Unfulfilled Dreams in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Everyone has dreams of being successful in life. When the word American comes to mind one often thinks of the land of opportunity. This dream was apparent with the first settlers, and it is apparent in today’s society. In F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925), he illustrates the challenges and tragedies associated with the American dream. By examining Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, and Myrtle Wilson through the narrator Nick Carraway, I understand the complex nature of the American dream. Jay Gatsby represents the cost complex of them all.
Gatsby overcame many obstacles in order to accomplish is dream. Born to shiftless and unsuccessful farmers (104), determined to make something of himself he legally changes his name from James Gatz to Jay Gatsby. In his youth he worked along the shores of Lake Superior, as a fisherman. There he meets Don Cody a self made millionaire. Cody made Gatsby his personal assistant and together they made several voyages. When Cody dies Gatsby inherits $25,000 however, he is unable to claim it, due to legal issues and Cody’s wife Ella.
Gatsby and Daisy meet when he was in the army. Although the love they had for each other is strong, they did not marry due to his financial status. He goes overseas and she later marries Tom Buchanan. Throughout the years he never stops dreaming about Daisy, he knows wealth and status means everything to her. Gatsby leaves college because he finds his job as a janitor degrading.
Gatsby’s dream is to win the heart of Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is a handsome, youthful man, who lives in West Egg. West Egg represents “new money”, those who recently became rich but, lack an established social position. His mansion sits on “more than forty acres of lawn and garden”; he drives a yellow car of enormous length. This location was intentionally chosen in order to be closer to Daisy who lives in East Egg. He reinvents himself as a millionaire, only to win her heart. Gatsby is well known for his elaborate parties; where there is an abundance of food, live Jazz musicians and unlimited liquor. Gatsby never attends his parties. He is merely and absorber; watching instead of taking part. They are thrown with one purpose, to attract Daisy. Those who attend his parties never really know who he was. Their sole purpose was for attending ...
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Myrtle’s frequent trips raise George’s suspicions of myrtle’s affair; he makes plans for them to move west. Determined to defy her husband, Myrtle tries to run away, but is killed by a yellow car. Though the car belonged to Gatsby, Daisy is the driver. Convinced that Daisy loves him, he takes the blame. Gatsby’s of Daisy are too high and his expectations. His hopes and dreams are shattered, when Daisy and her husband suddenly disappears after the accident. Tom and Daisy they were careless people, they smashed up things and retreated back to their money, and let other people clean up the mess they had made (187-188). Heartbroken by his wife’s murder, George hunts down the owner of the yellow car. Assuming the owner is myrtle’s lover he shoots Gatsby, before committing the worse sin of all, suicide. The love he had for Myrtle was real. Both men are ruined by their love for women involved with Tom Buchanan. Nick organize Gatsby’s funeral, but finds very few people who cares. I believe the American Dream seems corrupted by the search for wealth and material possessions.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, Scott F. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster, New York. 1925.
Jean Kilbourne’s “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” is a section of a book titled: “Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising” that was originally published in 1999. It is about the images of women that advertisements illustrate. The central claim or thesis of the document is that: “advertising helps to create a climate in which certain attitudes and values flourish and it plays a role in shaping people’s ideas” (paraphrase). The author wants people by all genders and young children to acknowledge a right attitude towards what is shown in the advertisements so that the standards of behavior will not be influenced. As a result, it enables the negative contribution from the advertisements to be limited or eliminated.
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
The central focus of the story is the enigma of Gatsby, his past life, and his perusal of Daisy. Desperate to rekindle their former love, Gatsby works tirelessly to achieve the pinnacle of the American dream, settles in a large, posh house, throws lavish parties, and seems on excellent terms with the world at large. That, however, is not what makes him truly happy. All he did, he did in pursuit of Daisy, and initially it appears to work. She insists that she still loves him ardently. However, when pressed, she chooses Tom once more, and Gatsby is shattered. Nick says that, “If that was true, he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream,” (161). In the end, Gatsby’s dream turns on him, betraying him to the caprice of the world. He had sincerely believed in the American Dream, and believed it would help him secure Daisy’s love. When both failed him, he was left with a lavish but empty house, and to Gatsby, his wealth and prosperity were nothing without someone to share them with. The final nail in the coffin is Gatsby’s funeral, where it becomes clear what his immense wealth gained him in terms of the human affection he was truly after. Nick Carraway jumps through all sorts of hoops and harasses many people in order to get them to go to Gatsby’s funeral, to no avail. When it came time for the burial,
In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to become happier with their lives. The characters in the novel are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class(West egg and East egg) though the main characters only try to make their lives better, the American dream they are all trying to achieve is eventually ruined by the harsh reality or life.
Advertising, whether criticized or celebrated, is undeniably a strong force in American society. Portrayals and Images of women have long been used to sell in published advertisements. However, how they have been used has changed enormously throughout the decades. Women have fought to find a lasting and prominent position in their society. Only in the span of twenty years, between 1900’s and 1920’s, the roles of women changed dramatically here in United States.
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