Inequality In The Great Gatsby
The American Dream, a concept where success and prosperity are achievable by anyone through hard work and determination regardless of their initial social status, has been a cornerstone of American culture for decades. However, America’s never-ending inequality proves that reality is far removed from this idealistic notion. Two works of literature that explore inequality and the inaccessibility of the American Dream are F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic novel, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and Alex Gibney’s 2012 documentary film ‘Park Avenue: Money, Power and The American Dream’. While both works examine and highlight the factors perpetuating inequality in America, ‘The Great Gatsby’ hones in on the wealthy classes’ obliviously lavish lifestyles underpinned …show more content…
Through stylistic and metaphorical characterisation of the fruitless pursuit of the American Dream, upper-class entitlement and deep-rooted inequality, audiences witness the empty promises cast upon Americans. The American Dream, although great in theory, is tainted by greed and ill morals that render it simply unattainable.
In ‘The Great Gatsby,’ the American Dream is represented as the promise of upward mobility and success, leading to the blind pursuit of wealth and status. Each day people “run faster” and “stretch out [their] arms farther”, showing their never-ending pursuit for the American dream. This idea is embodied by the character of Jay Gatsby who relentlessly chases wealth and success to overcome class boundaries so that he is no longer separated from his hopes and dreams of being with his former lover,
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Fitzgerald employs the novel’s ‘green light’ to highlight the dichotomy between greed and love. The green light across from Gatsby’s porch physically illuminates the path to Daisy’s love. He “believed in the green light” and “the orgastic future” that it represents, yet this same path is green with greed and avarice as his longing for power and wealth are the means to an end, Daisy’s love.
Indeed, Daisy was to Gatsby what the American Dream is to Americans. Both are unequivocally beautiful in thought and sight yet impossible to be entirely obtained. Daisy, who is described as “the golden girl” with a “voice … full of money”, is a fundamentally arrogant, shallow, materialistic, and morally bankrupt person that prioritises wealth over true love. This along with the insatiable human desire for more inherently prefaces dissatisfaction, as seen by Gatsby’s downfall when his dream to relive the past becomes impossible. In effect, Fitzgerald tells readers that obtaining the American Dream is a
The Great Gatsby American Dream
660 Words | 3 PagesThe 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.
Examples Of Diction In The Great Gatsby
716 Words | 3 PagesIn F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, he captures the alluring niche of the American Dream. Fitzgerald delves into the Roaring Twenties, exploring the era’s instability and immersion in greed and pleasure. In his novel, he reflects personal events and experiences being lower class along with his desire to attain wealth for the means of happiness. Presented through his cast of characters and the realities they face, Fitzgerald criticizes the American Dream. Pairing symbolism and diction, he demonstrates the tragic tales following the glamorized American Dream as a result of the extent individuals resort to in order to achieve this ideal.
Examples Of Disillusionment In The Great Gatsby
886 Words | 4 PagesWhen you first ever hear about “The American Dream,” you visualize great luxury, a picture-perfect picket fence, and a high social status. This impractical idealism is solely based on the foundation of “money buys happiness.” It is so inaccurate, considering those with the most riches and power always seem to want more. F. Scott Fitzgeralds novel “The Great Gatsby,” demonstrates how your biggest dreams can quickly become your worst nightmare. Fitzgerald uses the Buchanans, Myrtle, and Gatsby to develop his theme of the corruption and disillusionment of the American Dream.
What Is The Difference Between The Great Gatsby And Myrtle's Death
987 Words | 4 PagesThe idea of the American Dream has served as a driving force in American society for centuries. However, the attainability of this dream is not promised, and rather than a dream, one could just be pursuing a destructive illusion. The American Dream is highlighted in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, illustrated as an alluring ideal that could deviate into a harmful fallacy. The harm of the American dream can be associated with Gatsby and Myrtle’s deaths, both demonstrating the failure of the lower class obtaining their desired reality. Daisy and Tom help depict how the achievability of the American dream is more prevalent to those whose social status is predetermined to be higher.
Daisy As A Tragic Hero
1109 Words | 5 PagesThe ever-hopeful end result of pursuing the American dream is the aspiration of achieving a substantial amount of money and successfully building the white picket fence. Many talk about the famous accounts of successful dream chasers, however, hidden under their feet are countless Americans anxiously waiting to climb up the ladder. In contrast, several get caught up on earthly desires believing it will lead them to eternal satisfaction, but often, it decides their own fate. In The Great Gatsby, American author F. Scott Fitzgerald explores the tragedy found within numerous characters. This novel reveals all social classes striving to achieve the American dream, showing how even the most wealthy struggle to live an authentic, happy life.
