ipl-logo

American Dream In The Great Gatsby And The Epic Journey

601 Words3 Pages

The view of the American Dream is different for everyone. The Epic Journey, by James Truslow Adams, views the American Dream as a dream of attaining one’s fullest stature regardless of one’s social status. Similarly, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s American Dream relates to Adam’s dream but limited to materialistic wealth- a dream that seeks for motor cars, higher wages, and to impress the people of high status. Both Adams and Gatsby believe that everyone has an equal chance of achieving their dream. Adams says “The dream is that dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”. It means no matter what drawbacks one may have in the beginning one can work hard and reach to their fullest potential. In Gatsby situation, he starts out as a young boy helping his father as a farmer. He sees his opportunity to earn money when Dan Cody offers him a job. …show more content…

Daisy never has to sacrifice anything or work hard for her own money because she inherited all her money from her parents. As Adam’s says “It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrust of it.” She does not understand what the American Dream is and how it affects Gatsby. Nick comments, “It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy---they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or in their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made…”(187). Daisy is an ignorant woman, she destroys Gatsby’s dream and felt no guilt in leaving him. She feels safe as long as she had her money. She uses her money to cover up her wrong doings. Her ignorance and carelessness cause her to not understand the hard work behind the American

Show More
Related
583 Words | 3 Pages

Sheida AbbaszadehSarhangi Hanna Bovberg English 11 12 December 2017 The Great Gatsby Synthesis Rhetorical Analysis Essay The American Dream, a place where life is better and has more money, a chance for each individual relying on their ability. Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, portrays his concept of the American dream as something that will never satisfy us. Once we get what we want, we use any kind of way to get more because we always want more.

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

In The Great Gatsby, the character Daisy Buchanan embodies purity, sophistication, and grace. She is the epitome of wealthy American women in the 1920s, weaving between social circles often through parties in a way that results in their optimal outcome. However, this superior exterior reveals to be a facade of Daisy’s actions and personality. The author uses her as a way to show that corruption along with a lack of morality is inevitable with immense wealth. Although Daisy leads with an innocent image, her true nature is as dishonorable as that of her affluent counterparts.

Read More
1657 Words | 7 Pages

Daisy is a woman Gatsby himself described as having a “Voice filled with money” which can only push the readers to assume that she rather enjoys the feeling of money in her pocket and the financial stability of a Queen. This is what sets in motion Gatsby’s rise of a criminal bootlegging empire, the need to show Daisy that she cannot only have money to flaunt but a marriage that is filled with real compassion and caring, unlike the one she has with Tom Buchanan which is dull, cold and hinted to be abusive. Gatsby believes he’s reached his goal when Daisy is literally brought to tears by the luxurious amounts of shirts Jay just happens to have lying around but even than his story still ends with her leaving him for her

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

“Never mistake activity for achievement,” John Wooden once said. Some may make the boldest of moves but never reach their final destination. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his characters placed in the 1920’s to show relationships and to reflect ideals of the time. Fitzgerald uses perception and lifestyles to develop the idea that just as people are idealized, a decayed society and lifestyle are as well and both lead others to an empty pursuit. The Great Gatsby highlights characters who reflect the idea that people tend to instill others with idealized perfection that they do not deserve.

Read More
1391 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout The Great Gatsby, Daisy is portrayed as a victim of infidelity and a confused girl who married the wrong man. However, her character plays a part in the selfishness of the American Dream as well. Fitzgerald subtly displays the materialistic side of Daisy Buchanan, as well as her clear disregard for those who do so much for her. Despite her inherited wealth, Daisy seems to still be drawn toward having more--and that is what the American Dream is all about. When she goes over to Gatsby’s house she is amazed by the size and luxury of it, and when she is bombarded with Gatsby’s colorful shirts she begins to cry.

