Explain The Destruction Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, written in 1924 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, in my opinion, focused on the

Francis Scott Fitzgerald once stated, “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart and all they can do is stare blankly.” Throughout his famous work, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrayed the American Dream. Contrary to the ideology of the “Roaring Twenties” society, he described the American Dream as a delusion. People of the era focused on materialism in order to boost their wealth and status and forgot the importance of their relationships. Several characters within the novel sought to gain a higher status in society.

The Corruption of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates society in the 1920’s and the desire for the people with in it to achieve the American Dream, which embodies the hope that one can achieve power, love and a higher economic/social status through one’s commitment and effort. The novel develops the story of a man named Jay Gatsby and his dream of marrying what he describes as his “golden girl”, also known as, Daisy Buchanan, his former lover. Fitzgerald explores the corruption of the American dream through the Characters; Myrtle, Gatsby and Daisy.

Gatsby’s Failure of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby Dreams are seen as a positive way to keep people going forward through their lives. However, dreams can blind people and not let them to see the truth. The novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald criticizes the idea of The American Dream of not being able to be achieved. Gatsby is one of the characters in the novel that tries to achieve The American Dream. The pursuit of the American Dream brings negative results to Gatsby because he becomes greedy, unrealistic, and dishonest, which shows that chasing dreams can destroy one’s life.

Evan Olmstead English II - 6th Mr. Davidson 2/16/18 AMDG The Great American Dream F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby portrays many themes, however the most significant theme relates to man 's unsuccessful attempts at the American dream. The Great Gatsby shows how not one by many characters fail at achieving their American dream. The American Dream as defined by James Truslow Adams in 1921, "life should be better, richer, and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each regardless of social class or circumstances of birth”. The desire to strive for what one wants can be achieved if one is willing to work hard enough.

In “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald, Myrtle Wilson plays a role in not only her own death, but also the tragic demise of J. Gatsby. In chapter 2 she is described as “in her middle thirties and faintly stout” (29). Myrtle Wilson is the wife of degenerate garage owner George Wilson. She expresses her feelings for her decision on marrying George as “The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake” (34-35).

Despite this awful scene their affair continuous due to the fact that Myrtle is obsessed with the plan of escaping from her marriage. The another messed up relationship is between Gatsby and Daisy. Like Myrtle, Gatsby wants to become a part of the high social class and escape from the name tag of “New Money”. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy and her wealth that she represents. He becomes obsessed with her in a level that he would cover up and take full responsibility for all of her misbehavers.

In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays many themes; however, the most significant one revealed throughout the novel is the American Dream is not achievable through accepted, conventional methods, but by sacrificing moral integrity and values. To embody the American Dream one must have money, power, love and a happy family. Myrtle, Daisy and Gatsby's obsession with the American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby, have all been corrupted and destroyed by trying to lead in this dream, therefore, causing them to lead themselves to their own failures. Myrtle’s obsessive desire for an upper-class lifestyle leads to her failure, death, and loss of true happiness. Myrtle’s obsession causes her to commit adultery in her marriage

The perception of the American Dream was that an individual can achieve success in life regardless of family history or social status if they only work hard enough, but his wasn't always the case. Therefore, Fitzgerald used the different locations and social positions of characters to reflect the 1920s in his novel. The Great Gatsby to a large extent reflects the 1920s as the decade of exciting social changes and prosperity. From Word War one to the great depression everyday decisions were interpreted differently compared with to the past due to the occurrences that altered American

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is a reflection of the American Dream. Written in 1925, the book tells the story of a man named Jay Gatsby, whose main driving force in life is the pursuit of a woman called Daisy Buchanan. The narrator is Gatsby’s observant next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway, who offers a fresh, outsider’s perspective on the events; the action takes place in New York during the so-called Roaring Twenties. By 1922, when The Great Gatsby takes place, the American Dream had little to do with Providence divine and a great deal to do with feelings organized around style and personal changed – and above all, with the unexamined self . 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.

As more is revealed about Gatsby in the Plaza it looks less and less likely that Daisy is going to leave Tom for Gatsby. Daisy isn 't able to convince Tom or anyone else at the Plaza that she loves Gatsby. So much so that Tom even insists that Gatsby ride home with Daisy. After Myrtle’s death Gatsby still hoped for Daisy to come back for him, it never happens and Daisy and Tom end up running away from the mess they made in New York. Myrtle ended up cheating on Wilson because Tom had the money that Wilson lacked, she felt like she deserved more than she was getting.

Many people fantasize about the American dream. In his book The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams (1931) describes the American Dream as a, “...dream of land in which life should be better and richer and full for everyone with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” The American Dream is the idea that if a person has a significant amount of money and friends that they will be happy. It is in our nature as humans to want to be the best and have nicer things than our peers. The majority of people try to achieve the American Dream so that they will feel more exceptional to others. Though, in The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is a fallacy that the character Nick realizes can never truly be attained.

"The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream." In this quote, by Azar Nafisi, it explains how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and it that if you don 't compromise you may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes in this book. The American Dream that most people in this book obtains to have is wealth, statist, a fun social life, and someone to lust. It is the life we all strive to have until we obtain it and see it 's meaningless composure. As a result of an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overall cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The character Jay Gatsby is the best character to show the American Dream and its awful outcome.

Myrtle was a “gold-digger”, but she also believed that he would genuinely love her and pick her over Daisy, even though Tom gave no indication of doing so. Like Daisy, breathed out wealth, Myrtle had breathed out vitality and sensuality, hoping for Tom to chose her as his love and for him to give her riches and luxury. As for Daisy, much like Myrtle, was also chasing both money and love, at different points in her life. Daisy, initially wanted love, and she displayed that, by first waiting for Gatsby and then once again when she was newly married with Tom. Over time, like with Myrtle, this dream of love evolved to of riches further on in her life.

There are many themes exist in the novel of The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. The most significant theme in this novel is the American dream. The meaning of the American Dream is someone who starting low on the social level or economic, which then working hard and try their best towards wealth and fame. In other word, it stand for one’s independence to strive in order to achieve desired wealth and fame with hard work, but it ends up being more about selfish and materialism pursuit of pleasure. American dream is achieve when a person having a car, money, big house, happy family and nice clothes. The dream is represented by the ideas of a self-sufficient man or woman, who works hard to achieve a goal to become successful. Based on the novel of The Great Gatsby it shows about what happened to the American Dream in the 1920’s, which is a time period when the dreams became corrupted for many reasons. Not only the corruption of American Dream that happen in this story but American Dream also has caused destruction and can be seen through Daisy, Myrtle and Gatsby.