Class Divide And The Great Gatsby
1115 Words | 5 PagesThe American dream has always been an interesting part of our country’s history and a rather difficult concept to define. It’s explored as a prominent theme throughout our literature and entertainment. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, “The Great Gatsby'' and Marc Levin’s documentary, “Class Divide” are examples that thoroughly portray the harsh reality through different societal perspectives. Both authors reveal obstacles that emphasize the flawed corruption, responsible for making this dream difficult for many to obtain because of the perpetuating inequality wired in it. F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates how the American Dream was an unreachable and corrupt ideal throughout the 1920’s jazz era in New York.
Examples Of Materialism In The Great Gatsby
1174 Words | 5 PagesThe characters in the story are consumed by their desire for money, status, and material possessions, and their lives revolve around the pursuit and acquisition of wealth. Fitzgerald reflects the American dream through the character of Gatsby displaying him as the model to follow for the American dream, he’s got the money and freedom to do what he wants when he wants. Fitzgerald conveys through Gatsby's character that despite achieving wealth, the materialism of the American Dream does not guarantee happiness. As the story progresses we start to see cracks in his perfect American dream, and he crumbles down from the unsurmountable weight his illegal actions brought upon him and he dies. Fitzgerald incapsulates Daisy as Gatsby’s American dream with “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy's white face came up to his own.
Examples Of Disposable In The Great Gatsby
1123 Words | 5 PagesThe American Dream has been a goal for many Americans for many decades. This dream often consists of “pulling up your bootstraps” and moving from a lower class position to a high class one through hard work. Even though this has been a prominent value throughout the decades, it is difficult to think of this as truly attainable. Although F.Scott Fitzgerald highlights the extremely wealthy and elite in the novel, The Great Gatsby, the failure of George Wilson and the way Tom Buchanan views everyone as disposable proves that the American Dream is not attainable. Throughout The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald places emphasis on the material wealth of many of his characters including the Buchanans and Jay Gatsby.
Examples Of Myrtle In The Great Gatsby
1354 Words | 6 PagesMany people don’t know that the gain of social status, wealth, and materialistic things can lead to the destruction of the American Dream. Also, the American Dream shows that people would do anything to have this said dream. In The Great Gatsby, there are many examples of the American Dream declining. In the book, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald reveals that the American Dream is
Why Is The Great Gatsby Unattainable
837 Words | 4 PagesThe Great Gatsby is frequently split between East Egg, West Egg, and Valley Of Ashes. East Egg represents the old money, West Egg represents new money, and the Valley Of Ashes shows the social decline and failure of the American Dream. Though some characters of higher class display that the “American Dream” is attainable in “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it ultimately proves itself impossible for the mainstream public and other key characters, due to the lengths of which that the wealthy had to go through, just to end up in considerably worse situations than standard citizens. In contrast to the American Dream being unattainable, Fitzgerald shows that it is possible for anyone to access and achieve the American Dream, if they
Materialism In The Great Gatsby Analysis
1558 Words | 7 PagesThe 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 Facade Of The American Dream In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
1034 Words | 5 PagesThe Facade of the American Dream The American Dream is the opportunity for all Americans to live a life of personal happiness and material comfort, but is it actually achievable? F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, is a story of characters working hard to achieve the American Dream, but ultimately they are unable to ever realize their perfect life. The novel makes a strong naturalism argument about the rigid class system in society and the disillusionment of the American Dream.
The Role Of Social Mobility In The Great Gatsby
578 Words | 3 PagesThe American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success, prosperity, and social mobility through hard work, determination, and initiative. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby attempts to achieve social mobility but ultimately fails due to the constructs of old vs new money. An argument is shown that the American Dream is just that, a dream, and that happiness cannot be achieved through wealth. In the novel, the super poor are stuck in their social class, unable to move because they live in the valley of ashes, which represents poverty and the corruption and social decay that came with the lavish and careless lifestyles of the rich.
The Great Gatsby Outline Essay
871 Words | 4 PagesI. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, the American Dream is depicted as a mirage due to its ultimate lack of fulfillment, outsider’s inability to obtain it, and the corruption it causes. A. Those who have achieved their idea of the American Dream are ultimately unfulfilled emotionally even though they possess tremendous wealth. B. The American Dream is a mirage, and thus unattainable as it limits success of an individual by their class and ethnic origin. C. Not only is the American Dream exclusive and unfulfilling, but it also causes corruption as those who strive for the American Dream corrupt themselves in doing so and the old rich hide behind their wealth in order to conceal their immoralities.
The Negative Side Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
772 Words | 4 Pages"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 that if a person doesn’t compromise they may suffer. In the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American Dream is one the many themes present. The American Dream that most people in this book hope to have involves wealth, status, a fun social life, and someone to lust after. It is the life they all strive to have until they obtain it and see its meaningless composure.
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