Great Gatsby: The American Dream

Words: 816
Pages: 4
Open Document
The American Dream, what is it? The American Dream, as stated by Anna Wulick in the article ("The Great Gatsby: The American Dream,") is, “the belief that anyone, regardless of race, class, gender, or nationality, can be successful in America if they just work hard enough.” The American Dream was first publicly defined in 1931 coined up by James Truslow as he states, "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement." As seen, James Truslow's definition of The American Dream differs from Anna Wulick's and that is because, over the course of time, The American Dream has taken on many meanings. For example, Fredrick …show more content…
The American Dream in To Kill a Mockingbird is conjured up by Atticus, fighting for justice for a former slave named Tom Robinson. His American Dream is known throughout the book as he fights for justice and for blacks and whites to finally be equal. Lee's perception of The American Dream would be equality for everyone and success comes through perseverance and belief. One example of this is Miss Maudie, after the fire in her house, Miss Maudie does not complain once. Instead, she sees this as an opportunity to build a better house, showing perseverance and her belief that this is a sign for …show more content…
It could mean achieving all the goals one set out for him or herself by hard work and determination or simply just being wealthy. Examples of differing meanings of The American Dream would be in the stories, Fredrick Douglas by Fredrick Douglas, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. These stories have a variety of examples of The American Dream and could really give one a perspective on how it has all really has changed. But, to put everything simply The American Dream is, after all, just a dream, unless
Show More

Related Documents: Great Gatsby: The American Dream

American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The character Daisy Buchanan, who is overly wealthy, is used to criticize equally corrupted dream of the upper class. Fitzgerald portrays her to illustrate how people are still struggling to find true happiness in life even with wealth, marriage and high social class. First, Daisy is the character who partially fulfills the requirements for the American Dream because she was born into wealthy social class, which members of lower classes have striven for. However, she finds her life still dissatisfying…

Words 667 - Pages 3

The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The great and the gatsby by f. Scott fitzgerald, is a decline of the american dream of the 1920s set in the summer of 1922.A young nick carraway telling the story of his neighbor gatsby and how the love story of gatsby and daisy is portrayed.The great gatsby can be looked at as the american dream and the decline of the american dream.The american dream is any gender or immigrant coming to the us or living in the us in the rise of achieving success and prosperity through hard work and determination…

Words 579 - Pages 3

The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream in The Great Gatsby In the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Great Gatsby, there is a central theme that the American dream has been destroyed by an emphasis on materialism. This is shown through the themes of fabrication of self, attitudes toward women, and the destruction of the American dream. The characters that symbolize this central theme are Gatsby and Daisy. These two characters show the downfall of the American Dream. There are also symbols to support the downfall;…

Words 1326 - Pages 6

The Great Gatsby And The American Dream

The american dream is the idea that every u.s. Citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. The great gatsby is a highly symbolic of the disintegration of the american dream, Fitzgerald portrays the 1920’s as an era of decayed socialization, and moral values as well, being evidenced in its overarching cynicism, greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure and reckless jubilance. The american dream influences our society because…

Words 318 - Pages 2

The Great Gatsby And The American Dream

infuses American literature. The Great Gatsby is one of the best examples of the way in which the American Dream, a version of it at least, can appear within reach only to curdle and turn into a nightmare. Though the abstract notion of “The American Dream” can mean different things to different people, but the sense of self-made success is perhaps the most frequently depicted version of the achievement of the Dream in popular culture. Gatsby, by all accounts, appears to have achieved a level of entrepreneurial…

Words 136 - Pages 1

The Theme Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The American Dream is a belief that anyone can attain their own version of success. Throughout The Great Gatsby, the American Dream relates to hopes and dreams, America’s obsession with wealth, etc. Fitzgerald uses several forms of literary devices to convey this message to the audience, some of which include metaphors, allusion, paradoxes, etc. On the surface, this is a story about thwarted love between a man and a woman. However, the theme of the American Dream encompasses a much larger idea aside…

Words 537 - Pages 3

Daisy's American Dream In The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby wants nothing more than a love and a life with his long lost lover, Daisy; she is his American Dream. Gatsby holds onto a semblance of hope that some day he can achieve his dream, and he goes an extreme length to assure it happens. In the end, Gatsby’s untimely death illuminates these extreme lengths he dares to go to achieve his American Dream. Contrary to telling Nick that he inherited his wealth, Gatsby in fact acquired a large portion of his…

Words 616 - Pages 3

Corruption Of American Dream In The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby has many representation of themes and symbols; however the greatest theme is the corruption of the American dream. The American dream is the name given to an idea that you can start from the bottom, and become something great. By having a fancy car, house, and nice things that family is the symbolization of the American dream. Corruption and destructiveness were a product of the American dream. Myrtle, Gatsby, and Daisy have all been corrupted and destroyed by the idea of the American…

Words 87 - Pages 1

The Great Gatsby Unattainable The American Dream

In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby is the most meaningful character because he represents how unattainable the American dream is. After Gatsby is dead Nick reflects saying, “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it” (Fitzgerald 189). Gatsby is clearly striving to make a life for himself in order to be comparable to those deemed successful, the old money, such as Daisy and Tom. Gatsby’s aspirations were…

Words 336 - Pages 2

Examples Of The American Dream In The Great Gatsby

Myers Ms. Maggert Honors English III 11 April 2017 The American Dream or the American Nightmare In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Aamerican {some capitalization errors. make sure that you proofread before turning it in. i will not fix them in your entire paper but i do notice them. } dream is dissected and thrown away. The morals of old america are destroyed by the upper class, including both new money and old money. The dream comes with the idea that if one works hard enough, one…

Words 755 - Pages 4