The Great Gatsby New Dream Analysis

The Great Gatsby: Old Illusions of a New Dream
Ever since the discovery of the American continent in 1492, people from all parts of Europe and elsewhere have come to the New World on a quest to find something bigger than themselves or than what they were back home. From Christopher Columbus and his attempt to find a new route to Asia to Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his tragic search for the golden city of El Dorado; whether this quest bases on any practicality or myth is beside the point, anything is possible in a place where fantasy and reality sometimes seem to mix. This quest for an utopia is not unique from those parts of the world, but what distinguishes the American experience from the rest is a tremendous sense of optimism about what
. . fresh, green breast of the new world,” and after they “. . . had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams . . .” (Fitzgerald 182). In this New World even Gatsby, who represents everything for which Nick Carraway—the character who also serves as Fiztgerald’s own voice and moral compass—has “an unaffected scorn,” cannot help but to be a victim of such dreams and illusions (2). Gatsby’s dreams are all centered on one thing, his ideal world at the side of Daisy, the girl with whom he first fell in love before going to war in
Although tragic in the end, Gatsby’s dream was also romantically honest. Whereas Tom assures that “Civilization’s going to pieces,” Gatsby is full of hope about the future; even in the very end his faith in his love for Daisy is never shaken (13). However, he does realize that the Daisy he once fell in love with no longer exists and was, instead, replaced by one whose “voice is full of money” (120).Consequently, it is no surprise, then, that even Daisy failed to see a vision of the future, which only Gatsby could see and was desperately trying to show her. In the first chapter of the book, Nick describes a scene at Tom and Daisy’s house that resembles the seemingly choreographed parties held at Gatsby’s:
It made me uneasy, as though the whole evening had been a trick of some sort to exact a contributory emotion from me. I waited, and sure enough, in a moment she looked at me with an absolute smirk on her lovely face, as if she had asserted her membership in a rather distinguished secret society to which she and Tom belonged.