Theme Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream is the idea of the “desired” happy life that everybody wants to achieve: having money, a big house, and a perfect family. The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about how to upper class fails to achieve their American Dreams. The main character, Nick Carraway, narrates the story, telling the reader how he perceives the upper class as being hollow. Fitzgerald uses Gatsby’s life to symbolize the overarching theme of the failure to grasp the American Dream, which results in showing how it is an illusion.
Fitzgerald shows this theme significantly through the character Gatsby. In the beginning of the book, Gatsby is introduced, “He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with the resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American…” (Fitzgerald 64) . Gatsby is shown as “peculiarly American” even from the start. Fitzgerald did this to construct this idea in the reader’s mind of what kind of character Gatsby is even before you know much about him. As the book continues, Gatsby’s American Dream begins to unravel. To add to this theme, symbolism is created through Gatsby and the green light to show how the dream is almost unachievable. As Gatsby
After Gatsby gets shot, Nick concludes, “... [H]is dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him…” (Fitzgerald 180). Fitzgerald made the story end this way to show how he views the American Dream, that it is a cynical idea. Gatsby worked so hard to live up to Daisy’s hopes and dreams so that they could finally have their happily ever after , but as Nick said, “it was already behind him” (Fitzgerald 180). The American Dream is like an illusion, there is not a point at which it is accomplished because you can't get there. People are so caught up in the materialistic part of it that they are never fully pleased with the life they’re