Preview

What Is The American Dream Really Achievable

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
652 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is The American Dream Really Achievable
Daniels 1
Gatsby’s American Dream Is the American Dream really achievable? The dream is the ideal scenario that every U.S. citizen strives for, where everyone has equal opportunity to achieve success. The dream is simply to become rich. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there is a character named Gatsby. While writing this book Fitzgerald had the American Dream in mind. J. Gatsby is a great example of someone who has really achieved the American Dream. Gatsby defines the realism of the American Dream. In the writing of The Great Gatsby it shows what the dream is and how it can be achieved. He shows this through his character, Gatsby. The American Dream also means you don’t want to do much to get rich. Gatsby is known
…show more content…
James Gatz has both of these things. He has a very large home with a ton of land. Nick, the narrator of the story, told us that Gatsby’s home was, “a colossal affair by any standard-it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of land and garden.” (Fitzgerald 5) As beautiful as Gatsby’s home was he often had big, extravagant parties. Gatsby’s parties were so big only a few people were really invited, like Nick said, “I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited. People were not invited-they went there.” (Fitzgerald 41) His car was one of the nicest cars in New York, “I’d seen it. Everybody had seen it. It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen Suns.” (Fitzgerald 64)
People like Gatsby prove the American Dream can be achieved, but the ways they do it means that America is declining. As discovered earlier Gatsby makes his money illegally. Making money illegally is one of the fastest and easiest ways to do it. Fitzgerald is saying that America is declining because the people only care about money. Money can make people go insane. Gatsby wanted to be rich for Daisy

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In The Great Gatsby we encounter an extraordinary individual, Gatsby, whose immense wealth catches the eye of many speculators in New York, West Egg and East Egg. In the story the author makes sure to emphasize the decay of the original American dream. The American dream originally represented hope and equality, for everyone looking for a better life. However after the wars and the passing years people took a different stand on the American dream and gave it their own meaning. The most popular meaning of the American dream was to obtain immense riches and power at any cost and all thoughts of equality and hope had banished. We can see that in The Great Gatsby when Fitzgerald describes the differences between the people of rich individuals from West Egg, East Egg and the poverty and struggle of those living in the valley of ashes. In the story Gatsby symbolizes…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Dream is something that a person can either find success or failure. The American Dream is open for interpretations. The American Dream Gatsby is chasing consist of; wealth, social acceptance, and the love of a desirable woman. Fitzgerald, in his novel The Great Gatsby, crafts a unique style of exploring the connection between Jay Gatsby and the American Dream. Tom Buchanan is man that had already gained the social status that Gatsby wanted to acquire in the novel. Mr. Gatsby desperately tries to befriend Tom Buchanan in order to gain social status and live the American Dream. Gatsby being a socially awkward person is inhibited in discovering the dream he is chasing. Finding love is another aspect of Mr. Gatsby’s dream that is never completed. His desire to marry Tom’s wife Daisy is an endless quest. Nick’s opinion of Gatsby is another factor that contributes to the unsuccessfulness of Gatsby. The American Dream is an artificial idea that cannot be achieved by Mr. Jay Gatsby because it is merely a product of the New World.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The American Dream is fundamentally the idea that anyone in America can accomplish through hard work and can achieve success and happiness. It has been expanded on through the years and now incorporates ideas of attaining freedom, wealth and power. In the 1920s when 'The Great Gatsby' was written the Jazz Age was taking hold and the American Dream became more about material possessions being used to show a person's wealth and status and to indicate that they have been successful in life. The materialism of this period of time in America corrupted the American Dream by the intense focus on gaining wealth and power and the loss of morals, and this is demonstrated throughout 'The Great Gatsby'. However, 'The Great Gatsby' is not simply about the American Dream as there are several other themes running through it, such as the emptiness behind the glamour of the Jazz Age, time and the past and morality.…

    • 1932 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Gatsby Paper

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The theme of the American Dream in Great Gatsby is mostly based on the character Jay Gatsby, For example, in the following quote, “He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way...and distinguished nothing except a single green light.” This quote shows how Gatsby was trying to reach his goals. When the dream was new, Gatsby had motivation and self disipline. This quote talks about Gatsby's daily schedule and how in the earlier days he upheld the American Dream "No wasting time at Shafters, No more smoking or chewing, Read one improving book or…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Great Gatsby Rough Draft

    • 936 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The American dream is the belief that people through their struggle and toil in the harshness of life can somehow achieve their dreams. This belief plays a prominent role in The Great Gatsby. The American dream serves as a backdrop to the splendor and bustle of the Roaring Twenties. Nick Carraway is at first amazed by how all his friends’ material dreams have come true. Surely this finery and wealth must be the American dream. He soon discovers that this splendor is just a façade for the hollowness of society. The character of Nick Carraway goes to the East under the impression that the American dream stood for discovery, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness. He finds, however, that this dream is dead and has been replaced by an American dream corrupted by crime, flawed values, and raging materialism.…

