The Great Gatsby written by F.Scott Fitzgerald takes place during the 1920s. The time of parties and money. However the time also focuses on accomplishing the American dream. The dream can be anything you want it to be. Most characters had money on their mind and the main focus of their own life. The Great Gatsby shows that the American dream is perceived by the characters as living with lots of money, however in reality there is a deeper dream inside everyone.
In the story of Gatsby, Jay learns from a friend that the rich life is the way to live. In the book it says “He was left with his singularly appropriate education; the vague contour of Jay Gatsby had filled out to the substantiality of a man.”(Fitzgerald 101). This quote proves that
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“Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now like the ragged edge of the universe-so I decided to go east and learn the bond business” (Fitzgerald 3). In the 1920s the bond business was booming. Nick just like everyone else had the interest of money but was not his true intention. In Fitzgerald’s novel readers see that Carraway enjoys writing however that is not his true dream either. Nick is a character that is caring and focuses on friends first. Nick's true dream is never blatantly revealed however some may infer his dream. Nick was a honest man who enjoyed the company of good hearted people. I believe that his true dream is to have a society full of trustworthy, kind people. After seeing how all the characters act with the games of love and money Nick was not pleased. “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”(Fitzgerald 179). Nick himself was the only moral man he knew. Nick believed Gatsby had the quality of being a moral man but however when Gatsby was shot Nick’s dream of finding good people in the world was crushed. “Bloom on The Great Gatsby” says this “We do not know what life Carraway will return when he goes west, but evidently it will be a life somewhat illuminated by Gatsby’s dream…”(Bloom). Gatsby will never leave Nick’s mind. While reading The Great Gatsby it tells us Nick is moving back to the west, most likely to find people of good
Nick Carraway is the narrator of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This novel is a story about the love triangle of Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby, told from the perspective of Nick. Nick moves to Long Island, New York, where he encounters the lives of his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom, as well as his wealthy neighbor Jay. Throughout the story, Nick shows that he is judgmental, dishonest, and passive. Nick is an extremely judgmental person throughout his life.
He doesn’t have a lot of money when he moves from the west out to the east. The house he lives in is a small house but from the moment he moves into it he is surrounded by money by having Gatsby’s mansion next door to his. The first few people Nick goes to see are very rich, thus continuing the trend of Nick meeting rich people. Later in the story Nick also meets Gatsby and gets to know him and is offered a lot of rich wonderful things like spending time with Gatsby in his hydro-plane or having lunch with Gatsby and doing many other things with the rich people in the story, yet while surrounded by all this money and wonderful things he gets more and more involved with the problems of the rich people around him. It gets to the point where Nick gets so sick of it all he ends up moving back to the west at the end of the story.
Nick is a more reserved character, he keeps to himself, and tries to stay out of drama as much as he can. Nick moved from the Midwest to New York because he wanted to create a new, better life for himself. Although Nick is wealthy, he does not go around flaunting his money like Jay and Tom. Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor and is more of an observer. In “The Great Gatsby” the text states, “They had forgotten about me, but Daisy glanced up and held out her hand; Gatsby didn’t know me now at all” (Fitzgerald 96).
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. Gatsby’s American Dream is the life he strived to have and obtained for himself. When growing up he wasn’t born rich like most of the upper class.
The American dream is an illusion that is deeply implanted in the minds of the people, it sets a bar for life achievement and offers hope to work hard to achieve their dreams. As for Americans, they are raised in a society to where they are expected to make lots money and to have a healthy family. After all in our society success is largely based off positions of power and financial stability. For example, in The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there were multiple interpretations of the ideal American dream in the 1920s. In the 1920s, due to the growth of materialism, people advertised and fancied the power of money to fulfilling their dreams.
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”.
The 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.
Recounting heartbreak, betrayal, and deception, F. Scott Fitzgerald paints a bleak picture in the 1920’s novel The Great Gatsby. Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, witnesses the many lies others weave in order to achieve their dreams. However, the greatest deception he encounters is the one he lives. Not having a true dream, Nick instead finds purpose by living vicariously through others, and he loses that purpose when they are erased from his life.
It is made clear to the reader that Nick gains quite an interest in Gatsby. He actually begins to become obsessed with him. The book states, “Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him… It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.”
F.Scott Fitzgerald is an American novelist and a short story writer. He is the author of the famous novel “ The Great Gatsby”, which is written in the 1920’s. The period of the 1920’s is well known as the roaring twenties due to lack of morales and the lowering of standards and expectations, people intended just to have a good time not caring about the outcomes of their and how they will effect their lives. Fitzgerald wants to prove in his novel the death of “The American Dream” it’s just a myth. The author of this novel shows the death of the american dream through the events surrounding Gatsby, and Daisy.
Throughout the course of the book, Nick starts off open-minded, but gradually becomes disgusted with everyone he meets. Nick saw mostly everyone only thinking of themselves and trying to pursue "The American Dream", a staple of the 1920s. The one person Nick liked was Gatsby, because
Nick Carraway is the narrator in the novel “The Great Gatsby “by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is also the protagonist in the story. Nick is responsible for letting readers know what was happening in the story and his and other characters reaction toward it. He has explained how Gatsby love for Daisy and his disliking Tom. In the “The Great Gatsby” there are many thoughts nick has hidden from Gatsby such as Tom’s affair.
The American dream stands as a symbol for hope, prosperity, and happiness. But F. Scott Fitzgerald 's The Great Gatsby, examines the American dream from a different perspective, one that sheds light on those who contort these principles to their own selfish fantasies. Fitzgerald renders Jay Gatsby as a man who takes the Dream too far, and becomes unable to distinguish his false life of riches from reality. This 'unique ' American novel describes how humanity 's insatiable desires for wealth and power subvert the idyllic principles of the American vision. Jay Gatsby is the personification of limitless wealth and prestige, a shining beacon for the aspiring rich.
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 .
Gatsby then gets involved with the nightmare of the American Dream. Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s perfectly as an era of decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. This novel shows the lack of social skills in newly made millionaires such as Gatsby that cannot even pick up on an invitation to lunch. This book was enjoyable to read because it set in when America was becoming an economic superpower and it was relatable in some ways.