Why Is The American Dream Important In The Great Gatsby

912 Words2 Pages

Kathleen Crosby
Ms. Maki
AP Lang/ P.4
5 October 2016
What is the Dream?
Everybody should have a dream. Having a dream gives us a reason to work hard and to achieve a better life. That’s why I believe the American dream is important and something that should still be supported. The American Dream is about working hard to achieve a better life, not the best life. However, in the last section of the novel Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, he begins with bringing the reader eye to eye, with the monstrous side of the American dream. All through the story, Gatsby has been known for one who has accomplished the American dream — he had cash, belongings, freedom, and individuals who needed to associate with him. Or so the reader thinks. At the end …show more content…

Dreams are valuable, to a point, however when they devour the visionary, they prompt humiliation. By the end of the novel, Nick has come to understand that he's changed and will never be the same. It appears his character situation is never completely determined. We don't know where he will go ("West" is not very specific), or what he will do. His perception that every one of the characters in this story were "Westerners" is a clever one – it sums up one of the novel's main point, the possibility that we may be characterized by where we're from, or the sorts of universes we experience when we are a child. From that, Nick eventually understands that he has no place in West Egg or in New York, in the insensitive, judgmental, and quick moving East; so he “had [his] trunk packed and [his] car sold to the grocer” (192). However, unfortunately, we need to think about whether he can truly backtrack home once more, in the wake of seeing what he has seen. In spite of the fact that he used to trust that you couldn't make things the same as before and come back to the past, Nick's point of view has changed: his neighbor Gatsby is gone. Tom and Daisy are no more. Jordan Baker is no more. Nicks biggest fear – that he will be distant from everyone else – has worked out as

Open Document