Throughout the book, Tom and Gatsby as characters are shown in contrast to each other, through the significance of the valley of ashes, the American dream, and their relationship to Daisy. One of the biggest parts of the book is the fact that Gatsby and the Buchanan's live on opposite sides of the bay, in west egg and east egg, respectively. But separating them on land is the Valley of Ashes. The Valley is described as being, “a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke…”(Fitzgerald, 26). It’s a place of hopelessness and poverty, and it illustrates how the American dream can never truly be achieved. Here are two men, Tom and Gatsby, who have seemingly …show more content…
The idea of the American dream is that you can start off with nothing and still become successful. Tom represents the end result of the dream, but not the getting there. He is rich, successful, happy, he has the mistress, and the girl, and in the end he still has the money and the girl. However, Tom didn’t work to get where he is. He was born into his family money, just like Daisy, and just like everyone is in West Egg. People like Gatsby look up to him as as something they want to become, but they don’t realize that they can’t become that. On the other hand, Gatsby represents the ‘getting there’ part of the American dream, but not the end result. He did indeed start from nothing, and climb the ladder of success, except he’s never quite able to reach the top. He is still not a part of the elite West Egg-ers, he still isn’t completely accepted into Tom and Daisy's society, and in the end he dies still believing that the American dream is waiting for him, just out of reach. Tom and Gatsby represent the impossibility of the American dream, each man showing that you can have half of it, but not
Nick portrays this trait in Tom as controlling and dreadful, opposite of what it is in Gatsby despite both men having the same
he American Dream is the ideal that every United States citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity, however they see fit. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is portrayed through Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. Even though Gatsby and Mr. Buchanan are exceedingly different for many reasons, they both are trying to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream does not have a single, universal definition, but is instead the interpretation of success and prosperity by the individual hoping to achieve it. Gatsby is trying to achieve the American Dream through becoming rich, throwing parties, and trying to win back his longtime love, Daisy; whereas Mr. Buchanan is trying to achieve the American
In my opinion, The Great Gatsby's characters definitely have many similarities to the real people in F. Fitzgerald's life. " He spoke as if Daisy's reaction was the only thing that mattered" (Fitzgerald 143). Jay Gatsby spoke these words to Daisy in F. Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's real life, he was married to a woman named Zelda. Fitzgerald described Zelda by saying this, "I love her, and that's the beginning and the end of everything" (By F. Scott Fitzgerald).
While “The Great Gatsby” explores a number of themes, none is more prevalent than the corruption of the American dream. The Great Gatsby is about the main character, Nick Carraway, who comes to New York in search of the American dream. The American dream is someone starting low on the social or economic level towards prosperity and wealth. By having money, a big house, a car and a happy family symbolizes the American dream. The dream is represented by the ideas of a self-sufficient person, who works hard to achieve a goal to become successful.
The American Dream suggests that every American citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work. One of the major ways that Fitzgerald portrays this is by alluding to outside events or works of literature specifically from that time period. Another major relationship that develops in The Great Gatsby is between Tom and Daisy. F. Scott Fitzgerald alludes to things such as the World’s Fair and “The Love Nest” to display the eventual dismantling of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. Both of these separate plots consolidate under the idea of Gatsby trying to become the epitome of the American Dream, as seen through his strive for a “perfect life.”
The readers would expect that a “great” figure like Gatsby would be surrounded by his friends, colleagues, family, and lover at his final proceeding, but the reality is exactly the opposite. He is forgotten and not admired, and his lifetime finesse which he anxiously displayed through his parties does not seem to be remarkable anymore. Ideally, if Gatsby has truly achieved the American Dream, he should be a personification of someone who is eulogized, revered, and loved even until his last moment. However, this is not the case for Gatsby and this leads the readers to realize how he was not “great” enough to fulfill his American Dream. Interestingly though, Gatsby does not cease his chase after American Dream.
His dreams of her are eventually destroyed, thus revealing the corruption that wealth causes and the unworthiness of the goal. Thus, Gatsby symbolizes how the American dream as being destroyed in the 1920s, as America’s powerful optimism, individualism become submissive towards the pursuit of
This love leads him inexorably into conflict with Tom Buchanan, who has what Gatsby desires most, Daisy and the status that has given her. This struggle between Tom and Gatsby is a representation of the entire struggle between new money and old money, and so ultimately a struggle Tom wins. James Gatz and Tom Buchanan both have backgrounds characteristic of their class. Nick Carroway says of Tom “His family were enormously wealthy; even in college his freedom with money was a matter for reproach, but now he'd left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he'd brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that.”
Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby are two main characters in the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gatsby and Tom are similar in many ways but Gatsby is a better character because he cares for people and their feelings. Throughout the novel you can see how alike these two are and What is the difference between Gatsby and Tom Bouchernon. Tom and Gatsby have many things in common, one being their love for Daisy. Tom and Gatsby both showed their love for Daisy in different ways.
Maya Lin once said, “To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.” The character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby and the novel’s author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, certainly exhibit this quote. Further, there were many similarities between Jay Gatsby and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both Gatsby and Fitzgerald had a passionate, infatuating love for a woman, and both had an initiative to be successful.
Tom and Daisy were wealthy people who lived in Long Island, and have a mysterious connection with Gatsby. Fitzgerald, uses their home to tell more about who they are. In The Great Gatsby, the house that belongs to the
The novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about how the interactions between money and love have major effects on the relationships between Tom, Daisy, and Gatsby. The relationship between Tom and Daisy is built more on money rather than love, however, there is little bits of love. Daisy marries Tom because of his wealth, but throughout their relationship she does, fall in love with Tom at least once. Also, Tom uses his money to basically buy Daisy’s love showing that he wants to have love in his life. The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is also built on wealth, but it also involves love, alike the relationship of Tom and Daisy.
The dysfunctional couple comprised of George and Myrtle Wilson is an example Fitzgerald uses to portray the grief and plight of the poor due to the disregard by the rich. They inhabit the Valley of Ashes, barely making enough money to support themselves. They lust after riches, specifically Myrtle, who seems to disregard her husband in favor of attempting to climb the social ladder by being with Tom, regardless of Daisy. She even proclaims, “I married him [George Wilson] because I thought he was a gentleman... I thought he knew something about breeding but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe” (39).
In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the characterization of Myrtle and Gatsby to illustrate the fact that the American Dream is unachievable and corruption influenced in the 1920s. Jay Gatsby’s determination to repeat the past and be with an idealized version of Daisy leads to the unfulfillment of his American Dream. Nick portrays Gatsby as a hardworking character who truly believes that America is the land of equal opportunity as Gatsby has “come a long way to this blue lawn”. Gatsby’s “blue lawn” refers to his wealth and his spending in the effort to maintain a good appearance to attract Daisy. Nick reflects how Gatsby’s dream appeared to be so near that “he could hardly fail to grasp it” but in the end Gatsby’s American Dream of reuniting with Daisy and repeat the past was “already
Gatsby was a man who came up from essentially nothing by gaining his money through bootlegging and other illegal acts in order to gain a reputation in society. Gatsby’s constant desire to accomplish more in his life demonstrates the corruption of the American Dream. It is evident that Gatsby has had a thirst for the American dream since a young age, this is shown when Gatsby’s father says: “Jimmy was bound to get ahead. He always had some resolves like this or something. Do you notice what he’s got about improving his mind?