Read More
1408 Words | 6 Pages

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a young wealthy man who lives in West Egg represents new money. Gatsby attempts to win over Daisy, who represents old money, by showing off his wealth through his large parties and material items, all in order to attain his own happiness. Gatsby is willing to do anything to be with Daisy and keeps pushing to be with her even though she is out of his reach and unattainable. Gatsby ends up dying, while Daisy continues to live with her husband, Tom, because they are kept together by their mutual desire for money. Gatsby’s American Dream is unattainable, but he continues to pursue Daisy through his wealth and status, even though it leads to his corruption.

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone has their own idea of what the American Dream is and F. Scott Fitzgerald is no different. In Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, he depicts the American Dream as being materialistic. During this period in time, people's main focus was getting wealthy. The roaring twenties was a period in which everything and everyone changed.

Read More
2259 Words | 10 Pages

Gatsby was once poor, and later in his life, he earned a large amount of money through illegal businesses to earn the love of Daisy, whom he lost five years ago. However, Gatsby dies in the end, and Daisy never accepts Gatsby’s love. This affects the validity of money, proving happiness in any way. Moreover, Daisy’s personification as a character is a model of someone who is born into the American Dream due to the fact that she was born in America and therefore has high status and opportunities for money. However, Daisy ends up unhappy since she has no dream to strive for.

Read More
1184 Words | 5 Pages

The 1920's were a time of great social and economic change in the United States. Many people migrated to the cities, where numerous job opportunities were available. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby uses these opportunities to recreate his life from poor to rich, but the one piece missing from his idealized life is Daisy. She is rich, beautiful, and appears perfect from the outside. However, as we get to know her, we learn that she is also shallow, petty, and unhappy with her situation in life.

Read More
241 Words | 1 Pages

In his novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald explores the reality of the American Dream. Throughout the novel, he uses Daisy to represent the American Dream. In chapter eight, after Daisy crashes the car, “she vanish[es] into her rich house… leaving Gatsby nothing” (149). Daisy is depicted as soulless; she is willing to let Gatsby take the fall for her faults. In order to remain the American Dream, Daisy must appear blameless to society; therefore, the common man must always take responsibility for her mistakes.

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

Regardless of Daisy’s marriage, Gatsby develops a relationship with her, before eventually falling victim to the American Dream, failing to secure Daisy

Read More
818 Words | 4 Pages

“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy” says Fitzgerald. “They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness … and let other people clean up their mess.” This shows how little they value any life apart from their own, least of all those they are supposed to care about. This is manifested in the relationship between Daisy and Gatsby: Gatsby knows what it’s like to have nothing and to be striving towards a goal and therefore his relationship with Daisy takes on enormous significance; Daisy, on the other hand, has never worked towards anything in her life. She teases Gatsby: “as he left the room she got up and went over to Gatsby, pulling his face down, kissing him on the mouth” and while she is delighted upon being presented with what Gatsby owns, it is by these material things that she is largely driven, with Fitzgerald describing her as having a voice “full of money.”

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

Many must resort to competition in order to achieve the Dream, including Gatsby who is involved in bootlegging and is competing with Tom for Daisy’s love. Myrtle and the Buchanans show that the increasing desire of materialism makes the Dream almost impossible to obtain and demoralizes those who try to reach it. Fitzgerald mocks the American Dream by showing how the 1920s was the beginning of the Dream’s destruction; a dream that was once hopeful became completely damaging and impossible. In his book, The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams explains the American Dream to be "that 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.” (Adams xvi).

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

The American Dream is a consistent theme that is shown by Gatsby’s life. Fitzgerald described Jay Gatsby’s, formerly known as James Gatz, early life by saying, “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people” (Fitzgerald 98). This proves that the multi-millionaire Gatsby, despite the rumors of how he was brought up, came from poverty. Along his path to success Gatsby met Dan Cody and traveled the world with him. Dan Cody perished and that's where it was said, “And it was from Cody that he inherited money-- a legacy of twenty-five thousand dollars.

Read More

More about American Dream In The Great Gatsby And The Epic Journey

Open Document