    • 936 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    F. Scott Fitzgerald uses many different variations of literary devices to portray the corruption of the American dream in The Great Gatsby. He portrays the American dream as a goal to gain wealth and show it off extravagantly to gain social class. Fitzgerald successfully integrates symbolism and imagery into the novel to express his views of the American dream.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The American Dream first game up in the Declaration of Independence, which was used to give hope to regular citizens. The Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness“. The American dream is something that is common to all people, but is perceived differently from one another. A major theme in The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is the pursuit of what can be called the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as the idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work, determination, and creativity. The American Dream also can mean having lots of money, a…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    the american dream

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to James Truslow Adams he feels the American Dream means “Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” Regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. Most people have a hard time setting goals towards an American fantasy, confused and unable to realize the American Dream. The idea of the American Dream relates to both novels “ The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Bodega Dreams” by Ernesto Quinonez.…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Great Gatsby

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The American Dream promised Americans that no matter what origin born into, an individual can succeed in life on the sore basis of his or her own skill level. Written about the 1920’s, Great Gatsby tells the story from Nick Carraway’s perspective as he introduces readers to the time period of glamour, wealth, and for some, depending on the American Dream. In Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses literary devices to criticize the change in morality of the roaring twenties, which old values expressed in the American Dream are destroyed by the corrupt vulgar pursuit of wealth.…

    • 1828 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The american dream in my opinion is if you work hard you will achieve the goals that you have. The american dream is different for every one of us because we all have different goals. For example a goal for someone who goes to college might be to graduate from college. A goal for someone who lives in the street might be to find some food and find a place to stay. This shows that many people have different goals which means the american dream does not exist. In the story The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald the message about the american dream does not exist. In the novel it does not exist because wilson keeps on trying and trying to achieve his goal and he doesn't accomplish it.…

    • 133 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Great Gatsby Paper

    • 1640 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The idea of an American Dream dates back to the 1600s when people started having different hopes and aspirations coming to America. The main reason for settlement was to have more money and live a better life. A settler of moderate wealth in their country of origin might be considered of greater wealth in a colonial settlement. People of lesser wealth see early colonization as an opportunity that might not otherwise be open to them. Immigration into the United States may have sounded like a good thing but, all the new money and opportunities led to greed, similar to the characters in the Great Gatsby. Essentially the idea of an American Dream seems to promise that through hard work, anyone can succeed and live a happy life; however this dream can mean different things to different people. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, shows that not all American Dreams are ideal and can lead to corruption in one's life. Through the characters of George Wilson, Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald symbolizes that chasing hollow dreams only leads to misery.…

    • 1640 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The American dream is a term used in a lot of ways. Although research has shown that American dream can’t be attainable by most people, closer examination shows that it can be attainable by the following reasons. As Daniel J. Mitchell stated in New York Times im January 1st, 2015 “The United States is not a perfect country, but the American Dream is still a reality.” By that he meant that even with America’s Grow rate, poverty, unemployment rate in the past years and still going Americans can still chase their American dreams.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The so- called American dream is a theme that is presented throughout the Great Gatsby; in fact, many would agree that it is one of the main points that drive the novel. This idea of the American dream is quite simple; a person, when he works hard, will gain what he wants. The idea was of self-reliance, of the pursuit of happiness and of changing one’s life to something better, but which, as most things do when humans are involved, was corrupted, focusing mainly on the materialistic aspects of life, aka: money.…

    • 2426 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is the American Dream achievable? "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it" -George Carlin, 2005[2: http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/American-dream]…

    • 1012 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great American Dream

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The American dream is a reoccurring theme throught the Great Gatsby, the context of the book itself draws from the ideals of the "American dream". Jay Gatsby is the physical representation of the American dream, his wealth and power has a huge effect on society and the people that are around him. In even modern texts in today’s world Gatsby as a literature figure has become a modern figure for business men and others who want to achieve the American dream. As individuals of America we are challenged threw out to follow are dreams even though we dint even n know there was a dream already formed for everybody that lives in the United States of America, and that we have a right to follow by how ever we see fit. The American dream is just another way of say "life ,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and all of those 3 things are shown in the great Gatsby such as finding freedom in becoming who ever u wanted, living as though you might die the next day and finding happiness through wealth or love. Even so who knew that the reason Gatsby became who he is was because he wanted to be in the same social standings as the women he loved daisy. Gatsby is a true great American character he is a truly self-made man and self-crafted by his own ideals and morals and even self-conflicts, and that is how an American dream is formed and how it can be unique to anyone who thinks on what he or even she wants to do while trying to live their own American dream. Gatsby follows the American dream down to the letter showing and proving that the American dream is achievable to…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays