Great Gatsby And American Dream Essay, Research Paper

The Great Gatsby, a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is about the American Dream,

and the downfall of those who attempt to capture its illusionary goals. This

dream has varying significances for different people but in The Great Gatsby,

for Jay, the dream is that through wealth and power, one can acquire happiness.

To get this happiness Jay must reach into the past and relive an old dream and

in order to do this he must have wealth and power. Jay Gatsby, the central

figure of the story, is a character that longs for the past. Surprisingly he

devotes most of his adult life trying to recapture it and, finally, dies in its

pursuit. In the past, Jay had a love affair with the beautiful and seemingly

innocent Daisy. Knowing he could not marry her because of the difference in

their social status, he leaves her to accumulate his wealth to reach her

economic and social standards. Once he acquires this wealth, he moves near to

Daisy, "Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the

bay," and throws extravagant parties, hoping by chance she might show up at

one of them. He, himself, does not attend his parties but watches them from a

distance. When his hopes don?t show true he asks around casually if anyone

knows her. Soon he meets Nick Caraway, a cousin of Daisy, who agrees to set up a

meeting, "He wants to know…if you’ll invite Daisy to your house some

afternoon and then let him come over." Gatsby’s personal dream symbolizes

the larger American Dream where all have the opportunity to get what they want.

Later, as we see in the Plaza Hotel, Jay still believes that Daisy loves him. He

is convinced of this as is shown when he takes the blame for Myrtle’s death.

"Was Daisy driving?" "Yes…but of course I’ll say I was."

He also watches and protects Daisy as she returns home. "How long are you

going to wait?" "All night if necessary." Jay cannot accept that

the past is gone and done with. Jay is sure that he can capture his dream with

wealth and influence. He believes that he acted for a good beyond his personal

interest and that should guarantee success. Nick attempts to show Jay the flaw

of his dream, but Jay innocently replies to Nick?s statement that the past

cannot be relived by saying, "Can?t repeat the past? Why of course you

can!?. This shows the confidence that Jay has in reviving his relationship

with Daisy. For Jay, his American Dream is not material possessions, although it

may seem that way. He only comes into riches so that he can fulfill his true

dream, Daisy. Gatsby doesn’t rest until his dream is finally lived. However, it

never comes about and he ends up paying the ultimate price for it. The idea of

the American Dream still holds true in today’s time, be it wealth, love, or

fame. But one thing never changes about the American Dream; everyone desires

something in life, and everyone, somehow, strives to get it. A big house, nice

cars, 2.5 kids, a dog, a beautiful devoted spouse, power and a ridiculous amount

of money. That is the classical American Dream, at least for some. One could

say, an outsider perhaps, that Americans strive for the insurmountable goal of

perfection, live, die and do unimaginable things for it, then call the product

their own personal American Dream. Is having the American Dream possible? What

is the American Dream? There is one answer for these two questions: The American

Dream is tangible perfection. In reality, even in nature, perfection does not

exist. Life is a series of imperfections that can make living really great or

very unpleasant. Living the American Dream is living in perfection, and that by

definition is not possible, thus deflating our precious American Dream. F. Scott

Fitzgerald proves this fact in The Great Gatsby, through his scintillating

characters and unique style. Characters in books often mirror the author?s

feelings towards the world around them. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

suggested the moral decline of the period in American history through the

interpersonal relationships among his characters. The situations in the lives of

the characters show the worthlessness of materialism, the futile quest of Myrtle

and Gatsby, and how America s moral values had diminished- through the actions

of Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and Gatsby?s party guests. Despite his newly acquired

fortune, Gatsby still cannot afford his one true wish; therefore he cannot buy

everything that is important to Daisy. ".Their love is founded upon

feelings from the past; these give it, notwithstanding Gatsby?s insistence on

being able to repeat the past, inviolability. It exists in the world of money

and corruption but is not of it." (Lewis 48) In the novel The Great Gatsby,

Fitzgerald uses the uses of literary technique of symbolism to reflect what life

in the 1920s was like, through Fitzgerald?s eyes. The image of Doctor T.J.

Mecklenburg?s eyes is used to signify an ever-watchful godlike figure.

"Just as Wilson comes half consciously to identify the eyes of Doctor T.J.

Eckleburg with God, so the reader gradually becomes aware of them as

representing some kind of detached intellect, brooding gloomily over life in the

bleak waste land surrounding it, and presiding fatalistically over the little

tragedy enacted as if in sacrifice before it." (Miller 36) The eyes not

only symbolize a godlike being but also Fitzgerald himself and his negative

views of 1920s society. Fitzgerald?s negative views of society are also

portrayed through his depiction of certain guests at Gatsby?s parties. The

symbol of the two women dressed identically in yellow at Gatsby?s party

represent the values of the people of the 20s. The two women meet Jordan and

Nick at Gatsby?s party and are completely self-involved. These women are only

concerned with what happens to them and the fun that they have at the parties

and don?t even inquire the names of Jordan and Nick who they are so openly

speaking with. "Do you come to these parties often? inquired Jordan of the

girl beside her. The last one was the one I met you at, answered the girl in an

alert, confident voice. She turned to her companion: Wasn?t it for you

Lucille? It was for Lucille too. I like to come, Lucille said I never care what

I do, so I always have a good time." (Fitzgerald 47) Lucille admits that

her general attitude toward life is that she does not care what she does as long

as she has a good time. Her entire motivation in her life is to enjoy herself.

When all she was asked was if she came to the parties often she also felt the

need to inform the rest of the guests of her trivial anecdote. The reason that

these women are indicative of the generation is because of their self-absorbed

characters and egotistical nature. Also, the food served at Gatsby?s parties

symbolizes the attitudes of most people living in the 1920?s. At Gatsby?s

parties, most of the food was just show and no one really ate it. People display

Large amounts of expensive food at parties to subtly remind the guests how much

money they have, which is exactly what Gatsby did and the food was wasted. This

incredible wastefulness is representative of people who lived in the 20?s.

They were so extremely wasteful because they assumed with all they had gone

through, they deserved to be. After so many years of being unhappy and repressed

from, among other things World War I, they thought it was okay to become

carefree when indeed it was not. Through Fitzgerald?s use of symbolism to

describe the costumed characters of the 20?s the reader can learn to

constantly and conscientiously examine the people that they surround themselves

with. The novel also teaches the lesson of being true to one?s self and

following one?s own personal dream, not the one Americans are programmed to

have.

Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Macmillan Publishng Company,

1980.