The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

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The American Dream in Great Gatsby Since the beginning of the creation of America an ideal has emerged that has shaped the way Americans have lived their lives ever since; This ideal is that of the American Dream. The American dream is the conception that every U.S. citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination and initiative. Throughout the novel by his use of the characters lives, F. Scott Fitzgerald clearly expresses his perspective of the American dream, and that is that it is unachievable. For this time period within the novel, I agree with Gatsby's perspective on how unattainable the American dream is ;however, I do not believe that in modern day it is impossible to achieve…show more content…
This is that they are all trying to achieve their version of the American dream with either integrity and humility, or immoral and corrupt practices. For example Gatsby’s version of the American dream is to obtain massive amounts of wealth, and then be reunited with his “true love” Daisy. Another example of a set of characters who are trying to obtain their version of the American dream, are George and Myrtle Wilson. Although they were married their ideas of what the perfect life would be and how they would achieve this, differed immensely. George Wilson just wishes for for a better life for he and Myrtle and to escape the valley of the ashes to a better life, whereas Myrtle just wants to achieve her dreams of materialism, money, and power. In order to achieve this, she estranges herself from her marriage with George, all because he is not able to financially support her the way she would…show more content…
It is basically an unattainable idea that brought about nothing but disappointment and dissatisfaction. Although Fitzgerald clearly shows his perspective many different times within the novel, it is most evident when he says, “ So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” When Gatsby writes this he is trying to say, that as humans we beat against it, grasping our ego, money and pride, and that it is ultimately our ending because the water is rough making it impossible to progress. This symbolizes the American dream.. All of the characters in the book all try to achieve this so called dream, but no one was able to. The reasons as to why theses dreams are basically unattainable, are due to the society that that time in history had. Some of the reasons as to why some couldn't achieve their forms of this “dream”, would be because of racial segregation, making it nearly impossible for some to achieve anything more than they were born with. This is shown in The Great Gatsby when tom said, “[us whites] who are the dominant race” (Fitzgerald 18). When he says this, he clearly demonstrates how the other races are beneath the whites. Gender discrimination was
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