have himself and his sons as one of the “haves”. The view Miller gives of the American Dream shows the social and economic perspective of post-war America and how those views relate to social class. To fully understand this idea in context, one must define the idea of the American Dream. The basis of the American Dream at that time was that financial success through capitalism was the sole foundation for happiness.
In everyday life mankind becomes more and more keen to certain milestones such as leaving home and becoming financially independent and the ability to achieve them. Although achieving these milestones is never easy, they all revolve around the traditional social ideal by which equality of the opportunity is available to all, allowing the highest aspiration and goals to be achieved. The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an exquisite tale of America in the 1920s. It is about a fabulously wealthy man named Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. It illustrates the idea of the death of the American Dream and shows that the main theme of Gatsby is indeed “the withering American Dream”.
Since scamming is the only way to survive in Jurgis’ world, then it will be done to the vulnerable immigrant families that can not have a say in anything. Jurgis comes to America as a strong willed man looking for better opportunities for his family and himself but is slowly crushed by the hard struggles of a working class man in a society where capitalism is dominant. Sinclair portrays socialism as the resolution to the story but especially to Jurgis’ struggling life. By showing the torment that the working class had to go through because of capitalism, Sinclair wanted to promote the wondrous changes that socialism was going to bring. Sinclair highlights the terrible situations caused by capitalism but pushes for socialism through Jurgis’ intent in finding work, the struggling working class, and the inequality of the men in a capitalistic society.
The American dream, by definition, is the traditional social ideals of the US, such as equality, democracy, and material prosperity that is obtained with hard work. This idea was popularized by the big corporations in the 19th and the 20th century encouraging the workers and immigrants to work efficiently and with great diligence in hope to become a wealthy, successful man. The masses were informed and had this idea embedded in their minds because of the ‘rags to riches’ stories that were being presented. This idea is not necessarily true, and have been achieved by very few people. Jay Gatsby, in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of the few that achieves this American dream.
Gatsby is the living embodiment of the American Dream in countless respects because of his astonishing gift for the hope, his Platonic conception of himself, his faith in life’s potential and his promise to his aspirations. He embodies the finished area that is poor but has hopes and dreams for that they are to fight to give meaning and intention to their efforts. His dream symbolizes the larger American Dream in that all have the equal opportunity to become what they want. Nonetheless, the fiasco in his confidential dream additionally typifies the downfall of the American Dream on the finished in that communal discrimination and class splits, divine vividness and hollow gaiety, and the decadence of benefits and ideals prevail. The novel is a outstanding reminder that money cannot make the globe go concerning, afterward all.