American Dream In The Great Gatsby And Hidden Figures

The American Dream is the enduring ideal that anyone can come from nothing, and through hard work and dedication, make something of themselves. The American Dream promises that regardless of your background, race or gender, if you work hard you can achieve greatness, however this is not always the case, and to those who are discriminated against, the American Dream remains just that - a dream. It is this discussion concerning the viability of the American Dream which both ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and ‘Hidden Figures’ by Theodore Melfi draw inspiration from. Written and set in 1920’s America, ‘The Great Gatsby’ utilises narrator Nick Carraway to tell the story of mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his journey to reunite

Since he was born, Gatsby’s dream had been to deliver himself from poverty and make something of himself. He moves away from home, changes his name, enlists in the army, doing everything in his power to create a distinct separation between his past and his desired future. As a result, he begins to covet, and carry out an affair with, married ‘old-money’ debutant, Daisy Buchanan, the physical embodiment of Gatsby’s Dream. In the context of 1920’s America, ‘old money’ refers to the elite society to which Daisy and her husband Tom belong, made up of families of incredible generational wealth whose aristocratic grace may only be achieved through breeding.

However, among these blue-blooded aristocrats, Gatsby will never be accepted. This is evident when Daisy’s husband Tom, upon discovering the affair, states, “I suppose the latest thing is to …let Mr Nobody from nowhere make love to your wife.” p.g.100. This understatement highlights that to Tom, regardless of Gatsby’s immense wealth, he is a nobody. He will never be able to escape his impoverished background and join the closed ‘old money’ society of New York because he was not born into

Myrtle, as a woman of the 1920’s, should be a paragon of feminism and independence, however, she is used by Fitzgerald in order to show how unrealistic these ideals truly are. As a lower-class female living in the valley of the ashes, Myrtle has no chance of achieving the goals of the ‘new woman’ of the 1920s, and consequently, must try to gain upward mobility by seducing Tom Buchanan. She believes that as his mistress she will be able to overcome the barriers between her lower-class life and her upper-class dreams, but in the end, Tom only treats her as a glorified pet he can treat however he wants. This is seen when Tom, “[breaks Myrtle’s] nose with his open hand.” P.g.30. This violent imagery demonstrates how even though she is his mistress, Tom will never treat Myrtle as his equal because he is a benefactor of the misogynistic society holding her back. Through Myrtle, Fitzgerald shows the fallibility of the American Dream in that, even though the 1920’s was supposedly a time of progress, it remained virtually impossible for women to make something of themselves without the support of a