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Gatsby's determination to achieve the American dream
Gatsby's determination to achieve the American dream
The great gatsby and the american dream
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The American dream is an ambition many Americans reach out to attain. In the novel The Great Gatsby by Scott F Fitzgerald the character Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of the American dream. Gatsby uses any means necessary to attain this dream. Gatsby motivation for corruption is for a girl named Daisy. He believes materialist items and monetary success can win over Daisy. Gatsby is the prime example of how greed and corruption can ruin his perfect dream. Gatsby naively believes that making a lot of money will make everything better. Gatsby romanticizes money. He believes it will rid him of all his problems. Gatsby becomes part of the “nouveau rich” crowd and this community of people are self-absorbed snobs who are very greedy. Gatsby hosts a large number kicking parties for many and any guests. Gatsby participates in shady activities but he feels a bit of resentment in himself for doing so. He doesn’t fit in perfectly with all of his guests and never makes true friends with anyone except for Nick. “They’re a rotten crowd.... You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together” (Fitzgeral...
In F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, the pursuit of the American dream in a corrupt period is a central theme. This theme exemplifies itself in the downfall of Gatsby. In a time of disillusionment the ideals of the American dream are lost. The classic American dream is one of materialism and when Gatsby incorporates Daisy, a human being, into the dream he is doomed to fail.
The American dream is an idea that every American has an equal chance of success. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald shows us this is not the case. Fitzgerald wrote the character Jay Gatsby as a tragic American hero. Jay Gatsby went from a nobody to a millionaire and most people believe that he had achieved the American dream. However, he did not achieve the American dream because he lost a piece of himself in his pursuit of his supposedly incorruptible dream.
The American Dream had always been based on the idea that each person no matter who he or she is can become successful in life by his or her hard work. The dream also brought about the idea of a self-reliant man, a hard worker, making a successful living for him or herself. The Great Gatsby is about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920s, a time period when the many people with newfound wealth and the need to flaunt it had corrupted the dream. The pursuit of the American Dream is the one motivation for accomplishing one's goals, however when combined with wealth the dream becomes nothing more than selfishness.
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.
Nick's neighbor Gatsby is a wealthy person, who spends a lot of money giving parties for strangers only to meet Daisy, the dream of his life. He is seen as representing "new money" because he has no good education and no family background over several generations, he is self-made, invented by himself. For this reason, he is not accepted as being dignified enough to enter the exclusive "old money" upper class.
Gatsby throws lavish parties to create a image of wealth for those attending. However, the people who show up do not care about Gatsby, rather they care about the “show” he puts on through these celebrations. The party-goers are only seeking an escape, they are lured to the bright lights and excessive alcohol, like moths to a flame. Not ever paying attention to a wondering Gatsby (if in fact they even know
The American Dream is only achievable based on your motivation to succeed, your process in which you achieve your dream can be more important than your actual dream. Sometimes it's the journey that makes or breaks you and not the destination. The Great Gatsby, written by Fitzgerald, is based off the idea of the American Dream, and whether it's achievable to all Americans. Many seem to have their own opinions and thoughts on the idea of the American Dream. The idea of the American Dream is sought after by just about anyone. This topic is often mentioned during times of sorrow and death ,as well as through many platforms such as poems, speeches, novels, and essays. Gatsby
The American Dream is the concept that anyone, no matter who he or she is, can become successful in his or her life through perseverance and hard work. It is commonly perceived as someone who was born and starts out as poor but ambitious, and works hard enough to achieve wealth, prosperity, happiness, and stability. Clearly, Fitzgerald uses Gatsby to personify the destruction of the American Dream. Gatsby started out as a poor farming boy, meticulously planning his progression to become a great man.
"The American Dream is that dream of a nation in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with options for everyone to achieve their dream,” . Fitzgerald demonstrates in the “Great Gatsby” how a dream can become destroyed by one’s focus on only wanting wealth, power, and expensive things. Gatsby’s dream “is a naïve dream based on the fallacious assumption that material possessions are synonymous with happiness,harmony, and beauty” (“Fahey”). In the “Great Gatsby” Nick says “Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry”. The race after the American Dream is a primary theme that was seen throughout “The Great Gatsby”, wrote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and how he represented this theme through his characters and all that they did.
American clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger once said “The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it is possible to achieve the American dream.” This idea of the “American dream” has been around since the founding and has 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.
Throughout Nick’s narration he makes the point that Gatsby was “worth the whole damn bunch” of them and was very great (154). The first description of Gatsby stated that “there was something gorgeous about him” (2). A lot of his characterization is comparing him to “a rotten crowd”, which could be taken to mean all the rich. Nick’s comparisons all say that Gatsby is the best rich person out there, better than all of them “put together” (154).
People will journey far and wide, traverse the entire continent, suffer all manner of pain and suffering, if they believe that, in the end, they will be rewarded. That is why it comes as no surprise when people from other countries struggle to get to America, believing the ancient tale of "the American Dream", convinced that they will finally make it big in this land of riches. But they find out it is not like that.
Gatsby realizes that life of the high class demands wealth to become priority; wealth becomes his superficial goal overshadowing his quest for love. He establishes his necessity to acquire wealth, which allows him to be with Daisy. The social elite of Gatsby's time sacrifice morality in order to attain wealth. Tom Buchanan, a man from an "enormously wealthy" family, seems to Nick to have lost all sense of being kind (Fitzgerald 10). Nick describes Tom's physical attributes as a metaphor for his true character when remarking that Tom had a "hard mouth and a supercilious manner...arrogant eyes had established dominance over his face...always leaning aggressively forward...a cruel body...[h]is speaking voice...added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed" (Fitzgerald 11). The wealth Tom has inherited causes him to become arrogant and condescending to others, while losing his morals. Rather than becoming immoral from wealth as Tom has, Gatsby engages in criminal activity as his only path to being rich. His need for money had become so great that he "was in the drug business" (Fitzgerald 95). Furthermore, he lies to Nick about his past in order to cover up his criminal activity. Gatsby claims to others that he has inherited his wealth, but Nick discovers "[h]is parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (Fitzgerald 104). Gatsby enters a world where money takes precedence over moral integrity. Materialism has already overshadowed a portion of his spiritual side. A quest for true love is doomed for failure in the presence of immorality. Once wealth has taken priority over integrity, members of the high social class focus on immediate indulgences, rather than on long-term pleasures of life such as love.
The simple definition of the American dream is a state of happiness a person hopes to achieve by obtaining materialistic prosperity through hard work. This however has not always been the dream. In early America the dream of many was to venture west, find land, and start a family, but as time progressed the dream has transformed into a need for materialistic possessions such as a car or a large house. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald reveals the how corrupt the American Dream has become and how truly irrelevant money and worldly possessions are to becoming genuinely satisfied. He does this through his portrayal of Gatsby’s confused love for Daisy or the idea of Daisy, Daisy and Tom Buchanan’s marriage, and the death of Gatsby.
The American Dream is simply that; a dream. Through the tragedy of Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows us what happens when fantasy and reality are brought together. Despite seemingly having everything, Gatsby has nothing. His material wealth cannot compensate for what he lacks emotionally. Like Jay Gatsby, the American Dream will always fail when it is shattered by reality.