Themes Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby
Introduction
F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American novelist, managed to write a novel which has decisively influenced the view of people about the American society in the 1920's. This novel, which was published in 1925, is called The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's novel mostly deals with status, power, wealth as the concepts of the American Dream at the beginning of the 20th century. The author provides the reader with a deep insight into the American society as well as the aristocracy and the false beliefs that are built around them. The novel illustrates well how the American Dream control human behavior.
The idea of the American Dream goes back in the 17th century when the puritans left Europe with the hope for a better and fulfilling life
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The idea of following one particular dream characterizes the whole novel.
"And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther...and one fine morning–" (Fitzgerald, Scott F 1925: 140)
In the passage Nick Carraway is wandering at the beach near his home he has just sold and observing the island. He expresses his own thoughts about his friend, Jay Gatsby and his dreams. Nick, the first-person narrator of the novel, mentions Daisy, his second cousin and the mysterious green light around her that Gatsby adored. He refers to the unfulfilled love of Daisy and Gatsby. In this passage the reader becomes aware of Gatsby's real intentions and how he truly felt. He did everything to make his dreams come true, to be with his love, but he
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