Great Gatsby: The American Dream

The Gatsby Dream The American Dream. A goal that is hidden within all people, young and old. It is inspiration for people to get everything that they could have ever wanted. A popular saying, created in the 21st century by people describing the American Dream, is “Work hard, play hard,” essentially stating that in order to have fun and enjoy life, one must work hard to get to the point where having fun is possible. Gatsby, from the novel The Great Gatsby, by Scott F. Fitzgerald, is a perfect example of that. Jay Gatsby represents the American Dream from when he was just a little boy, through his adult life, to the time of his death. When Gatsby was just a small lad, he was already wanting to have more. He was raised in a dirt poor family in rural North Dakota. Gatsby was known in that time as James Gatz, but he later “had changed it at the age of seventeen.” (Fitzgerald 111) Gatsby hated the poverty-filled life. He longed desperately to become wealthy. He once dropped out of St. Olaf after only two weeks because he was “dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny”. (Fitzgerald 110) When he was seventeen, Gatsby took a trip to Lake Superior, where he saw his future mentor, Dan Cody’s “yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.” (Fitzgerald 111) Dan Cody taught Gatsby the ways of the wealthy as Gatsby joined Cody on his ten year yacht adventure to the West Indies and the Barbary Coast. After Gatsby and Cody had circled the
He spent his entire life only wanting two things, money and Daisy. Unfortunately, Gatsby only got to have one of those things. He spent his entire life working as hard as he could, for something that was only a dream. Sometimes, dreams outstretch what can actually become reality. But that is why they are called dreams, because they do not have to be realistic. But there is one dream that unites everyone. The American