The Fall of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Essay

The novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream, an idealistic and illusionary goal to achieve wealth and status. The ruthless pursuit of wealth leads to the corruption of human nature and moral values. Fitzgerald uses characters in the novel to show the corruptions and the illusionary nature of the American Dream. The superficial achievement of the American Dreams give no fulfillment, no real joy and peace; but instead, creates lots of problems for the characters in the novel. What happens to Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, and Daisy Buchanan represent the failure of the American Dream. Each character has a different dream. For Jay Gatsby, his dream is to attain happiness, represented by Daisy's love, through

"The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it's possible to achieve the American dream."

The Great Gatsby does not depict marriage and love in the traditional sense. Characters in this novel are married to the money and love the power it gives them. Love is caring for each other, supporting one another through tough times, always being by your partner’s side no matter what happens in life; good and bad. In this story the American dream of being wealthy gets in the way of true love. In most of these relationships love is missing, marriage had become a game; it was ok to go behind one another’s back to achieve their dark goal, abusiveness acceptable. For example on page 12 it says “Tom Buchanan broke her nose (Myrtle) with his open hand.” Take Jay Gatsby for example a man in love with a rich, young and beautiful woman named Daisy. He knew the only way for her to even notice him would be if he was rich. He lived in the illusion that money equaled happiness and that followed him till the day he died. Nothing made him happy he always wanted more and more. Sure his love for money made him wealthy but whether he had nothing or all the money in the world he could still not buy true love.

In society, people who seek to be loved and don’t receive it, will be ungrateful due to the inability of controlling others feelings. This occurrence is found multiple times in the novel The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of irony illustrates, how when love is unstable, it will leave a person betrayed. This is shown throughout the story with failed relationships, and ignorant characters.

A large colonial house with shutters and white picket fence in the suburbs, mom putting a warm apple pie on the windowsill to cool as dad gets home from a long day at work. This is the image that usually comes to mind when I think of the “American Dream”. The American dream is a theme seen throughout American literature. The “dreamer” usually desires to rise from rags to riches while gaining power, love and high status. Throughout different time periods there have been many different variations of the dream although the principles of freedom, the desire for something greater and self-sufficiencies have been a constant. Two of the ways the dream can be obtained are through one’s self-actualizations or money and materialistic means. The modern day focuses on material items and monetary values are symbols of being successful in achieving the American dream. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby’s money provided him the company of people. Jay Gatsby is a self-made man who came from no money. He had a plan to achieve his dream of being successful, and succeeded. He becomes so blinded by extravagant possessions that he becomes blinded to the fact that money cannot buy happiness or true love. In the book Fitzgerald shows how ones focus on power, wealth and materialistic things can ultimately corrupt ones dream.

A big house, nice cars, kids, a dog, a beautiful devoted spouse, power and a ridiculous amount of money. That is the classical American Dream, at least for some. The American Dream is tangible perfection while in reality perfection does not exist. Living the American Dream is living in perfection, which is truly impossible. Fitzgerald proves that the wonderful American Dream is unattainable through the novel The Great Gatsby by using vain, yet amusing characters.

The Great Gatsby is a novel that illustrates the society in the 1920's and the associated beliefs, values and dreams of the American population at that time. These beliefs, values and dreams can be summed up be what is termed the "American Dream", a dream of money, wealth, prosperity and the happiness that supposedly came with the booming economy and get-rich-quick schemes that formed the essential underworld of American upper-class society. This underworld infiltrated the upper echelons and created such a moral decay within general society that paved the way for the ruining of dreams and dashing of hopes as they were placed confidently in the chance for opportunities that could be seized by one and all. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the

Although Gatsby wanted it to be easy to be with Daisy again, he thought he had to gain wealth and status in order to be with her, which is somewhat true. He threw many parties in order to gain her attention in hope that she would fall in love with him all over again. According to Keshmiri in the article “The Disillusionment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Dreams and Ideals in The Great Gatsby”, all of his accomplishments and tasks were to help him with his love for Daisy. The article says “From that moment on, Gatsby was eager to win Daisy back, and his gaining of great wealth and his plentiful weekly parties are all means to that ending” (Keshmiri 1296). Everything that Gatsby has accomplished was because of Daisy. She was his motivation. She was the reason for everything that he has done. His dream

Great Gatsby Theme Essay “To be loved,” is one of the greatest hopes and dreams of every human being. “To be loved,” means to be appreciated, cherished, wanted. “To be loved,” means to be completely adored by someone. However, in the Great Gatsby, love has a different meaning. Love is something that can only be achieved through the presence of wealth.

Jay Gatsby’s sole purpose in life is to achieve the American Dream: to become a land owner, married to the love of his life, who live in comfort and abundance. However, he never gets everything he wants as his love for Daisy is not as fully reciprocated as he wishes it to be. His dream, and the one Nick pursues as well, are only dreams in the end. The culture of the time only gives empty fulfillment with no real substance. The people, like their dreams, are only illusions of what they want to be.

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel that holds values and inspirations to the ideology, the “American dream”. Characters within the story revolve around social class, presenting uniquity amongst the high-society. Within these ranks of economy, however, lies a deeper meaning within the story. As characters such as Meyer Wolfsheim interact with Jay Gatsby, a mystified millionaire, the reader begins to question the trustworthiness in his word. Gatsby could be considered a main character, but is idiosyncratic in nature. This book takes on the theme of social class, and Gatsby as a character, while flawed, is an accurate depiction of the “American dream”.

It is essentially the belief that, regardless of social class, anyone can become wealthy and famous. In the novel, Jay Gatsby attempts to reunify with Daisy Buchanan by achieving great wealth, but he fails and dies having been unsuccessful in his mission. Though it may appear to some that Gatsby, the main character of the novel, has achieved the American Dream, it turns out to be a massive illusion. When, following Gatsby’s death, the truth is revealed about him, his “friends” abandon him, and his funeral is sparsely attended. This is all intended to demonstrate that the American Dream is impossible for many to achieve, and is not what it is made out to be.

the American dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the

The Great Gatsby written by F.Scott Fitzgerald illustrates a picture of the American Society during the 1920’s. The 1920’s were a time of parties, drinking and having fun. Many had dreamed of becoming rich and being part of the upper class. Although many wished to be part the upper class it was thought to impossible as almost all of the upper class members in were born into it. In the Great Gatsby Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream by creating characters of all classes such as those from new money, old money, and the working class who all fail to gain the freedom and happiness of the American Dream.

    Gatsby was very wealthy, but he still wasn’t happy because he wanted to be together with Daisy. Gatsby has a genuine love for Daisy and he wants her to be with him now that he is wealthy. “ He wanted nothing less of Daisy then that she could go to Tom and Say: I never loved you. After she had obliterated four years with that sentence, they could decide upon the practical measures to be take” (Fitzgerald 109). Daisy chose to be with Tom because her parents liked him more, and he was more wealthy than Gatsby was at the time. Gatsby wants to