The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
The American Dream (No matter who you are, you can succeed.) is a non-sensical fallacy
involving the belief in America and Americans being exempt from human hedonism, greed and desire.
The idea of the American Dream is explored in depth in “The Great Gatsby”, and proves this point. The
novel explores the lives of many very different characters, such as poor characters like George Wilson,
characters of vast inherited wealth like Tom Buchanan, and characters of vast freshly-made wealth like
Jay Gatsby. They are portrayed, at the beginning of the story, to be as different as possible, but as the
story progresses, it becomes obvious how similar the character's situations are. This is all because of
the failure of the American Dream. Even though the Dream …show more content…
But because of the American
Dream, he should have the same equal opportunity as Tom, this is not the case, as Tom has the social
advantage of having connection, prestige and social graces which is required to succeed at Tom's high
level of society. Tom uses this power over George to get what he want's, in this case, his car sold and
George's wife. This makes it obvious that the American Dream is not working in George's favour.
Another example of the failure of the American Dream is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has new, freshly- made money, and did not come from a prestigious background. This means, that while he has immense
wealth, he does not have the prestige and social graces to fully integrate with upper-higher class
society. To fix this, Gatsby tries to change his behaviour so that he can seem to have social class and
values. In the story he has a pool he never swims in, constantly repeats “old-sport” (49) as to seem to
have British heritage, and makes up stories of time he spent in the war. Though as much as he tries,
involving the belief in America and Americans being exempt from human hedonism, greed and desire.
The idea of the American Dream is explored in depth in “The Great Gatsby”, and proves this point. The
novel explores the lives of many very different characters, such as poor characters like George Wilson,
characters of vast inherited wealth like Tom Buchanan, and characters of vast freshly-made wealth like
Jay Gatsby. They are portrayed, at the beginning of the story, to be as different as possible, but as the
story progresses, it becomes obvious how similar the character's situations are. This is all because of
the failure of the American Dream. Even though the Dream …show more content…
But because of the American
Dream, he should have the same equal opportunity as Tom, this is not the case, as Tom has the social
advantage of having connection, prestige and social graces which is required to succeed at Tom's high
level of society. Tom uses this power over George to get what he want's, in this case, his car sold and
George's wife. This makes it obvious that the American Dream is not working in George's favour.
Another example of the failure of the American Dream is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby has new, freshly- made money, and did not come from a prestigious background. This means, that while he has immense
wealth, he does not have the prestige and social graces to fully integrate with upper-higher class
society. To fix this, Gatsby tries to change his behaviour so that he can seem to have social class and
values. In the story he has a pool he never swims in, constantly repeats “old-sport” (49) as to seem to
have British heritage, and makes up stories of time he spent in the war. Though as much as he tries,