The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Gatsby believed that he was meant to get out of his current circumstance because it was his destiny. Gatsby even talks about how, “His parents were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people-his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all” (Fitzgerald 104). Throughout all of his young years he felt as though the world was calling to him to become something more. That passion led Gatsby to believing the only way to “free” himself from those “constraints” was by going out into society and becoming a part of the American dream. When he competed his destiny of becoming successful he had not realized how much the journey had taken away his morals and passion that had been present in his younger years.

History will live on in the present as discoveries about the past can affect the present. The love story within the movie puts further insight on this predicament. Sam Deeds and Pilar Cruz were teenage sweethearts who fell deeply in love with one another. However, the two was never able to understand why her mother and his father strongly disapproved their relationship with each other. Sam and Pilar from a young age had naturally assumed their parents not wanting them together due to racist beliefs of the other’s culture.

The characters in Of Mice and Men, the worst hard times, the great gatsby and Grapes of Wrath all have different ideas of their American dream and how to achieve it. Each have had their own struggles whether it was Lennie who couldn't quit hurting things, Gatsby who wanted nothing but love, or the many people in the worst hard times who just wanted their own land and somewhere where they could live. Gatsby wants daisy, everything else is a bore to him he believed that the only way he can be happy is with daisy and he cannot attain this dream the story foreshadows this at the beginning of the book by stating "Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock." The Dock is where Daisy lives and the green light stands for envy. Gatsby envy's Tom and Daisy and wishes that she would be his.

Philip Roth ends American Pastoral with a resounding rhetorical question: “And what is wrong with their life? What on earth is less reprehensible than the life of the Levovs?” (Roth 252). Indeed, one wonders, why has the Swede, a man seemingly perfect in every aspect, been marked out to be a modern day Job, one whose idyllic American life is shattered by a renegade, murderous daughter? The answer lies in the Swede’s enthrallment with the peak of the American dream, his utopian American pastoral. In striving for this ideal, the Swede sacrifices his Jewish identity in favor of the classic image of American innocence and individualistic achievement (the same image that enticed generations of assimilatory American Jews), yet fails to realize that

Dating back to the creation of the United States, the ‘American Dream’ represented one of America’s most defining characteristics. Built on the basis of freedom, hard work, and equality, it granted everyone the ability to succeed. While most could argue that, over time, this ‘dream’ turned into a symbol of materialistic views and greed, it has a much broader meaning. The American Dream is best defined as ‘the ability to achieve’. Jimmy Gatz, of Eastern European descent, was a poor farmer in desolate North Dakota, while his parents, unsuccessful and prone to failure, were no help to his dreams either.

Many would think the effect of this rejection could lead to many emotional problems but the result could be quite different . Rejection and the need for belonging is being neglected in our society. In J.D Salinger's novel “The Catcher In the Rye,” Holden Caulfield struggles with expressing himself in a manner that is accurate to his own personal and social codes. In a world full of “hot shots” Holden wants to maintain a life abiding to his view of the world.

Being able to push through hardships and continue to chase dreams is important. Sometimes when a certain dream has been imagined so much that the real dream is no longer attainable, it’s important to either get a reality check or chase a new dream. The character Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby was not able to move past his dream of having the love of the married Daisy Buchanan, and his obsession with her and his fantasy he had created in his head may have ultimately been the cause of his downfall. This lesson is exemplified when Fitzgerald closes the book with the famous quote, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year

Unimaginable Power “A Rose for Emily” “A Rose for Emily” a short story written by William Faulkner, brings us to the discussion of a dysfunctional family structure. This story has a very interesting twist, for us as readers surely have to read to the end to understand the journey we will embark on in this mysterious tale. Emily’s father was very protective of his daughter. She was like his prized procession that no one was to look at, “for if there were any gentleman callers he would drive them away” (Faulkner 683). This resulted in Emily being a bit awkward and nonsocial.

First of all, when Huck first discovered Jim, he acknowledged “people would call [him] a low down Abolitionist and despise [him] for keeping mum” (Twain 32). Knowing the rest of his community would despise him created an inner argument in his head. Huck grew up without the luxury of a family and home to learn the manners and habits of a normal lifestyle. But the question is whether it really is a luxury or “normal”. He began to understand the distinction between his own rights and wrongs on his own and questioned “the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and aint no trouble to do wrong” (69).

Scott Fitzgerald is one of the great American novels of the twentieth century primarily due to book tackling the concept of the American Dream in the roaring twenties. Each of the characters in the novel symbolizes how the American Dream has turned from a form of hope and aspiration towards greed and lack of morals. The general focus of novel is on the character Jay Gatsby, who readers learn about through Nick Caraway’s point of view. Near the end of the novel, the reader learns that Gatsby is a self made man who came from a working class family, joined the army, and through extremely hard work makes a life for himself. Gatsby’s main goal in becoming wealthy was to be with his sweetheart from the army, Daisy.