What is the American Dream? The American Dream is something we work hard to achieve. The American Dream as of today is wealth, true love, beauty, and success. How can one achieve the American Dream? Wealth, beauty, love, and success can be achieved by education, hard work, dedication, and motivation. However, the American Dream is not always about money, fame, and beauty. It could be anything from having a family to having the perfect life. Everyone has their own perspective of the American Dream. The American Dream is much different than what it used to be. An example of how it used to be is shown by Jay Gatsby, a character in F. Scotts Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby. Gatsby has everything that everyone else wants. Beauty, riches, parties, women, cars, and anything anyone …show more content…
Another example of how the American Dream used to be is shown by Forrest Gump, a character in Robert Zemeckis’s movie Forrest Gump. In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest goes to college on a football scholarship, he runs across the USA for three and a half years, and he reunites with the love of his life. This relates to the American Dream because everyone would like to be as successful as Forrest Gump was. Forrest Gump got everything he wanted by hard work and education. Forest Gump relates to The Great Gatsby because they both reunite with former lovers. These two movies are different from each other because Jay Gatsby has a more unattainable life, money wise, but Forrest Gump has an incredible story. A final example of how the American Dream has changed is shown in the article “RIP the Middle Class:1946-2013” Edward McClelland, a journalist and author. McClelland writes about how the American Dream has changed. McClelland states that he grew up in “a time when people without culture or education had the money to not only indulge their passions, but flaunt them in front of the entire
The novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitz Gerald embodies many themes. A major in the story is the pursuit of can be labelled the American Dream. The American Dream is defined as someone starting low on the economic or social level, and working hard towards prosperity and or wealth and fame. By having money, a car, a big house, nice clothes and a happy family symbolizes the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons.
According to Source A, Gatsby is in pursuit of the American Dream; however, his dream is the personification of the love of his life, Daisy. This reveals that Gatsby had all the wealth he could ask for and therefore he only dreamed of obtaining the unobtainable. Source A states, “Gatsby fails to win over Daisy, he also fails to achieve his version of the American Dream.” In other words, the portrayal of the American Dream through Jay Gatsby proves that despite putting in all the effort, a vast majority of people do not always achieve their American Dream.
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 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the american dream corrupts Jay Gatsby and takes over his life. The “american dream” was invented so to say in 1931. James Truslow Adams defined the american dream as “a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of fortuitous circumstances of birth or position” (Willis para. 3). Adams also made it easier to understand by saying it is a “dream of a better, richer and happier life for all our citizens of every rank” (Willis para. 4).
The historic American dream (the one in The Great Gatsby) was more achievable back then but now we can not achieve it due to countless problems that have developed over the years. Overall Fitzgerald's' version of the American dream in The Great Gatsby is very different from today’s version because of the attainability, happiness, economically, and
The American dream is to start your life with little to no money and work your way into making a liveable salary. The American dream is often thought of by immigrants, many immigrants move to the U.S. thinking they follow the American dream. In the book The Great Gatsby, James Gatsby the mysterious wealthy character who dropped out of college and started his life as a young man. Gatsby could be compared to the immigrants in the thought of the American dream.
The American Dream is the opportunity to become successful with hard work and initiative. Gatsby himself achieves the American dream of success just to impress the love of his life, Daisy
James Truslow Adams defines the American Dream as the “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (The American Dream). An idea sought after by millions of people is the American Dream; they believe there is a reward for hard work and that that reward is happiness and prosperity. The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, and The Crucible are all works, which portray the pursuit and destruction of the American Dream. Jay Gatsby’s American dream was to marry the woman he loved. This is evident throughout the novel; Gatsby is determined to transform his life from dirt to diamonds all to be a suitable man for Daisy.
The American dream is an illusion that is deeply implanted in the minds of the people, it sets a bar for life achievement and offers hope to work hard to achieve their dreams. As for Americans, they are raised in a society to where they are expected to make lots money and to have a healthy family. After all in our society success is largely based off positions of power and financial stability. For example, in The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were multiple interpretations of the ideal American dream in the 1920s. In the 1920s, due to the growth of materialism, people advertised and fancied the power of money to fulfilling their dreams.
The American dream states that any individual can achieve success regardless of family history, race, and/or religion simply by working hard. The 1920’s were a time of corruption and demise of moral values in society. The first World War had passed, and people were reveling in the materialism that came at the end of it, such as advanced technology and innovative inventions. The novel The Great Gatsby exploits the theme of the American Dream as it takes place in a corrupt period in history. Although the American Dream seemed more attainable than ever in the 1920’s, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby demonstrates how materialism and the demise of moral values in society leads to the corruption and impossibility of the American Dream.
The American dream has been a fixture in American lives for decades. In The Great Gatsby, Jay pines after Daisy because she is his American dream. Obtaining her love and lifelong companionship will give him everything he could ever need. The American dream is the idea of financial success and happiness. Without
Scott Fitzgerald would say that the American dream is a concept that you can achieve greatness or better circumstances by any means that you can. Also, the real dream is not riches because then people would become reckless, but the real goal is to reach ultimate happiness. He would say this because when people desire for something they are not, they go to measures the affect others and the outcomes are not often positive. The novel and Gatsby’s story show that the failure of achieving his dreams proves the the foolishness of short-cutting the dream by corruption without hard work, integrity, or real love. Fitzgerald’s version of the American dream would say that all have the ability to gain more success with hard work and being true to yourself.
American Dream American Dream has many different definitions in this day and age. For some it 's starting from little and making their way up to a successful prosperous life. For others it 's reaching happiness and a family. And for some the American dream is freedom but however the American dream is portrayed they all have something in common and that is happiness.
Fitzgerald focused on the shift in the American Dream - from being the idea of self-fulfillment, dignity and comfort that is achieved through hard work, to being equated with the pursuit of wealth and power, and identifying happiness with having money. The novel depicts the rise and fall of the concept and describes the causes of its decay. The downfall of the American Dream is most accurately shown through the main protagonist of the story – Jay Gatsby. To reiterate, the American Dream is the concept that anyone can achieve a better life and become self-fulfilled, if they put enough effort to it and make the most of their abilities.
Seth Harvey Ms. Maggert English Honors III 7 April 2017 The Death and Resurrection of the American Dream In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald quietly critiques the American Dream and the way it has been besmirched through the use of strong symbolism and the story of Jay Gatz. In the novel, Gatsby symbolizes the American Dream, coming from rags to riches. The 1920s is where the American Dream began to change.