How Did The Great Gatsby Achieve The American Dream

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The American Dream is contrastive for everyone and is constantly evolving. It used to be about materialistic items, but now it's more about having a stable life. Each American has a different idea of what the “perfect” life would be. The idea of the American Dream originated from when immigrants came to America to fulfill a new life. In the 1930’s the American Dream was defined as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability and achievement, regardless of social class or circumstances of birth” (quoted in King 573). Today, numerous people question if the American Dream is still alive. On the other hand, many believe the dream is still obtainable. The …show more content…
F. Scott Fitzgerald shows his views on the American Dream and how to be successful, even with obstacles in the way, through the book The Great Gatsby. Through the character Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald illustrates that through hard work people can achieve the American Dream. Nick comes from a wealthy family, but didn't earn any of the money himself. Nick expresses how his family became wealthy when stating, “The Carraways are something of a clan, and we have a tradition that we're descended from the Dukes of Buccleuch, but the actual founder of my line was my grandfather's brother, who came here in fifty-one, sent a substitute to the Civil War, and started the wholesale hardware business that my father carries on today”(20). Nick punctures the image that his family comes from a high class, but instead, he puts himself into another kind of grandeur, a family that actually has achieved the American Dream of wealth and respectability through hard work. His family’s wealth started from an idea and grew into something substantial. Nick’s grandfather’s brother worked hard through obstacles, like the Civil War, to get where their family is today. Holding true today, many Americans inherited companies passed down from generations to generations. Each company started with an idea and grew from that idea into something bigger. A successful company symbolizes the hard work …show more content…
This value of the American Dream has not changed much. Today, people still care about money as much as they did then. Various people believe having money will lead to happiness, which is not always the case. In The Great Gatsby, the characters strive for more riches. After Daisy returns home to Tom after the hit and run accident, Gatsby sits alone in his large, cold mansion. Nick portrays it using negative details, “His house had never seemed so enormous to me as it did that night when we hunted through the great rooms for cigarettes. We pushed aside curtains that were like pavilions and felt over innumerable feet of dark wall for electric light switches--once I tumbled with a sort of splash upon the keys of a ghostly piano. There was an inexplicable amount of dust everywhere and the rooms were musty…” (157). Gatsby's dark and dusty house represents his emptiness now that his dream of turning back time and starting a new life with Daisy has died. Even with all their money, none of the characters are happy with what they have. They all seem empty, directionless, and stagnant. This holds true today, since people believe money leads to happiness, but in reality happiness is created. Americans want to show off their wealth and show to other people how much they have. Thinking that money will get them whatever they want, Americans strive
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