Essay On The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream Kat Bergeron D2 The modern day American Dream is the idea of living a fulfilled life of success, stability, and happiness. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the notion of living the American Dream is a recurrent theme, though it is construed slightly different than how it would be today. The main character, Jay Gatsby, is a wealthy man living in the village of West Egg, also known as the ‘new rich’. Throughout the story Jay struggles to find a missing piece in his life, which he believes could be his lost love, but manages to live the high life nevertheless through his riches. Gatsby comes across Nick, who becomes an essential piece to his puzzle. Through Fitzgerald’s image of the…show more content…
The characters in the novel are all upper class people who believe they are living the epitome of the American Dream. Despite their lack of anything but money and their possessions, there is still nothing else they could want. “He was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car, with that resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American-” (64). The comfort and confidence in Gatsby’s stance against his car symbolizes the security he feels in his riches, Nick does not even know why he sees it as American, but in the time period to be wealthy was to be living in the American Dream. “I was immediately struck by the number of young englishmen dotted about; all well dressed, all looking a little hungry, and all talking in low earnest voices to solid and prosperous Americans.” (42). The book puts an emphasis on not only the superiority of the upper class, but also that they come in numbers. When mentioned that they were looking a little hungry, and talking in low, earnest voices, it exemplifies the way in which the people living the American Dream behaved. Always seeing themselves on the top of the pyramid, they look down unto those that they want to approach, and stay together talking quietly, as if to exclude the possibility of anyone below them getting to be involved with anything they

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